report: the above/ground press 33rd anniversary reading/launch/party!

Happy anniversary! The thirty-third anniversary reading/launch/party occurred over the weekend at Anina’s Café in Vanier (a space of which I am becoming increasingly fond). Thirty-three years! And nearly fifteen hundred publications-to-date, by the by [don't forget the current anniversary sale, happening for but a few more days]. Do you recall my report from last year's event? Or the year prior? With readings and launches of new above/ground press titles by Stephanie Bolster (Montreal), Mark Goldstein (Toronto), Cara Goodwin (Ottawa), Sonja Greckol (Toronto), Harold Hoefle (Ottawa), James Spyker (Toronto) and Grant Wilkins (Ottawa). The crowd for this event was impressive (with some notable absences, due to travel etc), with the occasional above/ground press author and editor sprinkled throughout, including Cameron Anstee, Frances Boyle, Ottawa's current English-language poet laureate, David O'Meara, and Tamara Fairchild (above/ground press produced a chapbook of hers back in 1997, don't forget), as well as artist and photographer Paul Elter, Ottawa writer Matthew Firth and visual artist Daniel Sharp, among others.

Armed with broken foot and accompanying boot, Montreal-based poet and editor Stephanie Bolster opened by launching the recent twentieth anniversary edition of her above/ground press title, BIODÔME, a title originally produced through the press way back in 2006. This new edition was actually prompted by Montreal poet Misha Solomon, who had worked his own chapbook-length response to Bolster's work, and his chapbook-response was produced simultaneously to Bolster's new edition, which also holds an introduction by Solomon [see his introduction to such here; see Bolster's afterword to the collection here]. In case you don't recall, above/ground press actually produced Bolster's solo debut, the chapbook Three Bloody Words, back in 1996, and it was rather terrifying to realize that it has now been ten years since we produced the twentieth anniversary edition of that particular title. 

The second reader was Ottawa-based poet Cara Goodwin, a poet barely a year or so older than the press itself, which does tend to make one feel ancient. After Bolster's reading, it was very exciting to counterpoint such an established writer against a chapbook debut, as Goodwin was launching her new chapbook, Map of What Was Taken, a title that had been in the works for some time. Clearly, Goodwin is a poet worth paying attention to.

The third reader was Toronto poet, editor and publisher Mark Goldstein, launching his own above/ground press debut, The Common Dark, a chapbook-length section of a poetry title he has forthcoming soon (hopefully later this year). How many years have I been soliciting Goldstein for a manuscript? Oh, too many to count (but the wait was completely worth it). I look forward to seeing how this particular title fits into the larger context of something book-length.

The next reader was Toronto poet and translator Sonja Greckol, who landed in town to launch a slightly older title, Dark Matter —Sonja Greckol translation, Materia Oscura—Rocío Céron, Dark Matter – Diverted—Sonja Greckol etranstranslation (2025), that appeared just around Christmas of last year [see the essay she wrote on translating such here] (a title that is soon to appear in a second printing). Part of what became remarkable about this event was that Greckol requested a Spanish speaker from the audience to read Céron's original text, and Goodwin's friend, Dan Josh, someone who claimed to have "no prior relationship to poetry," but read brilliantly! A remarkable blend of voices and considerations.

It was very good to hear Harold Hoefle, a (formerly Montreal-based) poet who recently retired from teaching at John Abbott College, especially given his recent relocation to Ottawa. Having a new chapbook, Leaning In, and him part of this launch felt a nice way to be able to welcome him to town, especially given the number of years he's been travelling in for the sake of multiple literary events, as well as social interactions with Ottawa writers (there's a poem in this new collection for the late Ottawa poet Michael Dennis, for example). Apparently Matthew Firth, back when he was a chapbook publisher, produced Hoefle's chapbook debut some twenty-plus years ago, which I didn't know. 

Toronto-based writer James Spyker and his work aren't the same locally-known quantity as they had been, back in the day, when he and I were part of running Ottawa's The TREE Reading Series in the mid-1990s (Spyker is also co-founder of the ottawa small press book fair, an event he recently started attending once more, as exhibitor). Given how long I've known him (I can't recall if we met five minutes prior to or following the creation of above/ground, which was less than a year prior to me joining TREE as one of the organizers/curators, back in June 1994), it was a bit surprising it took this long for his own above/ground press debut to appear, Bedtime stories for my imaginary friends, the thirty-fifth title produced as part of the press' ongoing prose/naut imprint. He purposefully read a single, slightly surreal prose-piece that hinted as an introduction for the final reader of the evening, Grant Wilkins. 

Ottawa writer, papermaker and quiet builder of complex sounds, shapes and phrases, Grant Wilkins launched what is his sixth above/ground press title produced over the past few years, provocations. Wilkins is another I've actually known since the earlier part of the 1990s, circa 1994, but has only moved into publishing his explorations through sound and text over the past few years, prompted in part through his participation in jwcurry's infamous Messagio Galore sound poetry choir. Wilkins' work [see a recent artist statement he wrote, here] blends the influence of the late American poet Jackson Mac Low with an engagement with sound, chance and play, merging texts and ideas with an unmatched ease and attention to detail.

Thanks so much to everyone to participated! And to Anina's for hosting us! There are already plans afoot, by the way, for some fall surprises (oh, and the 2027 subscriptions will be announcing soon, also; the same rates as this past year, methinks).

the above/ground press 33rd anniversary/reading/launch party! August 22, at Anina’s Café,

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

readings and chapbook launches by:

Stephanie Bolster (Montreal), Mark Goldstein (Toronto), Cara Goodwin (Ottawa), Sonja Greckol (Toronto), Harold Hoefle (Ottawa), James Spyker (Toronto) + Grant Wilkins (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2026 at Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way
7pm door/7:30pm reading
$10 at the door / cash or e-transfer / includes 2 chapbooks (of your choice!
[see the report here from last year’s event; and don't forget the 33rd anniversary sale, happening until September 1st!] 

Author biographies:

Stephanie Bolster’s latest book of poetry, Long Exposure, appeared with Palimpsest Press in fall 2025. Excerpts from the book were finalists for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2019. Bolster’s first book, White Stone: The Alice Poems, won the Governor General’s Award and the Gerald Lampert Award and was translated into French as Pierre Blanche. Her poems have also been translated into Spanish, German, and Serbo-Croatian. Editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 and The Ishtar Gate: Last and Selected Poems by the late Ottawa poet Diana Brebner, and co-editor of Penned: Zoo Poems, she was born in Vancouver and grew up in Burnaby, BC. She has been a professor of creative writing at Concordia University since 2000 and lives in Pointe-Claire, Québec, on the Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka) territory of Skaniatara:ti.

Stephanie Bolster will be launching her fifth above/ground press title, BIODÔME: Twentieth Anniversary Edition (2026).

Born in Cold Lake, Alberta, on a rainy April day in 1992, Cara Goodwin is the daughter of a beautiful Cree mother and a doting military father. Her early years were shaped by movement across the plains: visits to her mother’s relations on reserve and months spent with her Kokum in British Columbia; a move to Oromocto, New Brunswick, at age eight, where she developed an East Coast sense of humour; and a relocation to Yellowknife at fifteen, where she lived until high school graduation.

After a year abroad in Australia at eighteen—where she briefly fancied herself a mysterious foreign waitress before finding work milking cows—Cara moved to Ottawa at nineteen for school. There, she became roommates with her future best friend and has built a chosen family of her own. Now thirty-four, and a proud member of Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, she is focused on deepening her connection to her Cree heritage and considering how to leave the planet in a better place for her nieces.

An Ottawa-based poet, her work has appeared in Bywords, flo. literary magazine, and Room. Over the past five years, she has received two Honourable Mentions for the John Newlove Award and was shortlisted for Room’s Annual Poetry Prize in 2023. In 2025 read as a featured performer for the Riverbed Reading Series, where her poems traced her ancestral roots across what is now called Canada. Cara holds a BA (Hons.) in Social Communications and has completed numerous writing diploma and certificate programs over the years.

Cara Goodwin will be launching her above/ground press debut, Map of What Was Taken (2026).

Mark Goldstein is a writer, editor, translator, and graphic artist. His work includes the serial poem Endlossong (forthcoming), his book-length translation of poems by Paul Celan, Thricelandium (2024), his translation of Kafka's novel, The Trial, as Her Process (2021), poems, essays, and interviews published as Part Thief, Part Carpenter (2021), his long poem, Form of Forms (2012), which was a finalist for the International Stiftung Buchkunst 2014 competition in Lipzig, as well as his poem collection, Tracelanguage: A Shared Breath (2010), and After Rilke (2008). Moreover, he co-edited AnyWord: A Festschrift for Phil Hall (2024), as well as the virtual anthology Paul Celan/100 (2020). He can be found online at markgoldstein.ca

Mark Goldstein will be launching his above/ground press debut, The Common Dark (2026).

Sonja Greckol lives in Tkaronto and is grateful for subways, LRTs and bike lanes wherever.  No Hay Linea En El Tiempo / No Line in Time (Manofalsa Press (Lima/Mexico City) is her latest book. She published Monitoring Station (2023), No Line in Time (2018), Skein of Days (2014) and Gravity Matters (2008). Monitoring Station was listed for the Robert Kroetsch Award, No Line in Time for the LCP Raymond P. Souster Award. Her long poem 'No Line in Time' won the 2017 Briar Patch Writing in the Margins Poetry Contest. Her translation of Rosío Cerón’s ‘Trances’ appeared in Jan 2025 Asymptote Journal and above/ground press published her translation of Cerón's Materia Oscura as Dark Matter, Dark Matter —Diverted. She is the founding poetry editor of Women and Environments International and a member of the Feminist Caucus (LCP). sonjagreckol.com

Sonja Greckol will be launching her above/ground press debut, Dark Matter, by Rosío Céron; translated/etranslated by Sonja Greckol (2025).

Harold Hoefle’s poems have won the Bliss Carman Award, the Great Blue Heron Poetry Award (2014), and a National Magazine Awards silver medal. His debut collection of poems, The Night Chorus, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. He has also published a collection of short-fiction called The Mountain Clinic (Oberon Press). Harold lives in Ottawa, teaches in Montreal.

Harold Hoefle will be launching his above/ground press debut, Leaning In (2026).

James Spyker is a book and paper artist based in Toronto. He lives in that building where you visited your great aunt when you were a kid. He occasionally returns to writing when blank pages become too much to bear.

James Spyker will be launching his above/ground press debut, Bedtime stories for my imaginary fans (2026).

Grant Wilkins is an occasional poet, printer and papermaker 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’s working on another one in Art History. He lives in Ottawa on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people.

Grant Wilkins will be launching his sixth above/ground press chapbook, provocations (2026).

 

save the date! above/ground press thirty-three: anniversary reading,

readings and new (recent) chapbooks by Stephanie Bolster, Mark Goldstein, Cara Goodwin, Harold Hoefle, Grant Wilkins (and most likely a couple of others); more information soon,

Saturday, August 22, 2026
7pm door / 7:30pm reading
Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, Ottawa

slight door cover, but will include copies of two above/ground press titles of your choice!

keep in mind, 2026 subscriptions are still available, yes? totally willing to backdate,

and don't forget the above/ground press thirty-third anniversary sale, happening through to September 1st!

happy thirty-third birthday sale, above/ground press!

Today is the thirty-third anniversary of above/ground press! And that first ever above/ground press event held at the (long gone) Stone Angel Institute on Lisgar Street (July 9, 1993), so I thought it might be worth offering a bit of a backlist sale. Why not look through the titles across the past three years of titles—2024 through 2026—and see what might interest? We’re currently working a couple of exciting upcoming plans, including the usual anniversary reading/launch/party for August (watch this space; see here for a report on last year’s event) as well as a hefty recording project, to celebrate the press’ 33 1/3 birthday later this fall. But for now, until September 1, 2026:

ANY FOUR TITLES FOR $25 (postage included)
ANY TEN TITLES FOR $40 + shipping / Canada add $20 / US add $28 / International add $34
ANY TWENTY-FOUR TITLES FOR $80 + shipping / Canada add $30 / US add $33 / International add $35
ANY FORTY-FIVE TITLES FOR $200 (postage included)
/ all prices in Canadian dollars ; “any” is subject to availability,

The press has produced nearly fifteen hundred items to date, if you can believe it, most of which are single-author poetry chapbooks. Although, if prose is more of your thing, be aware that this sale includes titles in the prose/naut series (which includes fiction, essays etc; see the full list here), with recent titles by rob mclennan, Susan Rudy, Ken Sparling, Jason Heroux, Stuart Ross, Leah Souffrant, R Kolewe, Meredith Quartermain, Susan Gevirtz, M.A.C. Farrant, Jacob Wren, Clint Burnham, Aaron Tucker and Evan Williams, etcetera. Perhaps a cluster of chapbooks by Amish Trivedi? Or Brook Houglum, Orchid Tierney, Jason Christie, Steph Gray, Monty Reid, Lydia Unsworth, Micah Ballard, Nathanael O’Reilly, Michael Sikkema, Kate Siklosi, Ken Norris, Lillian Nećakov, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Cary Fagan, Amanda Earl, Buck Downs, russell carisse, Pearl Pirie, Gary Barwin, N.W. Lea, Rose Maloukis, Guy Birchard, Misha Solomon, John Levy, Sarah Burgoyne, ryan fitzpatrick, J.R. Carpenter, Jon Cone, Jérôme Melançon, Travis Sharp, Gil McElroy, Jennifer Baker, Jason Heroux, Stephanie Bolster, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Jessica Smith, Derek Beaulieu or Lori Anderson Moseman? I mean, the possibilities are (mostly) endless. Or, heck, send me a note with a list of interests, and I can fill a box of surprises?

The past three years or so of activity also includes issues of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] and The Peter F. Yacht Club. Honestly, just go through the sidebar of names on the above/ground press blog. Each name clicks to the most recent above/ground press title by that particular author (if there are further titles by that author still available, links to such are within that particular post).

To order, send cheques 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 ; questions? shoot me an email,

report: the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch/party!

Happy anniversary! Once more, unto the breach, dear friends. I'm sure you are already aware that I recently hosted the thirty-second anniversary reading/launch/party for above/ground press over at RedBird Live in Old Ottawa South, a very good event this time around (as per usual, I might add). Do you remember my report from last year? Or the year prior? With readings and launches of new above/ground press titles by Monty Reid, Mandy Sandhu, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, Jason Christie, Beatriz Hausner and Ellen Chang-Richardson, we had a wealth of above/ground press authors and others scattered throughout the audience, including Stuart Ross (who was given copies of his new above/ground press prose title at the event), Chris Johnson, Amanda Earl and Charles Earl, Christine McNair (running the door/book table), Michelle Desbarats (I've been hoping to convince a further manuscript out of her, by the way) and Chris Turnbull [above, with Christine]. I even got to meet Char Harrison, the new editorial coordinator for Ottawa's Arc Poetry Magazine. Can you believe it's almost time to be thinking of 2026 subscriptions? Gadzooks.

The first reader of the evening was Monty Reid, launching the twentieth anniversary edition of his 2005 title cuba A book [you probably already saw the big interview I conducted with him recently around the chapbook, over at the above/ground press substack], a chapbook he noted "didn't have the right star" on the first edition, so this update, this correction, was appreciated. This title is part of a long, meditative, ongoing sentence; one full-length, and a manuscript that some smart publisher should probably publish at some point. This is his seventh above/ground press title, with his debut through the press back in 2000, the small item Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe (I do actually have a couple of copies kicking around the archive, somewhere), which he found curious to note: twenty-five years since the press began publishing his work. 

Mandy Sandhu followed, reading from her chapbook debut, The Temporary Place of a Placenta, as well as, I found out later, her first public reading! Not too bad, honestly. I was surprised it was her first! [I was part of St. Catharines writer/critic Gregory Betts first three public readings, whether as co-reader, host and/or organizer back in 2004, and you've seen how well he's done since]. I am curious to see where her work might go next. She recently composed this short piece for the Spotlight series, talking about her current work. Vitkauskas did record a part of Sandhu's reading, which Sandhu later put up on her Instagram.

The evening's third reader was Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, launching the chapbook The Deaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding, a title composed around the grief following the death of her partner, Larry Sawyer, who has a posthumous full-length Canadian debut forthcoming with Guernica Editions (which you should watch out for; I recently composed a blurb for it). Although, she did note that above/ground press did produce his Canadian debut, the chapbook A Chaise Lounge in Hell, all the way back in 2003 (I still have copies of that kicking around as well, somewhere). She ended her set with two of his poems, recorded by Sandhu (they make a good team, I think) and posted to Instagram. She even posted her own report on the event, as she and Sandhu had travelled together to Ottawa from Toronto, over at Instagram as well.

To open the second half of the evening was Ottawa poet Jason Christie, launching his ninth above/ground press title, PSA [you probably already saw the big interview I conducted with him recently, over at the above/ground press substack], with his own debut through the press back in 2004, back when he still lived in Calgary, the chapbook 8th Ave 15th St NW (which I might also might still have copies of, by the way, for anyone curious). 

The penultimate reader of the evening was Toronto poet Beatriz Hausner, launching her above/ground press debut, The Oh Oh [you probably already saw the interview I conducted with her over at Touch the Donkey, given she's in the current issue]. Honestly, as much as I enjoyed her reading, the best part about her participation in the event is that we got to hang out the evening prior, discussing literature, surrealism and other subjects (the first time I think we've properly hung out, so I appreciated that).

The final reader of the event was Ellen Chang-Richardson, launching their above/ground press debut, The Moleskin Coat, providing a stellar reading. They recently had one of the finest debut poetry titles I've read in some time, I'll have you know, the collection Blood Belies (Wolsak and Wynn, 2024). I had been a few years gently prodding at Chang-Richardson for a possible chapbook submission, and they even wrote this particular title with the press in mind! Quite a compliment, I think. A very cool thing.

Thank you to everyone who came out! What should I do for next year? I should probably have taken more photos during the event, of course. Or perhaps even better photos?
 

today is the thirty-second anniversary of above/ground press,

happy 32nd anniversary to above/ground press! with nearly (so close) fourteen hundred publications to date! i've been making an absolute ton of material lately (with plenty more to come, as i'm sure you know); and don't forget our big anniversary event on THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 at RedBird, with readings and chapbook launches by: Jason Christie (Ottawa), Monty Reid (Ottawa), Beatriz Hausner (Toronto), Ellen Chang-Richardson (Ottawa), Lina Ramona Vitkauskas (Toronto) + Mandy Sandhu (Toronto)! tickets are available! last year's event was great [see my report on such here]; and are you following all the extra things posting over at the new(ish) above/ground press substack? sign up (free) for updates!

the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch/party! August 7 at RedBird,

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

readings and chapbook launches by:

Jason Christie (Ottawa), Monty Reid (Ottawa), Beatriz Hausner (Toronto), Ellen Chang-Richardson (Ottawa), Lina Ramona Vitkauskas (Toronto) + Mandy Sandhu (Toronto);

lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 at RedBird
7pm door/7:30pm reading 

$18 ; includes copies of three recent above/ground press titles ; Tickets available via RedBird, or at the door; [see the report here from last year’s event] 

author/performer biographies: 

Monty Reid was born in Saskatchewan, and currently lives in Ottawa. He is the author of the full-length collection Karst Means Stone (NeWest Press, 1979), The Life of Ryley (Thistledown Press, 1981), The Dream of Snowy Owls (Longspoon Press, 1983), The Alternate Guide (Red Deer College Press, 1985), These Lawns (Red Deer College Press, 1990), Dog Sleeps: Irritated Texts (NeWest Press, 1993), Crawlspace: New and Selected Poems (House of Anansi Press, 1993), Flat Side (Red Deer College Press, 1998), Disappointment Island (Chaudiere Books, 2006), Luskville Reductions (Brick Books, 2008), Garden (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and Meditatio Placentae (Brick Books, 2016), as well as a mound of chapbooks. The former Managing Editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, he was the Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival for more than a decade.

Reid is the author of seven titles through above/ground press: Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe (2000), cuba A book (2005), In the Garden (sept series) (2011), Moan Coach (2013), seam (2018), Where there’s smoke (2023) and cuba A book: twentieth anniversary edition (2025), which he will be launching as part of this event. above/ground press produced Report from the Reid Society Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022).

Jason Christie lives and writes in Ottawa with his wife and two children and no pets. His published books include Canada Post (Invisible), i-Robot (EDGE/Tesseract), Unknown Author (Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). He’s wrapping up a new collection that he wrote with/against/for AI.

Christie is the author of nine chapbooks with above/ground press: 8th Ave 15th St NW. (2004), Government (2013), Cursed Objects (2014), The Charm (2015), random_lines = random.choice (2017), glass language (excerpt) (2018), Bridge and Burn (2021) and glass / language / untitled / exaltation (2023; second printing, 2023), which won the bpNichol Chapbook Award, as well as PSA (2025), which he will be launching as part of this event.

Beatriz Hausner has published several poetry collections, including The Wardrobe Mistress (2003), Sew Him Up (2010), Enter the Raccoon (2012), Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (2020) and She Who Lies Above (2023), as well as many limited edition chapbooks. Her books have been published internationally and translated into several languages, including her native Spanish, French, and most recently Greek. Hausner writes extensively about surrealism and her translations of Spanish American surrealist poets have exerted an important influence on her own writing. Hausner has edited journals and magazines, including Open Letter, ellipse, Exile Quarterly, as well as many of the books published during her tenure as a publisher of Quattro Books. She is the editor of Someone Editions, and its current project French Letter Society. Beatriz Hausner was President of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada and Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission. She lives in Toronto where she publishes The Philosophical Egg, an organ or living surrealism. Currently, with Russell Smith, she curates and runs the lecture series Soluble Fish. She will be launching her above/ground press debut chapbook, The Oh Oh (2025).

Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet, multi-genre writer, judicial assistant, and editor of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen’s writing is informed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with humanity’s impact on Earth, and their experience moving through various societies as a femme-presenting genderqueer. The author/co-author of six other poetry chapbooks, Ellen’s multi-genre writing has appeared in Augur, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Ex-Puritan, The Fiddlehead, Grain, Plenitude, Watch Your Head, and more. Their debut collection, Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. They are a co-founder of Riverbed Reading Series, an editor for Room and long con magazine, and a member of the poetry collective VII. Find out more at www.ehjchang.com. They will be launching their above/ground press debut, The Moleskin Coat (2025).

Lina Ramona Vitkauskas is a Canadian-American-Lithuanian formerly from Chicago, living in Toronto. She is an award-winning, published poet & video poet. She was a 2020 recipient of a PEN America grant for her development of an experimental poetry collection that adapted poems from Vsevolod Nekrasov and Bill Knott. She was also the voice of George Maciunas’ mother in the documentary, GEORGE (directed by Jeffrey Perkins) screened at MoMA and in Vilnius. Her work has been most recently featured in/at: Film Video Poetry Society (Los Angeles); Octopus Film Festival (Gdansk, Poland); John Gagné Contemporary Gallery (Toronto): Post-Future Era with Kunel Gaur, Justin Neely, and Confusions (Ben Turner); Poetic Phonotheque (Denmark); MOCA Toronto (public installation); SIFF (Moldova); Newlyn Film Festival (UK); Festival Fotogenia (Mexico); Midwest Poetry Fest (US); Vienna Video Poetry Festival (Austria); and the International Migration & Environmental Film Festival (Canada). Her website is linaramona.com. She will be launching her above/ground press debut, The Deaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding (2025).

Mandy Sandhu is a poet based in Oakville, Ontario. Her work, often in sonnet form, blends vivid imagery with sharp observation, drawing inspiration from writers like Sylvia Plath, the Beats, Dale Smith and Ted Berrigan.  Mandy works at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Disability Office. She will be launching her chapbook debut, The Temporary Space of a Placenta (2025).

for media inquires, as ever, send a note to rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com,

 

some author activity: Brenner, Adams, Smith, Pirie, McElroy, Pittella, Banks + Rhodes,

Summer Brenner has an essay up at Literary Hub; Carrie Olivia Adams was recently featured on the podcast Plain Reading; Mahaila Smith has a new poem up at the DOG TEETH newsletter; and Pearl Pirie offers her report on the recent above/ground press 31st anniversary reading/event/launch, featuring readings by herself, alongside Gil McElroy, Carlos A. Pittella, Mahaila Smith, Chris Banks and Shane Rhodes!

report: the above/ground press 31st anniversary reading/launch/party!

You probably already know, but I hosted an above/ground press thirty-first anniversary reading/launch/party at RedBird last night, featuring readings and chapbook launches by Chris Banks (Kitchener), Mahaila Smith (Ottawa), Gil McElroy (North Bay), Pearl Pirie (rural QC) Carlos A. Pittella (Montreal) and Shane Rhodes (Ottawa). Anniversaries are the best! And don't forget that the press is running a big anniversary sale until the end of this month.

It was good to have another in-person anniversary event! Do you remember my report from last year's anniversary reading? Or the 2019 one? I mean, I think these reports help keep such events in memory. Remember the twenty-fifth anniversary event (when the t-shirts were introduced, for example) or the twenty-third anniversary event (including the Toronto event that same year) or the nineteenth anniversary event? So many events! Wishing I'd actually archived the big tenth anniversary event as well, but that was well before the full advent of blogs, after all (well, five minutes before all of that). I had ten readers, two musical acts (including Emm Gryner) and CBC Radio's Alan Neal hosting, produced by Elaina Martin, who went on to found and produce Ottawa's infamous Westfest. Remember that? I don't even remember all who I had to read for that event. Michael Dennis, certainly, along with (I think) Stephen Brockwell, AJ Dolman, Colin Morton, John Barton and Karen Massey. Who else? All I can find online is this reference to the event via Bywords.

Thanks very much to RedBird, including bartenders Josephine and Taylor, who were kind and attentive hosts, and Christine McNair (above, with Grant Wilkins) who ran both the door and the book table. And, honestly, if you want music lessons or your kids want music lessons, check out RedBird. Our wee Aoife has been doing ukulele lessons there for a while and she absolutely loves it.

It was a great crowd! And good to see further above/ground press authors, including Stuart Ross (did you know his own Proper Tales Press is only four years away from fifty? did you see the website we built when his press turned forty?), Karen Massey, Stephen Brockwell, Grant Wilkins and bpNichol chapbook award-winner Jason Christie! There were a couple of folk unable to attend due to Covid (mild, at least), which was frustrating, but it was great to see Margo LaPierre, Brian Pirie, Susan Atkinson, Manahil Bandukwala, Salem Paige, Allison Armstrong and Helen Robertson! Very nice, also, to see a whole stack of folk in the audience that I didn't actually know. I mean, that's good too, yes?

The first reader was Ottawa poet Mahaila Smith, launching their above/ground press debut (and third chapbook overall), Enter the Hyperreal (2024). There is a sharpness to Smith's work, and anyone who references the work of the late American poet Barbara Guest is very much applying good judgement. Check out Mahaila's recent essay on the chapbook, here.

Latinx poet Carlos A. Pittella came in from Montreal (and was flying somewhere else ridiculously early the following morning), and had such a marvellous, gestural energy to his presence, and to his work. I was first introduced to his work through a recommendation from above/ground press author Misha Solomon, who was introduced to me through a recommendation from above/ground press author Sarah Burgoyne, who was introduced to me through a recommendation from Stuart Ross. Thank you, all! Carlos was launching his first English-language chapbook, footnotes after Lorca (2024), a chapbook with a dark and layered undertone, composed and performed with an absolute joy of playful language. Check out Carlos' recent essay on the chapbook, here.

It is strange to think that Kitchener, Ontario poet and editor Chris Banks and I hadn't actually interacted in-person for twenty years or so, since around the publication of his first full-length collection. The poems of his above/ground press debut, Tiny Grass Is Dreaming (2024), displays such a thoughtful, meditative sharpness (and apparently he's been writing up a storm lately). Check out Chris' recent essay on the chapbook, here.

One of my long-time favourites, as you probably already know, is Gil McElroy, a poet currently living in North Bay, Ontario. I've been publishing his work since the mid-1990s, don't you know. He said that his new chapbook, his tenth above/ground press title, Small Consonants (2024), wasn't meant to be read aloud, so he read from some previous work, including poems referencing the Perseids.

There is such lovely, small detail in the poems of Pearl Pirie's latest above/ground press title, her sixth, Rushing Dusk (2024), a small chapbook featuring cover artwork by my middle daughter, Rose. Check out Pearl's essay on the chapbook, here. And you saw the festschrift we recently produced on her work as well, yes?

Did you hear that Ottawa poet (originally from Alberta) Shane Rhodes and his family are moving to Australia in a couple of weeks? It means that this was most likely his last Ottawa reading before they catch their flight. He read from his above/ground press debut, It's Here All the Beauty I Told You About (2024), a chapbook I am very pleased about, as I've been itching to publish his work since his full-length debut introduced me to his work, some two decades ago. His current work-in-progress (which includes the chapbook), explores Alberta/western mythology, imagery and collage, and the death of his mother,

Thank you to everyone who came out to help celebrate! And what might the next year bring? Thirty-one years, nearly fourteen hundred publications, hundreds of authors and three celebratory anthologies (including the third that appeared last fall through Invisible Publishing), among other schemes, blogs, events and ephemera. As you can see from the sidebar, I've a whole mound of forthcoming titles through the press, currently working on chapbook titles by authors including Vik Shirley, Alice Burdick, ryan fitzpatrick, Peter Jaeger, John Levy, alex benedict, Ryan Skrabalak, Scott Inniss and David Phillips, among others. I did offer last night that anyone who wished to subscribe to the press from this moment right now through to the end of 2025 could for the low price of $100 (for American addresses, $100 US), which I'm willing to offer here as well, an offer good until the end of this month (just send me an email: rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com). I mean, I'm producing some sixty to eighty chapbooks a year, that's a good deal, isn't it? Who knows what might come next?

the above/ground press 31st anniversary reading/launch/party : August 10 2024 : Red Bird Live,

: tickets available here :

today is the thirty-first anniversary of above/ground press, (and we're having a big sale,

Happy birthday, above/ground press! In case you hadn’t heard, today is the THIRTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF above/ground press (with more than 1,325 publications to date) and to celebrate such, I thought, why not offer a huge summer sale?

$35 (plus shipping) for any eight 2023/2024 titles! Or, if you are feeling particularly brave, $40 for any ten 2023/2024 titles! (until August 31, 2024)! braver still? $80 for any twenty-five 2023/2024 titles!

with options including plenty of 2024 titles so far: I wanted to say something, : an elegy, for Barry McKinnon (1944-2023), by rob mclennan ; Unsovereign, by Kacper Bartczak, translated from the Polish by Mark Tardi ; Broken River, by Ken Norris ; Un-Composed, Poetry by Saba Pakdel ; Family Chronicles from Muffin Land, by Hope Anderson ; Perverse Density, by Sacha Archer ; BRADE LANDS, by Peter Myers ; Process, by Julia Polyck-O’Neill ; DAWN’S FOOL, by Kyla Houbolt ; Gnomics, by Dale Tracy ; The Green Rose, in collaboration, Steven Ross Smith + Phil Hall ; The Peter F Yacht Club #33/2024 VERSeFest Special, lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #41 [TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE] featuring new poems by Gil McElroy, ryan fitzpatrick, John Barlow, Amanda Earl, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Conyer Clayton, rob mclennan, Julie Carr and Pattie McCarthy ; abject sutures, melissa eleftherion ; From Desire Without Expectation, Jacob Wren ; HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY, Katie Ebbitt ; new york ironweed, Amanda Deutch ; Alternate histories, Kyle Flemmer ; Some Failed Eternity, Pete Smith ; In The Margins. . . . . .of french translations found and remixed by russell carisse, russell carisse ; BUSY SECRET, Micah Ballard ; The Old Man: new stories, Clint Burnham ; Wars, by Angela Caporaso ; Fifty-Two Lines About Henry, by Cary Fagan ; The Pig’s Valise, by BLUNT RESEARCH GROUP ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #40 featuring new poems by Ryan Eckes, Dennis Cooley, Michael Harman, Terri Witek and Laynie Browne ; MY STRUGGLE WITH NOUNS, by Gary Barwin ; These Steady Bulbs, by Lydia Unsworth ;

as well as the plethora of 2023 chapbook titles: But Then I Thought, by Kyla Houbolt ; A PANDEMIC INVENTORY, SPRING-SUMMER 2020, BROOKLYN NY, by Zane Koss ; Between the Lakes, by Ben Robinson ; with the lakes, by Colin Dardis ; The Last Horse / Prologue, by Aaron Tucker ; Misremembered Proverbs, by Adriana Oniță ; river / estuaries, by Julie Carr and rob mclennan ; Gardens in Motion, by Stephen Collis ; STORY LINE, by Rae Armantrout ; glass / language / untitled / exaltation (second printing; bpNichol Chapbook Award Winner, by Jason Christie ; Dinosaurs of Glory, by Nikki Reimer ; Send $19.99 for Supplements and Freedom, Collages and Uncreative Writing, by Noah Berlatsky ; Unconsciousness Raising, by Miranda Mellis ; ESTRO FLUNKY: FIELD NOTES, by MLA Chernoff ; ashes, by Marita Dachsel ; Report from the [ryan] fitzpatrick Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan ; AGALMA, by Kevin Stebner ; THINGS TO BUY IN NEW BRUNSWICK, by Meghan Kemp-Gee ; Cartesian Wells, by Gil McElroy ; This Folded Path, by Robert van Vliet ; Mayday, by Stephen Cain ; LIVID REMAINDERS, by Geoffrey Olsen ; How to, by Heather Cadsby ; An Extremely Well-Funded Study of Doors, by Evan Williams ; Poetic Constructions: Poems written for the Enriched Bread Artists’ 2020 Open Studio, by Grant Wilkins ; missing matrilineal, by nina jane drystek ; Girl gives long-fingered self-portrait, by Sophia Magliocca ; The Baroness and her Ex Read Orgasmic Toast: To Whom It May Concern, by Grant Wilkins ; Groundling: On Apology, by Jennifer Baker ; SONGS FROM THE DEMENTIA SUITCASE, Karen Massey ; edgeless : letters, by rob mclennan ; Bridges under the Water, by Jérôme Melançon ; Where there's smoke, by Monty Reid ; {NANCY} [an essay on Nancy Shaw], by Jamie Hilder ; LALIQUE, by George Bowering and Artie Gold ; Bits and Bobs, two stories by Ryan Stearne ; Report from the (Pearl) Pirie Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 ; errand : towards, by Brad Vogler ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #38 ; Simple Location, by Andrew Gorin ; “Almost Alive” by Julia Drescher ; ECHOES, by Ken Norris ; Toothache, by Joseph Donato ; What started / this mess, Samuel Ace ; BIRD SNOW ON HARD TRACKS, Stuart Ross ; Apogee/Perigee, Leesa Dean ; Report from the (Nikki) Reimer Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan ; When a Folk, When a Sprawl, Jessi MacEachern ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #37, with new poems by Micah Ballard, Robert Hogg, Ben Meyerson, Leigh Chadwick, Junie Désil, Devon Rae, kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberly Dyck, Benjamin Niespodziany and Barbara Tomash ; G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #26, guest-edited by Adam Katz, with new work by alex benedict, Marc E. Christmas, Adam Katz and Ron Silliman ; NOISE, Jordan Davis ; Report from the (Jessica) Smith Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan ; LEARNING HOW TO TALK, Nick Chhoeun ; Night Protest, Ben Jahn ; Poor Rutebeuf, Translated by William Vallières ; tattered sails (after un coup de des), second printing, Derek Beaulieu ; WAVE 1.0, Isabel Sobral Campos ; P E S T / (Zion Offramp 65-70), Mark Scroggins ; The Alta Vista Improvements, rob mclennan ; Report from the (Brenda) Iijima Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan ; genesis, Laura Walker ; In Which Archibald Lampman / Translates Arthur Rimbaud, Grant Wilkins ; Report from the (Amish) Trivedi Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan ; DEAR NOSTALGIA, Nathanael O’Reilly ; Perfumer’s Organ, by Lindsey Webb ; Something or Other, by Jason Heroux ; TAKE IT DOWN, by Barbara Henning ; G U E S T #25, edited by Laurie Anne Fuhr ; Touch the Donkey #36 ; The Peter F Yacht Club #31 "The Factory Reading Series 30th anniversary" issue / edited by rob mclennan ; ONTARIO HYDRO, by Derek Beaulieu ;

That’s more than one hundred titles! This list obviously includes issues of the quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], the occasional and guest-edited G U E S T [a journal of guest editors], the Report from the Society festschrift titles, and chapbooks in the above/ground press prose/naut series; all titles available while supplies last (obviously), although everything listed above is (at this point of writing, at least) all still very much in print; and you know I’m also completely open to backdating a 2024 above/ground press subscription, yes? I mean, that's a pretty remarkable deal.

To order, send cheques (as well as your list of preferred titles; add $3 for postage; in US, add $5; outside North America, add $11) 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

and don't forget to order copies of groundwork: The best of the third decade of above/ground press: 2013–2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023)! and tickets are already available for the 31st anniversary reading/launch/party at RedBird on August 10, 2024! a full list of readers will be announced soon!

with further forthcoming 2024 titles by Carter Mckenzie, Maxwell Gontarek, Carlos A. Pittella, Conal Smiley, Ian FitzGerald, Nate Logan, Peter Jaeger, Noah Berlatsky, ryan fitzpatrick, russell carisse, JoAnna Novak, Chris Banks, Julia Cohen, Carlos A. Pittella, Mahaila Smith, Andrew Brenza, Mckenzie Strath, John Levy, alex benedict, Helen Hajnoczky, Ryan Skrabalak, MAC Farrant, Terri Witek and David Phillips! Oh, and Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #42 lands soon as well! Gadzooks! that is very exciting, yes?