Robert Hogg (March 26, 1942 – November 13, 2022)

Stephen Brockwell and Robert Hogg at a Chaudiere Books launch, 2015

Mountain, Ontario poet, editor and mentor Robert Hogg (see my obituary for him here) has died. He was the author of, among other titles, three above/ground press chapbooks: from Lamentations (2012), from Lamentations (second (expanded) edition, 2016) and From Each Forthcoming (2021). The volume Report from the Hogg Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022) landed in just enough time for him to see and respond to a digital copy. A retired Carleton University Professor and organic farmer, he was friend and mentor to generations of poets, both within and beyond the boundaries of his classroom. He will be dearly missed.

Clare Latremouille (July 4, 1964 – November 16, 2022)

above/ground press and Chaudiere Books author Clare Latremouille (see my obituary for her here) has died, after an extended illness. A founding member of The Peter F Yacht Club writers group, she had work in the July 1993 FREE VERSE ANTHOLOGY (one of above/ground press' first publications), as well as the first issue of STANZAS magazine (1993), Missing Jacket #4 (1996) and The Peter F. Yacht Club #1 (2003) and #8 (2007) as well as more than half a dozen above/ground press broadsides across the 1990s. Her chapbook, I will write a poem for you. Now: appeared in 1995, which was reprinted in the anthology Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003, edited by rob mclennan (Fredericton NB: cauldron books/Broken Jaw Press, 2003). Her novel, The Desmond Road Book of the Dead appeared with Chaudiere Books in 2006. She will be missed in this town by many.

Report from the Society : half-price sale!

I've published a baker's dozen of these "Report from the Society" poet-festschrifts this year via above/ground press (Stuart Ross, Stephen Brockwell, Elizabeth Robinson, Pattie McCarthy, Sarah Mangold, Amanda Earl, Cameron Anstee, Gregory Betts, Robert Hogg, Helen Hajnoczky, Monty Reid, Kate Siklosi and Phil Hall), and want to keep making them, so maybe I should offer them for half-price (same shipping etc) until the end of December? Each volume is a mixture of new and previously published, critical pieces and poems-in-response, with maybe a previously-published interview or two, each volume prepared as a celebration of the literary work of each particular subject (and, to make it more fun, none of the subjects have been aware these are being built until copies of the final publication land on their doorstep). I'm currently working on a further six volumes; who could they be?

Volumes of these, also, are part of the above/ground press annual subscriptions (have you considered subscribing for 2023, the press' thirtieth year?).

Normally $7 each (the Siklosi title is in two separate volumes, fyi); each individual title will be $3.50; if you order more than three titles, check with me for potential postage costs.

Report on the Society logo by C. McNair, editor’s devil (retired)

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Report from the Hogg Society. Vol. 1 No. 1

Report from the Hogg Society
Vol 1. No. 1
edited by rob mclennan
$7

an assemblage of writing in response
to the work of Robert Hogg

including
poems, critical writings
and
philosophical transactions

with contributions by:
Cameron Anstee
Jennifer Baker
Gary Barwin
Michael Blouin
George Bowering
Stephen Collis
David Epstein
Lionel Kearns
Rob Manery
Daphne Marlatt
rob mclennan
Renee Rodin
Aaron Tucker
Chris Turnbull
Andy Weaver
Thomas Whyte
Grant Wilkins

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2022
full list of published reports here
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Report on the Society logo by C. McNair, editor’s devil (retired)

Robert Hogg has published three chapbooks with above/ground press: from Lamentations (2012), from Lamentations (second edition) (2016) and From Each Forthcoming (2021). He also appeared online in The Peter F Yacht Club #30 : the virtual issue (December 2021).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: fitzpatrick, Robertson, mclennan, O'Reilly, Hogg + Novak,

ryan fitzpatrick is interviewed on MODL Press (2000-2009); Lisa Robertson has a twitter-thread reposted on Kathryn Mockler's send my love to anyone; rob mclennan has a new poem, and is interviewed over at the Artisanal Writer; Nathanael O'Reilly has some new work up at The Loch Raven Review; Robert Hogg has a new poem up at The Typescript; and JoAnna Novak writes on Taylor Swift and Joe Brainard over at The Paris Review.

new from above/ground press: G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #24 : guest-edited by Sara Lefsyk

NOW AVAILABLE: G U E S T #24
edited by Sara Lefsyk

see here for Sara Lefsyk’s introduction and biography

the new issue features new work by: 

Danika Stegeman LeMay
Issam Zineh
Tamara J. Madison
Douglas Piccinnini
Joanna Penn Cooper
Alexandre Ferrere
Archana Sridhar
Isaac Harris
[sarah] Cavar
David Agyei-Yeboah
Todd Colby 

$5 + postage / + $1 for Canadian orders; + $2 for US; + $6 outside of North America

Canadian/American/International rates (including shipping

Canadian orders $6.00 CAD American orders $7.00 CAD International orders $11.00 CAD

Author biographies: 

David Agyei–Yeboah is a young creative from Accra, Ghana that loves to create. His prose-poems, hybrids and verse poems are published/forthcoming on Ta Adesa, Tampered Press, Contemporary Ghanaian Writers Series (CGWS), The Kalahari Review, African Writer magazine, Journal of the Writers Project of Ghana (JWPG), Icefloe Press, Ethel Journal of Writing and Art, Praxis Magazine for Arts and Literature & elsewhere. An alumnus of the Tampered Press poetry workshop facilitated by Ladan Osman and Koleka Putuma, he was longlisted for the Totally Free Best of the Bottom Drawer Global Writing Prize 2021. His work explores the trauma and angst of marginalized characters as he believes empathy is a lost art. Through presenting authentic narratives that readers can engage with, he projects a world of communion, hope and positivity. Also a singer and songwriter, he croons about the complexities of romantic love and the nuances of trauma. He tweets @david_shaddai and posts mini covers on Instagram @davidshaddai.

[ɥɐɹɐs] Cavar is a PhD student, writer, and transgender-about-town, and serves as managing editor at Stone of Madness Press and founding editor at swallow::tale press. Author of two chapbooks, A HOLE WALKED IN (Sword & Kettle Press) and THE DREAM JOURNALS (giallo lit), they have also had work in Electric Literature, The Offing, Bitch Magazine, and elsewhere. Cavar navel-gazes at cavar.club and tweets @cavarsarah.

Todd Colby is an artist and poet. His writing and art have recently appeared in Iterant Magazine, The Believer, Bomb Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Denver Quarterly, Dizzy Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Poetry Magazine. He is the author of six books of poetry, his most recent book, Splash State, was published by The Song Cave.

Joanna Penn Cooper is the author of The Itinerant Girl's Guide to Self-Hypnosis (Brooklyn Arts Press), What Is a Domicile (Noctuary Press), and Crown (Ravenna Press), as well as several chapbooks. Joanna’s recent chapbooks are When We Were Fearsome and Wild Apples: A Flash Memoir Collection with Writing Prompts, both from Ethel. She is currently working on a full-length collection of flash memoir pieces dealing with motherhood, origins, and power, tentatively titled A Wilderness of Her Own. She lives in Durham, NC. She teaches writing classes and provides editorial and coaching support to writers through her business Muse Writing & Creative Support.

Alexandre Ferrere is 32 and lives in Cherbourg, France. After a Master’s degree in Library Sciences and a Master’s degree in Anglophone Literature, he is now working on a Ph.D. on American poetry and little magazines. His fictions, interviews, essays and poems appeared in dozens of journals online and in print. He is editor at Trio House Press and for The Banyan Review, and has published two poetry chapbooks: mono / stitches, designed and handmade by artist Sara Lefsyk (Ethel, 2020) and Mechanical Ode to a Snake (Between the Highway Press, 2022).

Isaac Harris issa Black queer currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. Occasionally attractive n always dysphoric dey make stories bout Negro livin!! Previous work can be found in the fantastic and ever lovely @daughterhoodziner in Instagram.

Danika Stegeman LeMay’s work has appeared in 32 Poems, Afternoon Visitor, APARTMENT, Blue Arrangements, CLOAK, Concision, Leavings, The Woodward Review and Word for/ Word, among other places, and is forthcoming in Ethel Zine. Her video poem, “Then Betelgeuse Reappears” was an official selection for the 2021 Midwest Video Poetry Festival. Danika’s debut collection of poems, Pilot (2020), was published by Spork Press. Her website is danikastegemanlemay.com.

Poet, writer, editor, Tamara J. Madison, is the author of Threed, This Road Not Damascus (Trio House Press); Kentucky Curdled and Sistuh’s Sermon on the Mount (all poetry), and Collard County (fiction). Her writing is inspired by her ancestry and relations. She is the creator and host of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems, a YouTube poetry conversation series, promoting poets and their poetry as inspiration for everyday life. She is an MFA graduate of New England College and an Anaphora Arts Fellow (2021). She currently teaches English and Creative Writing at Valencia College in Central Florida.

Douglas Piccinnini’s work has appeared or will soon appear with American Poetry Review, Brooklyn Rail, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Dream Pop, Dreginald, Fence, Hot Pink, Lana Turner, Michigan Quarterly Review, Prelude, and Volt.

Recently, he is the author of the chapbooks, The Grave Itself (Ethel, 2021), A Western Sky (Greying Ghost, 2022) and previously, two full-length collections: Blood Oboe (Omnidawn, 2015) and Story Book: a novella (The Cultural Society, 2015).

Archana Sridhar is a South Asian poet and university administrator living in Toronto, Canada. Archana focuses on themes of meditation, race, motherhood, and diaspora in her poetry and flash writing. Her work has been featured in The Puritan, The Hellebore, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Renderings is available through 845 Press, and her chapbook Our Initials Were U.S.A. is available through Ethel micro-press. Archana’s writing can be found at www.archanasridhar.com.

Issam Zineh is the author of the poetry collection Unceded Land (Trio House Press, 2022) and the chapbook The Moment of Greatest Alienation (Ethel, 2021). His work appears in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Tahoma Literary Review, The Rumpus and elsewhere. Find him at www.issamzineh.com.

 

HAL magazine, guest edited by Karl Jirgens : Bowering, Spinosa, Earl, Tucker, Davey, Hogg, Clarke, McCaffery, Betts, beaulieu, Rogal, Hall, Lynes, Nećakov, mclennan, Barwin, Arnott, Ross + Norris,

In case you haven't seen, above/ground press author Karl Jirgens guest-edited the fourteenth anniversary issue of Hamilton Arts and Letters, and included work by a whole ton of folk, including numerous (current and former) above/ground press authors! Why not check out the issue as a whole? Or check out the specific submissions by George Bowering, Dani Spinosa, Amanda Earl, Aaron Tucker, Frank Davey, Robert Hogg, George Elliott Clarke, Steve McCaffery, Gregory Betts, derek beaulieu, Stan Rogal, Phil Hall, Jeanette Lynes, Lillian Nećakov, rob mclennan, Gary Barwin, Joanne Arnott, Stuart Ross and Ken Norris! And there are bunches of others as well! So you really have to check out the issue as a whole, really.