report: Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair 2026

This past Saturday, above/ground press participated, once more, in the Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, which was pretty cool. I mean, I've been there a few times [see my report on the 2022 fair here], but this is my first visit since Star Trek: Discovery filmed part of an episode in this space, which made it far cooler (naturally). They've been holding small press fairs in the space every two years or so since 2013, and I think this either my third or fourth fair, after the first, the 2022 event and now (I think I also attended the 2015 fair, but I can't find a record for such).

The fair leans into more letterpress works, so publishers such as myself have been invited on more of a rotating basis, given the space is only so large, but this time around, the first floor space was held as an overflow, featuring more of the small chapbook presses, including myself, Knife Fork Book [above], Anstruther Press [above] and Proper Tales Press (Gap Riot Press had been scheduled, but they were unable). The main floor, below us, held many of the usual suspects, including Flycatcher Press, Book*hug Press, Wesley Bates, Grayweathers Press/The MacOdrum Library Book Arts Lab at Carleton University, George A. Walker and Coach House Books.

There was even Jason Dewinetz [above; above/ground press author of a quarter century back] of Greenboathouse Press, who I hadn't seen in person in some two decades-plus, so that was quite nice.

It was good to see above/ground press author Ken Norris (one of the most published authors through the press, at this point; his new title is forthcoming momentarily) and Toronto writer, artist and lawyer Kate Sutherland [above], who I hadn't seen in a while. Poet and critic Bruce Whiteman came by, briefly, as did Canadian poet Sheila Stewart, Victoria writer/editor Kathryn Mockler, former Ottawa-based poet Barâa Arar, above/ground press authors Cary Fagan and Lillian Nećakov and Mark Goldstein and plenty of others. It was far busier than I might have thought, given the small press material was a bit of a side-bar for the letterpress publishers, but there was a consistent crowd most of the day. above/ground press author Conal Smiley (with a new title with Anstruther, by the way) came by to introduce himself, which I appreciated. Always good to actually meet my own authors, face to face. Although it was rather odd to have a couple of tour groups float through, twenty-plus circling our tables, taking photos of the space. Keep moving, keep moving. But an impressive day, all in all.

[Jay MillAr, Book*hug] A young person floated through, introducing themselves as the partner of above/ground press author Noah Sparrow (I didn't catch his name), in Toronto for two years for school; we ended up in a half-hour long conversation on late 1980s Montreal punk bands, which was cool. As well, Brendan Allen introduced himself as a long-time admirer of the press, having been mentored by above/ground press author Megan Kaminski in Kansas, as well as spending time at Temple University, interacting with such as Philadelphia poet Pattie McCarthy and above/ground press author Kevin Varrone, among others. Clearly this fella, in Toronto studying digital poetics, has some very good taste in mentors.

some author activity: Varrone, Pakdel, O'Reilly, Tracy, Robinson + Earl,

Here's a video that New Jersey high school students Charlie Mawn and Jonathan Kane made of Kevin Varrone’s "Poem I Wrote Sitting Across the Table from You"; Saba Pakdel has a poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; Nathanael O'Reilly has new work up at Eastern Iowa Review; Dale Tracy is interviewed by Rob Taylor over at Read Local BC; Ben Robinson also has a poem in the "poetry pause" series; and so does Amanda Earl!

some author activity: Clayton, Tierney, Varrone + Beaulieu,

Conyer Clayton has two new poems in carte blanche; Orchid Tierney has two new poems posted in Plant-Human Quarterly; Kevin Varrone is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; and Derek Beaulieu is named Banff's new poet laureate!

new from above/ground press: how to count to ten, by Kevin Varrone

how to count to ten
Kevin Varrone
$5

the important thing about one :
it stands alone––
        
like a song
bird––its sound––

alone––can, sometimes, maybe-
almost, be enough––

causal yet caused by something, un-
moved & moving, one
is something beautifully done
whose doing
cannot ever be known.

there is nothing in the universe
more tenuous
than beautiful
more beautiful
than one
& the important thing
is that it stands tall, stands all
tender flag half-
blown
stoic
waiting
alone

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kevin Varrone is the author of three full-length collections of poetry and numerous chapbooks. He lives outside Philadelphia and teaches at Temple University.

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

parentheses zoom reading : Jan 13/21 : Pattie McCarthy, rob mclennan, Christine McNair + Kevin Varrone,

Please join us at parentheses for a celebration of our fourth issue, with readings by rob mclennan, Christine McNair, Kevin Varrone & Pattie McCarthy.

When: Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 3pm EST

Where: https://zoom.us/j/2730238369https://zoom.us/j/2730238369

parentheses: A Barcelona-based magazine of poetry and fiction. To obtain copies of issues 1, 2, 3, or 4, please email us at parenthesesbcn@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/parenthesesbcn/ 

new from above/ground press: THE MOTIONS, by Kate Schapira

THE MOTIONS
Kate Schapira
$4

What did I expect?
That things would rename.
I clambered and sank
in nature and in
houses, head of
the stairs pausing
me, suspended,
successful, in high dry
air. No fire anywhere.
Dispatcher warns of accident.
Demands an alternate route.
Ten-year-old kids duck,
dissolve and collapse,
face window after
window immersed
in their topography.
Brick and small-leafed
cluster, asphalt, ill-
traveled and steep: my
eye runs from creature to
dark burrow, runs
me into the ground.
Silences over the island.
Not island, peninsula.
Not surrounded, surrendered.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Produced, in part, as a handout for PHILALALIA, the three-day small press/art fair, September 25-27, 2014 in Philadelphia PA. Thanks much to Kevin Varrone for his help and support.

Kate Schapira is the author of four full-length books and nine other chapbooks of poetry. She lives in Providence, RI, USA, where she writes, teaches, and co-runs the Publicly Complex Reading Series. Learn more about her current project at climateanxietycounseling.wordpress.com.

This is her second above/ground press chapbook, after OVERHEARD WHILE HIDING FROM THE SUN (2014).

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

new from above/ground press: How the alphabet was made, [an instructional], by rob mclennan

How the alphabet was made,
[an instructional]
rob mclennan
$4

A

Shocked, an appetite. A wispy mess of hair to cusp,

be master of. None,

            (apparent lack, the eldest people

,  Calcutta of key-strokes. Facts, unmentioned. Underneath

those tricky eyes,

bull by the horns, she said,

            sustaining evidence)

We, who are wondrously large

present no difficulty                to an empty room.

            Creation: made of facets, facts,

            an almanac, hill country, genitals,

Sidebar, notion; plants and seeds and trees from earth,

a suspect,                     carnage; a suspect vehicle,

            what you would wonder: we

            were not an end.

Pegasus, thy lusty Minotaur; some alphabets believe.

            A solitary air; this          lamb of dirt,

Let me tell you more about her,

about whom I know nothing.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), as well as the forthcoming poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). 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

Originally published by Apostrophe Press as a handout for a reading and classroom talk (or two) at St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo ON, March 5, 2014. Thanks much to Tristanne Connolly and Claire Tacon. Produced, in part, as a handout for PHILALALIA, the three-day small press/art fair, September 25-27, 2014 in Philadelphia PA. Thanks much to Kevin Varrone for his help and support.

See Pearl Pirie's generous review of the first edition, here.

rob mclennan is the author of a slew of above/ground press chapbooks, most recently from Hark: a journal (2014), The creeks (2013), The Laurentian Book of Movement (with Christine McNair; 2013), Trace, (2013), Poem beginning with a line by Pinder (2012), Notes, on the subject of marriage: (2012), Prelude: selections from a collaboration (with Christine McNair; 2012), This, circular tower (2012), The underside of the line, (2011), First you know, and then so ordinary, (2010) and Some Forty, (2010) (a variety of which may or may not still be in print).

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