some author activity: Quartermain, mclennan, Macdonald, Downs, Jirgens, Marlatt, Bowering + Wah,

Meredith Quatermain is in the Canadian Poet Series via Peripety and/or Tronies; rob mclennan is interviewed as part of Kyeren Regehr's The Poet Laureate Podcast; Dawn Macdonald has an essay up at Strange Pilgrims; Buck Downs has new work at The Arts Fuse; and Karl Jirgens has poems for Daphne Marlatt, George Bowering + Fred Wah over at public reverie.

new from above/ground press: [OKAY], by Buck Downs

[OKAY]
Buck Downs
$6

[okay] 


this is 
    the last time
I’m doing this
        again

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Buck Downs divides his time between Washington, D.C., and Ellisville, Miss. His latest full-length is Exit Style, available at buckdowns.com

This is Buck Downs's fifth above/ground chapbook, after Shiftless [Harvester] (2016), The Hack of Heaven (2017), Another Tricky Day (2020) and BURNTORANGE (2025).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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: B U R N T O R A N G E, by Buck Downs

B U R N T O R A N G E 
Buck Downs
$6

the ampersand
—    for Creeley

        I’d like
    to hear more
    about that
etc.
    thing you like
to do and how
    the whole weight
of suggestion
    rests on it —

        I had
an ampersand,
        here — what
happened — it was
        too much —

I’m a sucker
to the power
of suggestion —

    when you say
etc.,
        I do
etc.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

BURNTORANGE is Buck Downs's fourth above/ground chapbook, after Shiftless [Harvester] (2016), The Hack of Heaven (2017), and Another Tricky Day (2020). Buck divides his time between Washington, D.C., and Ellisville, MIss. His latest full-length is Exit Style, available at buckdowns.com

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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: Burgoyne, Houbolt, Downs + Mangold,

Kevin Heslop interviewed Sarah Burgoyne for The Miramichi Reader; Kyla Houbolt is interviewed via the Of Poetry Podcast; Buck Downs has a new poem up at HillRag; and Sarah Mangold has new poems up at Ghost Proposal, and is interviewed by Shriram Sivaramakrishnan for Poetry Northwest.

some author activity: Berlatsky, Downs, Henning, Kemp-Gee, Miller + Barwin,

forthcoming author Noah Berlatsky has some nice things to say about above/ground press; Buck Downs has a poem in The New York Times Magazine, as selected by Anne Boyer; Barbara Henning has new poems up at Mom Egg Review; Meghan Kemp-Gee's ONE MORE YEAR: The Ultimate Graphic Novel kickstarter is now live; David Miller is interviewed at ArtWay; and Gary Barwin won an award!

some author activity: Rogal, Collis, Downs + Niespodziany,

Stan Rogal has some poems up at The Pi Review; a poem by Stephen Collis is discussed by Pattie McCarthy, Kate Colby and Lily Applebaum via the Jacket2 podcast PoemTalk; an article (with interview) on Buck Downs' latest project, "The Poet Posting Stickers All Over Washington D.C.," is covered by The Click; and Benjamin Niespodziany is interviewed over at the new podcast We All Speak In Poems.

some author activity: Hunter, Barbour, Robinson, Hajnoczky, hanna + Downs,

Carrie Hunter has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; Douglas Barbour is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Ben Robinson has a new poem posted as part of National Poetry Month over at the Chaudiere Books blog, as do Helen Hajnoczky, natalie hanna and Buck Downs.

some author activity: Coulton, Smallfield, Downs, Stuart, O'Reilly, Weaver + Solomon,

Valerie Coulton is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time, as is Edward Smallfield, Buck Downs, and Cecilia Stuart; Nathanael O'Reilly has a new poem up at Crow of Minerva; and National Poetry Month has begun over at the Chaudiere Books blog, with new poems by, among others, Andy Weaver and Misha Solomon!

some author activity: Smallfield, Coulton, Downs, Hunter, Sikkema + Earl,

; Edward Smallfield has some new poems up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Valerie Coulton and Buck Downs and Carrie Hunter and Michael Sikkema; Amanda Earl has a new poem up at The Babel Tower Notice Board, and is interviewed over at Cannot Predict Now.

new from above/ground press: Another Tricky Day, by Buck Downs

Another Tricky Day
Buck Downs
$5

not right now


    I felt that wave
of what nicotine
    could do for me

extended form of mind
    full of capture

breathing in and out
share the same seat

    doing all that math
on the day I would die

        satisfied
        that ruin
    in the cadaver
    is the bottom-line

        come and get
        your feeling
    of every kind

    the world of not
    spending the night

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Another Tricky Day is Buck Downs' third above/ground chapbook, after Shiftless [Harvester] (2016) and The Hack of Heaven (2017). A native of Jones County, Miss., he currently lives in Washington, DC. Furniture Press Books (Baltimore) published a selected poems, Unintended Empire, in 2017. Other books and printed matter are available at www.buckdowns.com

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Bolster, Paige, Cortese, Downs + Ackerson-Kiely,

Stephanie Bolster has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Abby Paige has a poem included in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; Franco Cortese has a poem and short interview online at Canadian Literature; Buck Downs is interviewed at DCPL Radio; and Paige Ackerson-Kiely has a poem up at The Millions.

some author activity: Downs, Coulton, Sharp + Syersak,

Buck Downs has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Valerie Coulton is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; forthcoming author Travis Sharp has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Jake Syersak also has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day.

Amanda Earl reviews five (more) 2017 titles: Sandra Moussempès' From: Sunny girls (trans. Eléna Rivera), Jessica Smith's The Lover is Absent, Lisa Robertson's poorsong one, Buck Downs' the hack of heaven and Sarah Dowling's Entering Sappho

Following her first group review posted here, the esteemed and muchly generous poet, editor, publisher and reviewer (and above/ground press author) Amanda Earl continues her reviews of 2017 above/ground press items, providing a second review of Sandra Moussempès' From: Sunny girls (after Greg Bem's review over at Yellow Rabbits), and first reviews of Jessica Smith's The Lover is Absent, Lisa Robertson's poorsong one, Buck Downs' the hack of heaven and Sarah Dowling's Entering Sappho. Thanks so much! You can see this latest review here.

some author activity: hastain, Price, Baker, Blouin + Downs,

j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have some new collaborative work up at tenderness, yea; Katie L. Price is interviewed over at Speaking of Marvels; Jennifer Baker was interviewed earlier this year at Aella's blog; Michael Blouin has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Buck Downs is featured at Medium as part of rob mclennan's Spotlight series.

new from above/ground press: the hack of heaven, by Buck Downs

the hack of heaven
Buck Downs
$5

the hack of heaven

                                                baby got

                                her biggest

                                                smile on

                                watching out

                with either eye

                I am not here

to know what it means

                it all goes fast

when I just listen

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

A native of Jones County, Miss., Buck Downs lives in Washington D.C. where he works as a book doctor and executive writing coach. Poems can be found online at The Brooklyn Rail and in print at The Chill (Australia).

This is Downs’ second chapbook with above/ground press, after Shiftless(Harvester) (2016).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Baker, Downs, Saklikar + McNair,

Jennifer Baker has become the new Reviews Editor over at Arc Poetry Magazine; audio of Buck Downs reading at the Line Reading Series, at the Drawing Center, NYC is now online; Surrey poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar is running teen poetry workshops; and Christine McNair is interviewed over at Open Book.

some author activity: mclennan, Downs, Earl, Robertson + Deen,

rob mclennan has five new poems up at BRAVE NEW WORD; Buck Downs has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; the second installment of Amanda Earl's "Lisa Robertson, A Reading Diary" is now online; and Faizal Deen [who reads next week at VERSeFest's Factory event] was interviewed by rob mclennan for the Ploughshares blog. And you're coming to VERSeFest, right?

Joel W. Vaughan reviews Buck Downs’ Shiftless(Harvester) (2016) in Broken Pencil #74

Joel W. Vaughan was good enough to provide the first review of Buck Downs’ Shiftless(Harvester) (2016) in Broken Pencil #74. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

Buck Downs’ poetic method has been outlined in Broken Pencil’s review for “Touch the Donkey #11” [see that review here], as his work is briefly featured there, but it is worth noting here again for this interview, where the advantages and disadvantages to this approach are emphasized more heavily. “Shiftless(Harvester)” is, after all, a chapbookentirely of Downs’s composition, so when his method of “brute-force typing,” as he calls it, is tasked with producing the 23 short poems printed herein, their method of production is much more obvious.

            In an interview with publisher rob mclennan, Downs describes his “brute-force” method as follows: “I have a little box that when I fill it with filled notebooks, I take the box and type up its whole contents … which I get printed as a bound galley … and proceed to erase/cut & paste/collage that typing into drafts.” The advantages to this approach are the same to be found in more-recognized poets who, to some degree, follow a similar process (Downs himself cites Ronald Johnson and Jackson MacLow. “Shiftless(Harvester)” does garner a sort of ‘ghost in the machine’ kind of discombobulated affect, examples in such passages as “pee shy/& asking/for money/it’s hard to feel/sad when your mouth is on fire”. The chapbook confronts the issues associated with the method which produced it. However, some issues remain – namely, a resistance to settling into anything recognizable as meaning, and more noticeably a tendency towards shoehorning in association between dissociated memes to unfortunate melodrama (see: “days when you whisper | nights when you cry | […] | all the burnt parts | still rule inside. [11]. “Shiftless(Harvester)” makes for a solid read, but one leaves with little more than what one began with.

some author activity: Downs, Butler, Christie + McElroy,

Buck Downs has some poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Jenna Butler has a new essay posted in the "On Writing" series; Jason Christie is interviewed over at the Chaudiere Books blog for The Calgary Renaissance (2016); and Gil McElroy is featured over at Drunken Boat.

some author activity: Higdon, mclennan, Downs + Braune,

did you know that Hailey Higdon has a blog? ; rob mclennan is now a monthly blogger for Ploughshares; Buck Downs is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Sean Braune has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog.