Keith Waldrop (1932-2023)

Sad to see that American poet (and above/ground press author) Keith Waldrop died earlier this week, a giant of American (and beyond) letters, not only for his own work, but for the forty years he and his wife Rosmarie (equally a giant as well, through her own work) were editors, publishers and printers of the legendary Burning Deck (1961-2017). above/ground press published his chapbook from THE LOSS OF WORDS in 2020 as part of the prose/naut series. Charles Bernstein posted an obituary on Waldrop, written by Peter Gale Nelson, over at Jacket2. You can find my review of the essential and hefty collection of Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop's Keeping / the window open: Interviews, statements, alarms, excursions (Wave Books, 2019) over here. Our condolences to everyone that knew and loved him, especially Rosmarie.

new from above/ground press: edgeless : letters, by rob mclennan

edgeless : letters,
rob mclennan
$5

January 14


You are away from home for two weeks, working
on poems. The children     are sketching out cards.

Where fingers        invent noise. The cat

, this marriage of confused caterwaul        amid
our main floor’s        endless pace.

An unthinkable work, this interruption. This pause. You
are in Banff, the second         highest elevation

of a community    in Canada.        I am seeking
the cold from my bones.

Robert Kroetsch: Time rewrites     every book.
And from this week,        I shape my earth.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2017. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. His most recent titles include the poetry collections the book of smaller (University of Calgary Press, 2022) and World’s End, (ARP Books, 2023), and a suite of pandemic essays, essays in the face of uncertainties (Mansfield Press, 2022). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics and Touch the Donkey. He is editor of my (small press) writing day, and an editor/managing editor of many gendered mothers. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

This is mclennan’s sixty-seventh above/ground press chapbook, following The Alta Vista Improvements (2023), Autobiography (2022), the collaborative SOME LEAVES (with Gary Barwin; 2020), Twenty-one stories, (2020), Poems for Lunch Poems for SFU (2020), Somewhere in-between / cloud (2019), Study of a fox (2018), snow day (2018) and It’s still winter (2017).

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 www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Bridges under the water, by Jérôme Melançon

Bridges under the Water
Jérôme Melançon
$5

word a single word ordering all things knowing thus willing
a rudder to seed the path, to drag the bed
that separation again touching all things
to break on all things    knowledge a placing
from this groove an order an ordering a word
a bulwark to defend
                          our feet within it and
                          within the river, external to their
                          depth, their length insufficient
                          to make an impression
never in the same tributary  ,  in the same boat
held upright  ,  throat open, but these millennial metaphors
river and ocean    word and speech    knowledge and will
length and depth    age and decay    current and fueling
floating and sinking the opposites of the slow downing
of the chest on the beach   rest   the thread from
water to earth   the string and the plucking
a tension between chests   sounding only in refusal
of the current borne by the other, bearing the other
plexus solar against plexus  ,  a curtain in the fall
the tension remains  ,  grave


published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[Jérôme Melançon will be launching this title in Ottawa as part of the above/ground press 30th anniversary reading/launch/party on August 12!]

Jérôme Melançon lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, Saskatchewan. His most recent poetry collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). He has also published two books of poetry with Éditions des Plaines, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (2016), as well as one book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018). He regularly publishes poetry criticism, notably in the online journal periodicities, and his essay on above/ground press' thirty years of activity can be read in Arc Poetry Magazine #101. He has edited books and journal issues, mostly in political philosophy, and keeps publishing academic articles that marginally relate to these poems. He can be found on social media with the handle @lethejerome.

This is Melançon’s third above/ground press title, following Coup (2020) and Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright (2022).

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 www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Where there's smoke, by Monty Reid

Where there's smoke
Monty Reid
$5

Smoke arrives
from fires in the north.

It is never hungry
it ate before it got here.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[Monty Reid will be launching this title in Ottawa as part of the above/ground press 30th anniversary reading/launch/party on August 12!]

Monty Reid is an Ottawa poet. He prefers short poems.

This is Reid’s sixth chapbook with above/ground press, after Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe (2000), cuba A book (2005), In the Garden (sept series) (2011), Moan Coach (2013) and seam (2018).

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 www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

THE ABOVE/GROUND PRESS 30TH ANNIVERSARY READING/LAUNCH/PARTY!

celebrating THIRTY YEARS of continuous activity (and nearly thirteen hundred publications), Ottawa publisher above/ground press presents:

readings and chapbook launches by:

Jennifer Baker (Ottawa ON)
nina jane drystek (Ottawa ON)
Amanda Earl (Ottawa ON)
Adrienne Ho Rose (Iowa City IA)
Sophia Magliocca (Montreal QC)
Karen Massey (Ottawa ON)
Jérôme Melançon (Regina SK)
Monty Reid (Ottawa ON)
+
Grant Wilkins (Ottawa ON)

lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2023
downstairs at the Clocktower Brew Pub, Glebe
575 Bank St, Ottawa
https://www.clocktower.ca/locations/glebe-brew-house/
7pm door/7:30pm reading

$10 at the door (cash only! although e-transfer possible, I suppose); includes copies of two recent above/ground press titles

author/performer biographies:

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Adjunct Professor of English Literature living and working in Ottawa. She is the author of three chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Memento Mishka (with David Currie, Apt.9 Press, 2023) and Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021). Her poetry, reviews, and articles can be found in ottawater, Dusie, Canthius, The Bull Calf, Canadian Literature, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, and Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet (University of Ottawa Press, 2020), among others, and she is the 2022 honourable mention recipient of Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize.

She will be launching an above/ground press reissue of her Trainwreck Press chapbook, Groundling: On Apology, her second title with above/ground press, following Abject Lessons (2014).

nina jane drystek is a poet, writer and performer based in Ottawa, unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory. she is author of a:of:in (Gap Riot Press, 2021) and knewro suite (Simulacrum Press, 2019), and her poems have appeared in online and print publications, as well as in self-published chapbooks and broadsides. her original sound poem scores can be heard on bandcamp. she is one of the co-founders of Riverbed Reading Series, was shortlisted for the 2020 Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry, writes collaborative poetry with VII – authors of holy disorder of being (Gap Riot, 2022) and Towers (Collusion Books, 2021) – and performs sound poetry with the rotating group of collaborators. if you have ever lived in the same city as her you have likely seen her riding a red or blue bicycle. you can find her @textcurious or contact her via electronic mail.

She will be launching the chapbook missing matrilineal, her first with above/ground.

Amanda Earl (she/her) is a polyamorous, pansexual intersectional feminist living on Algonquin Anishinaabeg unceded territory. Her works with spines are Trouble (Hem Press, 2022), Genesis (Timglaset Editions, 2022), Coming Together Presents Amanda Earl (Coming Together, 2014) and Kiki (Chaudiere Books/now with Invisible Publishing, 2014).  She self-published her e-novella, A World of Yes in 2015 and will self-publish her poetry book, Beast Body Epic in autumn 2023, after turning 60. She is the author of over 30 chapbooks, including 14 visual poetry chapbooks. More info is available at AmandaEarl.com. Connect with Earl on Twitter @KikiFolle

She will be launching Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #38, which includes an excerpt of a longer work-in-progress. She is also the author of ten chapbooks with above/ground press, including Eleanor (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), A Book of Saints (2015), Lady Lazarus Redux (2017), The Book of Mark (2018), Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019), Sessions from the DreamHouse Aria (2020), a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) and THE BEFORE, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia (2022). above/ground press also produced a festschrift celebrating Earl’s work, Report from the Earl Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022).

Adrienne Ho Rose was born in Toronto, grew up in Ottawa, and has been living in the US heartland since 2004. Her poems and translations have been published in Canadian and US journals, including Arc Poetry Magazine and Bywords and most recently ottawater. She directs the undergraduate translation program at the University of Iowa.

She will be launching her chapbook debut, which is as-yet-untitled.

Sophia Magliocca is a Master’s student in English Literature at Concordia University (Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal) where she researches the effects of (mis)interpreting how women’s legacies are documented across literary history. Sophia is a known lover of travel, pasta and orange cats. Most recently she has published poetry in Canadian literary journals such as Yolk, Montreal Writes and periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. Find her on Instagram @sophmagli

She will be launching her chapbook debut, Girl gives long-fingered self-portrait.

Karen Massey (she/her) lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinabe territory. Her poems & found poems have been published online, in 2 chapboooks, over 2 dozen print anthologies, & in literary journals including TNQ, Aesthetica, Mslexia, subTerrain & Arc Poetry Magazine, where she received the 2020 Diana Brebner Award.

She will be launching SONGS FROM THE DEMENTIA SUITCASE, her third above/ground press title after Bullet (1999) and Strange Fits of Beauty & Light (2014).

Jérôme Melançon lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, Saskatchewan. His most recent poetry collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). He has also published two books of poetry with Éditions des Plaines, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (2016), as well as one book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018). He regularly publishes poetry criticism, notably in the online journal periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, and his essay on above/ground press’ thirty years of activity can be read in Arc Poetry Magazine #101. He has edited books and journal issues, mostly in political philosophy, and keeps publishing academic articles that marginally relate to these poems. He can be found on social media with the handle @lethejerome.

He will be launching the chapbook Bridges under the Water, his third above/ground press title following Coup (2020) and Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright (2022).

Monty Reid is an Ottawa poet. He prefers short poems.

He will be launching the chapbook Where there’s smoke, his sixth chapbook with above/ground press, after Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe (2000), cuba A book (2005), In the Garden (sept series) (2011), Moan Coach (2013) and seam (2018).

Grant Wilkins is an occasional poet, printer and papermaker from Ottawa who has made a practice of doing strange things to other people’s words. He has degrees in History & Classical Civilization and in English, and he likes ink, metal, paper, letters, sounds and words, and combinations thereof.

He will be launching the chapbooks Poetic Constructions and The Baroness and her Ex Read Orgasmic Toast: To Whom It May Concern, his third and fourth chapbooks with above/ground press, after Reading The Great Classics Of Canlit through Book 5 of bpNichol’s The Martyrology (2022) and In Which Archibald Lampman / Translates Arthur Rimbaud (2023).

see a report on the 26th anniversary event here:

the 25th anniversary event here:

the 23rd anniversary (Ottawa) event here:

the 23rd anniversary (Toronto) event here:

the 20th anniversary event here:

and the 19th anniversary event here:

 

new from above/ground press: {NANCY}, by Jamie Hilder

{NANCY}
[an essay on Nancy Shaw]
Jamie Hilder
$5

I don’t know where to place Nancy Shaw in my mind. I’ve admired her writing for a long time, and I know we shared spaces and people. I knew she spent time in and wrote about Vancouver art and artist spaces, and I knew that she was a poet among poets that I knew and learned from. But I didn’t know she died in 2007. Before that I had heard her name and seen her books and articles, had read some of her poetry and criticism, and had a postcard invitation from an exhibition she co-curated as the only thing on the door of my office when I was a teaching assistant. And somewhere in that blur of becoming, I was in a used bookstore and thought I heard somebody I recognized from readings address an employee, who was also somebody I recognized from readings, as “Nancy.” That person looked like a poet, and I assumed it was Nancy Shaw (how many poets named Nancy could there be in a student’s imagined city?). For years, even after I had learned through posthumous author bios that Nancy had died, and had seen the woman I assumed was Nancy after that understanding, some part of me still thought this other woman was Nancy Shaw. When I finally, recently met the woman from the bookstore, who is—I was correct—a poet, something shifted in my understanding. As I took her hand to shake it and heard her say her name, my image of a writer who helped me understand where and when I lived became dislocated, became gone in a way that other, less proximate writers always already are. And I felt something close to “Now I miss her.”

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as the twentieth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Jamie Hilder is an interdisciplinary artist and critic who gratefully resides on the unceded and traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. His book Designed Words for a Designed World (McGill UP, 2016) examines the International Concrete Poetry Movement alongside the emergence of various globalizing technologies in the mid-20th century. An Associate Professor of Critical and Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University, he has exhibited work internationally, and actively maintains a dormant research collaboration with sound artist Brady Cranfield.

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 www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Moseman, Deutch, mclennan, Notley + Archer,

Lori Anderson Moseman has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Amanda Deutch has new work up at The Brooklyn Rail; rob mclennan has a new poem up at Pinhole Poetry, and is interviewed over there as well; Alice Notley has a new poem up at The New York Times Magazine, as selected by Anne Boyer; and Sacha Archer reads soon at Toronto's Type Books as part of the milk magazine reading series!

new from above/ground press: LALIQUE, by Artie Gold & George Bowering

LALIQUE
Artie Gold & George Bowering
$5

                        AG: Lalique

 

They're both in the room. He, he's slow or dull-witted. She does
most of the talking. I guess her to be in her early sixties; she is
telling me of a time she bought two lovely milk-glass table-
pieces. She's doing all of the talking, seems to hover near the
door. The room is filled with small lacquered tables, doilies,
silver ashtrays too small for cigarettes; the curtains are from
the thirties, horrible things really drawn tight, yet light enters
diffused about the blotches of almost shapeless flowers and
green pears woven into the cloth. The chairs are highbacked
Duncan Phyfes neatly arranged geometrically about a table of
stained medium wood, cherry maybe. Four thin people might
slip between table and chairs, ghost-dining. He mumbles,
"cranberry glass"; I take no notice; he leaves, I guess, because
he feels unnecessary. She motions to another room, a bed,
magnificent poster. satin overcloth, no windows anywhere,
smaller room we are inside. She sits by the drawn sheet pillow.
I am standing, mention yes, there's no cameo glass anymore,
hardly see Lalique in stores. She rises; I shuffle, look about,
see some smaller pieces of glass on corner bracket shelves;
she bends a bit at the back, straightens, bids me be seated,
which seems innocent (I know it's not). Hand bends across
my arm, touches lightly; she isn't talking any longer. I am
seated. She is seated beside or by my side hand limp brushes
my forearm I am excited as hell I can hear old man heavy
breathing outside door.

 

                        GB: Lalique

 

Every time I went over to Mary Brown's place, where he
lived, Artie would show me stuff he collected. I was a
collector, too, of books, sport magazines, frog figurines,
James Dean stuff. But Artie, a decade younger than I,
was a lot more sophisticated. He had a lot of collections,
and I kind of think that he decided not to become an in-
patient at the Montreal Chest Clinic because he did not
want to give up his rocks, his precious stones, his ancient
cocaine tins, his Laliques, his Sendaks, his Frank O'Haras.
As to the woman sitting beside him on the four-poster
bed, did you think this is a dream account? I am not so
sure. After quite a while that possibility entered my mind;
but it didn't necessarily stay there.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

In Spring of 2023 NeWest Press published George Bowering’s anthology of English language poets from Wyatt to Avison, with one-page essays on each of the poets, Good Morning Poems.

Montreal poet Artie Gold (1947-2007) published numerous books throughout the 1970s. His selected poems, The Beautiful Chemical Waltz (1992), appeared with an introduction by George Bowering. Talonbooks published The Collected Books of Artie Gold in 2010.

This is George Bowering’s seventh above/ground press title, after STANZAS #12 (“BLONDES ON BIKES: 1-20,” April 1997), A, You’re Adorable (as “Ellen Field,” October, 1998; reissued October 2004), Tocking Heads (ALBERTA SERIES #2, October, 2007), That Toddlin’ Town / Baby, don’ ya wanna go? (2016), Hotels (2021) and the collaborative Ruby Wounds, with Artie Gold (2022).

Artie Gold’s above/ground press chapbook, THE HOTEL VICTORIA POEMS, appeared in 2003.

An Artie Gold/George Bowering bundle is currently available as part of the above/ground press 30th anniversary fundraiser.

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 www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

TODAY IS THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ABOVE/GROUND PRESS!

Can you believe it? Today is the thirtieth anniversary of that first above/ground press event held at the Stone Angel Institute coffeehouse on Ottawa’s Lisgar Street (both the coffeehouse and the building itself are long gone) back on July 9, 1993. Were we ever that young? Here’s a link to the flyer I made for that event, which launched a number of the first half-dozen items under the above/ground press imprint, such as the FREE VERSE ANTHOLOGY, a side-stapled anthology of forty Canadian poets edited by myself, my chapbook AUGUST, and Ottawa poet David Collins’ chapbook debut, A Month in the Life of a Fool. And now, the press is nearly thirteen hundred publications deep, from broadsides, pamphlets, multiple journals—including former poetry journals STANZAS, Missing Jacket: writing and visual art and drop, and current journals Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], GU E S T [a journal of guest editors] and The Peter F Yacht Club, as well as, separately, the online monthly periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics—and single author poetry chapbooks numbering into the hundreds. Don’t forget the prose chapbook series prose/naut begun during the pandemic as well, yes? Or the "Report from the Society" festschrifts begun not long after?

The anthology groundwork: The best of the third decade of above/ground press: 2013–2023 (Invisible Publishing), edited by my dear self, is now available for pre-order, and will be launching in Ottawa this fall through the Ottawa International Writers Festival (date TBA). The second anthology, published through Chaudiere Books in 2013, Ground Rules: The Best of above/ground press, 2003-2013, is also still available through Invisible Publishing. The first anthology, GROUNDSWELL: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press), is technically out-of-print, but I have copies available, if anyone is so inclined. I love the idea of doing an anthology (clearly) every decade to get an updated portrait of some of the activity of the press; and this is small press, after all. If we don’t celebrate and acknowledge ourselves from time to time, who will? So much of this work goes unacknowledged otherwise (you should check out the ongoing bibliography/interview series I’ve been working with a variety of former/current Canadian presses and journals at this link; or did you see this project I curated a few years back to celebrate forty years of Stuart Ross’ Proper Tales Press?).

And the THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY READING/CHAPBOOK LAUNCH/PARTY has been confirmed for SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, DOWNSTAIRS at the CLOCKTOWER BREW PUB at 575 Bank Street, Ottawa! While readers are still being confirmed, be aware that Grant Wilkins (Ottawa), Karen Massey (Ottawa), Jennifer Baker (Ottawa), Jerome Melancon (Regina) and Sophia Magliocca (Montreal) have already signed up to read, all of whom will be launching their new above/ground press chapbook titles! Beyond that, forthcoming above/ground press titles also include chapbooks by George Bowering and Artie Gold, Colin Dardis, Russell Carisse, Micah Ballard, Cary Fagan, Amanda Deutch, Kevin Stebner, Kyla Houbolt, Gary Barwin, Adriana Oniță, rob mclennan and Julie Carr, Noah Berlatsky, Heather Cadsby, Blunt Research Group, Phil Hall and Steven Ross Smith, Zane Koss, Peter Myers, Gil McElroy, Ben Robinson, Miranda Mellis, MLA Chernoff, Terri Witek, Geoffrey Olsen, Pete Smith and Robert van Vliet! That’s pretty cool, right? Oh, and next week sees the release of issue thirty-eight of the quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal].

If you are open to such, I can still completely back-date a 2023 above/ground press annual subscription (I’ve done such before). Or, until the end of July 2023 I can offer a year-and-a-half (anniversary) deal: $115 (CAN; American subscribers, $115 US; $150 international) for everything above/ground press makes from THIS VERY MOMENT through to the end of 2024 (paypal/e-transfer to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com; if you’d rather send a cheque, that’s fine; just send an email and I’ll send along mailing address). That’s something, right? I’m also open to donations, so, like, don’t be shy about that.

You are probably already well aware that the above/ground press 30^th anniversary fundraiser is still going strong, with two weeks remaining, and a huge array of perks still available, including some of those anthologies, an array of back issues of Touch the Donkey and bundle upon bundle of stylistic and geographic bundles! I’ll probably even add some further perks before time runs out. I mean, most of the last ten to fifteen years of publications are still in print, if you can imagine. Although, will I ever not be behind on my mailing?

some author activity: Mellis, Blouin, Gwathmey + Ballard,

forthcoming author Miranda Mellis has some new work in Annulet; Michael Blouin is interviewed by Finnian Burnett; Matthew Gwathmey has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series via dusie; and forthcoming author Micah Ballard has a new poem up as part of the weekly feature "Poetry at The Arts Fuse."