some author activity: Witek, Smith, mclennan, Hyland + Flemmer,

Terri Witek and Jessica Smith (among many, many others) participate in this year's edition of The New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 13-16, 2023 ; rob mclennan has a new poem up at Olney magazine; MC Hyland and Brian Teare participate in a reading and conversation at NYU via The Organism for Poetic Research on April 6; and Kyle Flemmer has a new poem up at The Pi Review

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

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

an assemblage of writing in response
to the work of Jessica Smith

including
poems, critical writings
and
philosophical transactions

with contributions by:
Cynthia Arrieu-King
Derek Beaulieu
Maria Damon
Michelle Detorie
Steven Fama
rob mclennan
Sheila E. Murphy
Danielle Pafunda
Linda Russo
Jonathan Skinner
Alina Stefanescu
Aaron Tucker
Chris Turnbull

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
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)

Jessica Smith has published four chapbooks with above/ground press: Shifting Landscapes (2006), MNEMOTECHNICS (2013), The Lover is Absent (2017) and Lion’s Den, a chiasmus (2019).

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: Lion’s Den, a chiasmus, by Jessica Smith

Lion’s Den, a chiasmus
Jessica Smith
$5

 

over a hundred lamps         were found                            in the dark

                                                limestone plates   filled will fuel

                                       

                                                a more intricate    carved sandstone

                                                                                                like a spoon for fire

                                                hearths and resinous torches

                                                smell of pine and lemon

little we see in nature that is ours

                                                lit within lit from within

                                                goodnight light

                                                tell myself my story

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Jessica Smith is the author of numerous chapbooks including Trauma Mouth (Dusie 2015) and The Lover is Absent (above/ground press, 2017) and three full-length books of poetry, Organic Furniture Cellar (Outside Voices 2006), Life-List (Chax Press 2015), and How to Know the Flowers (Veliz Books 2019). She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

This is Smith's fourth chapbook with above/ground press, after Shifting Landscapes (2006), MNEMOTECHNICS (2013) and The Lover is Absent (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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: mclennan, Schmaltz, Burdick, Ross, Ball + Smith,

rob mclennan has a new essay in the "(Not) My Writing Desk" series over at Queen Mob's Teahouse, and a new poem up at his blog, for Vancouver poet Rita Wong; Eric Schmaltz is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; Alice Burdick is interviewed over at Poetry in Voice (and now available for writing workshops in schools across Nova Scotia); Stuart Ross writes a moving post on Nelson Ball's last day, and days; and Jessica Smith has won the 2019 Betty Jane Abrahams Memorial Prize.

New Orleans Poetry Festival 2019: Hyland, Kaminski, Robinson, Rosenthal, Smith, Sweeney + Tate,

above/ground press authors MC Hyland, Megan Kaminski, Elizabeth Robinson, Sarah Rosenthal, Jessica Smith, Heather Sweeney and Bronwen Tate (as well as a whole slew of other writers) participate in the 2019 New Orleans Poetry Festival and Small Press Fair, which will be held from April 18-21, 2019. I might not be able to attend, but you should totally go! Check out the full schedule here.

some author activity: mclennan, Earl, Young, Smith + Higdon,

rob mclennan has some poems up in Volume 1 of Theta Wave; Amanda Earl (among others) participates in the Queen Mob's Review of 2018, over at Queen Mob's Teahouse; Geoffrey Young, Jessica Smith and others have work in the anthology The Emerald Tablet; and Hailey Higdon provides her own list of 2018 Recommended Reading for Bloof Books.

some author activity: Abel, Smith, Caple + Polyck-O'Neill,

A new conversation between Jordan Abel and Cecily Nicholson has been posted at Rungh; Jessica Smith has new work up at 8 Poems; Natalee Caple has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Julia Polyck-O'Neill is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal.

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: Johnstone, Polyck-O'Neill, Smith, Rosenthal, Sharp + Brockwell,

Matthew Johnstone has some new work in the final issue of interrupture ; Julia Polyck-O'Neill is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Jessica Smith, Sarah Rosenthal and forthcoming author Travis Sharp (etcetera) all have work in the third issue of DREAM POP JOURNAL; and Stephen Brockwell has a new poem up at NewPoetry.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Jessica Smith

This is the first in a series of short essays/reminiscences by a variety of authors and friends of the press to help celebrate the first quarter century of above/ground press. See links to the whole series here.

Girls to the Front: The secret punk feminism of above/ground press

Working at the Poetry Collection of the University Libraries at the University at Buffalo, I was exposed to tons of little magazines from around the U.S. and Canada. I remember a constellation of moments: rob mclennan, Gregory Betts and derek beaulieu did a house reading in Buffalo through the Wednesdays at Four Plus series in 2004, above/ground press existed, I had a manuscript, and somehow, my chapbook Shifting Landscapes was born in 2006.

But that’s how things happen—“In company” as Robert Creeley might say—there’s an intellectual exchange on multiple fronts, someone has access to a copier, and books appear. I remember Charles Bernstein talking about when chapbooks were still “punk”—someone with an idea and a Xerox machine hellbent on distributing poetry. rob’s passion for finding and distributing poetry is probably unmatched. If you subscribe to above/ground press, you receive large envelopes of magazines, broadsides, and chapbooks regularly. rob researches, asking for recommendations for poets to publish. He’s not so interested in selling books that he doesn’t publish new, unknown authors. He seems like an explorer who wants to suss out every poem in North America.

Most valuable to me is rob’s unmatched dedication to finding and soliciting non-male writers. Perhaps this is even more significant in light of the recent news out of CanLit that make it look like a pretty sexist place (not that the U.S. has room to talk, I know). As an editor of a magazine of poetry that exclusively published women (Foursquare), I know how hard it can be to get women to submit their work. Even in a “safe space” of an all-female magazine, I had to solicit most of the work I published. above/ground press publishes all genders, which probably means rob is inundated with submissions from men and has to solicit work from women. What has meant the most to me is how he continues to solicit women’s work for years, while they are going through all sorts of things. He’ll send a little note asking how you are and if you have any work. His notes aren’t forceful or about his concern for publishing—he has plenty of work to publish—but about getting women’s voices to readers. Through rob I have read the work of women who I thought had stopped writing, and discovered young female voices I didn’t know.

Jessica Smith, Founding Editor of Foursquare and name magazines and Coven Press, works as a teacher and librarian in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the author of numerous chapbooks including Shifting Landscapes (above/ground 2006), mnemotechnics (above/ground 2013), Trauma Mouth (dusie/above/ground 2015), and The Lover is Absent (above/ground 2017) and two full-length collections, Organic Furniture Cellar (Outside Voices 2006) and Life-List (Chax Press 2015).

New Orleans Poetry Festival + Small Press Fair, April 20-23, 2017 : Smith, Iijima, Hunter, Reed + Poe, etc

above/ground press authors Jessica Smith (The Lover is Absent, 2017), Brenda Iijima (SWAMP/SWAMP, 2017), Carrie Hunter (Series out of Sequence, 2017), Marthe Reed (After Swann, 2013) and Deborah Poe (Keep, 2012) read along with a whole mound of other poets as part of this year's New Orleans Poetry Festival and Small Press Fair, April 20-23, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. You can see their full schedule here.

new from above/ground press: The Lover is Absent, by Jessica Smith

The Lover is Absent
Jessica Smith
$5

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

Jessica Smith, Founding Editor of Foursquare and name magazines and Coven Press, serves as the Librarian for Indian Springs School, where she curates the Indian Springs School Visiting Writers Series. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she received her B.A. in English and Comparative Literature: Language Theory, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and M.L.S. from SUNY Buffalo, where she participated in the Poetics Program. She is the author of numerous chapbooks including Trauma Mouth (Dusie, 2015) and two full-length books of poetry, Organic Furniture Cellar (Outside Voices 2006) and Life-List (Chax Press 2015).

This is her third chapbook with above/ground press, after Shifting Landscapes (2006) and MNEMOTECHNICS (2013).

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: Braune, Smith, Beaulieu + Barwin,

Sean Braune has a new essay posted as part of the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Jessica Smith is part of a new group publication, RADIO 11.8.16, recently posted by Essay Press; Braydon Beaulieu and Natalie Zina Walschots have started hosting Full Hearts, a podcast "about love and gaming"; and Gary Barwin answers five questions for IFOA.

some author activity: Baker, Earl, Flemmer + Smith,

Jennifer Baker has a new essay on the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Amanda Earl has a new essay on Sandra Ridley over at many gendered mothers; Kyle Flemmer answers the "12 or 20 (small press) questions" on The Blasted Tree Publishing Company ; and Jessica Smith has a bunch of recent activity, including new work in Open Letters Monthly, an essay on erasure and the script of a talk she gave recently at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop on Coven Press.

dusie : the 2016 advent calendar : Smith,

above/ground press author Jessica Smith is included along with some two dozen others (DuPlessis, Ebeid, Detorie, McCarthy, etc) in the annual dusie advent calendar!

dusie kollektiv #8, curated by rob mclennan, now online

The 8th “dusie kollektiv” is now online, with pdfs of a variety of chapbooks by multiple current and former above/ground press authors (among a long list of others).

above/ground press authors in the 8th kollektiv include: Gary Barwin, Joe Blades, Rob Budde, Jason Christie, Amanda Earl, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Hailey Higdon, Megan Kaminski, Marcus McCann, rob mclennan, Marthe Reed, Elizabeth Robinson, Jessica Smith and Chris Turnbull.

See the link here to read all sorts of dusie goodness from across North America (and occasionally beyond!).

some author activity: Earl, Smith, Anstee, Ball + mclennan,

Amanda Earl has a new visual poem up at h&; Jessica Smith can be found at FORMATION; Cameron Anstee talks on Ottawa's CBC Radio on Nelson Ball's bpNichol Chapbook Award win; and rob mclennan has a new poem up at Truck.

some author activity: mclennan, Dyckman, Smith, Kaminski, Hogg + Turnbull,

rob mclennan was interviewed recently by Susanne Dyckman over at OmniVerse; he also has a new poem and a book recommendation via the Saskatoon Public Library website; Jessica Smith has some new poems up at past simple; Megan Kaminski has some poems in the new issue of Elderly; and there's an update on Robert Hogg's poem posted through Chris Turnbull's rout/e.

some author activity: Higdon, Armantrout, Smith + Ladouceur,

The audio of a 2009 Philadelphia reading at Chapter & Verse by Hailey Higdon, alongside Jenn McCreary and Ethan Fugate, is now online; Rae Armantrout has two new poems online at Granta; Jessica Smith writes on her desk over at Real Pants; and Thomas March provides a very close reading of a poem by Ben Ladouceur over at Lambda Literary.

some author activity: mclennan, Kaminski, Irwin, Pirie, Trivedi, Smith + Bowering,

rob mclennan has a new poem up at OUR TEETH; Megan Kaminski has a new poem up at Matter; Marilyn Irwin interviews Pearl Pirie; Amish Trivedi and Jessica Smith discuss Coven Press over at Boog City; and George Bowering is interviewed by Daniel Zomparelli and Dina Del Bucchia over at The Tyee.