some author activity: Jarvis, MacLeod, Nilson + Coulton,

Forthcoming author Jenna Jarvis has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Kathryn MacLeod is interviewed by Róise Nic an Bheatha over at Queen Mob's Teahouse; Geoffrey Nilson has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series on the dusie blog; and Valerie Coulton's chapbook, along with the most recent issue of Touch the Donkey, receive a positive and quick mention over at Michael e. Casteel's Puddles of Sky blog.

some author activity: MacLeod, Bolster, Kroetsch + Barwin,

Kathryn MacLeod is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; both Stephanie Bolster and Robert Kroetsch are written up as part of Brick Books' year long Celebration of Canadian Poetry; and Gary Barwin has a new poem up at Paul Vermeersch's Sunrise with sea Monsters.

some author activity: Graham, Ball, Best, MacLeod + eckhoff,

Lea Graham has four new poems up at milk magazine; Nelson Ball has a new poem up at One Sentence Poems; Ashley-Elizabeth Best has some new poems up at Glasgow Review of Books; and the audio of three poems from Kathryn MacLeod's mouthpiece (1996) are now online at Our Teeth, as read by kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

some author activity: eckhoff, MacLeod, Christie, MillAr + McNair

kevin mcpherson eckhoff keeps posting over at Goodreads: Kathryn MacLeod has a new poem as part of the Tuesday poem series on the dusie blog; Jason Christie takes part in an impromptu residency in Vernon, British Columbia at the Mackie Lake House; Jay MillAr is interviewed over at The Toronto Quarterly; and Christine McNair answers the Poets in Profile questions over at Open Book: Ontario.

Some author activity: Hawkins, Turnbull, Sand, Anstee, MacLeod, Pirie, Earl + Young,

rob mclennan has written a profile of Ottawa's most dangerous poet, William Hawkins, performing tomorrow as part of the inaugural Verse Ottawa Hall of Honour; Chris Turnbull has some new work up at ditch; Kaia Sand was recently selected for the inaugural City of Portland Archives and Record Center Artist in Residence Program; Cameron Anstee, Kathryn MacLeod and Pearl Pirie all have new work in the sixth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics; Cameron Anstee and Amanda Earl each have new work up in the March issue of The Steel Chisel; and Deanna Young reads at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library for Poetry Month at 2pm, Saturday, April 20, 2013 with Heather Cadsby and Mary Ellen Csamer.

above/ground press titles make up nearly half of Amanda Earl's "Best of 2012: chapbooks" list

What do "best of" lists mean? Less when you aren't on them, I suppose. Ottawa writer, publisher and lit-blogger Amanda Earl was good enough to include ten different above/ground press chapbooks on her twenty-three chapbook "Best of 2012: chapbooks" list. With her original post here, I include her included list of above/ground press titles (with appropriate links): Christine McNair and rob mclennan, Prelude: selections from a collaboration ; Kathryn MacLeod, Entropic Suite ; Roland Prevost, Parapagus ; rob mclennan, Notes, on the subject of marriage: ; rob mclennan, Poem beginning with a line by Pinder ; Barry McKinnon, Into the Blind World ; Kemeny Babineau, After Progress ; Stephen Brockwell, Excerpts from Impossible Books, the Crawdad Cantos ; George Elliott Clarke, Selected Canticles ; Robert Hogg, from Lamentations. Thanks, Amanda!

August's TRUCK: Rogal, Martin, Reid, Earl, MacLeod, McCann, McElroy, Anstee, Irwwin, MillAr, Jackson, McKinnon + mclennan,

I've been editing Halvard Johnson's TRUCK throughout August, and have included new poems by various above/ground press authors (the benefit of having produced so much, and for so long, it means a great many writers can be considered authors), including Stan Rogal, Camille Martin, Monty Reid, Amanda Earl, Kathryn MacLeod, Marcus McCann, Gil McElroy, Cameron Anstee, Marilyn Irwin, Jay MillAr, Meghan Jackson (who published a couple of above/ground press items under the name meghan lynch), George Bowering and Barry McKinnon, and forthcoming authors Lary Bremner and Jordan Abel, ending the month with a piece of my own, here. Check the entire month's worth, also featuring poems by nikki reimer, Daphne Marlatt, David McGimpsey, Kim Minkus and more.

And don't forget the 19th anniversary sale! only until September 15,

new from above/ground press: Entropic Suite, by Kathryn MacLeod

Entropic Suite
Kathryn MacLeod
$4

Out of Sequence (4)

Warmth sinks into hunger
form into formlessness

children into enemies
clouds into sand

(I carry stories, memories
I’ve lost as many as the next guy

Some days I barely know
my own small history)

Our lives implacably
deteriorate

(I’ve made a lot of
bad decisions, I’ve been

bankrupt, hungry, faceless
without a hat, forgot

to speak out, truth
to power, all my ideals

well-formed, crumbling)

The facts, the laws, the documents
enforce

(and so the world escapes us)

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2012
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kathryn MacLeod [see her 12 or 20 questions here] lives in Victoria, BC and works at the University of Victoria. Much of Entropic Suite was written as part of her dissertation: Transgressing Words and Silence: Aesthetics, Ethics and Education (UBC, 2011), which explores the relationship between ethics, aesthetics and education using the limit case of art created in response to the Holocaust. Her previous books and chapbooks include mouthpiece (Tsunami Editions, 1996) and How Two (Tsunami Editions, 1987). Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Companions and Horizons: An Anthology of Simon Fraser University Poetry (2005), Writing Class: The Kootenay School of Writing Anthology (1999), and East of Main (1989).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com