new from above/ground press: THERE’S NOTHING OUT THERE, by Nate Logan

THERE’S NOTHING OUT THERE
Nate Logan
$5

BAD PREMISE

The one with the possessed dentures. The one with the cult and its line of exercise bikes. The one with the disease transforming every voice into text-to-speech. The one with the malicious sidewalk. The one with the president who turns to portraiture in retirement. The one with the pocket theremin calling another world. The one with the mummy teaching intro classes at the state college. The one with the singing telegram that takes 86 minutes to read. The one with the Wallace Stevens mask. The one with the laugh track coming from outside the house.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover image: “Fangs” by JJ

Nate Logan is the author of Wrong Horse (Moria Books, 2024) and Inside the Golden Days of Missing You (Magic Helicopter Press, 2019). He’s editor of the literary magazine Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

This is Logan’s second above/ground press title, after Apricot (2022).

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

three above/ground press titles--by Ben Robinson, Zane Koss + rob mclennan--longlisted for the 2024 Nelson Ball Prize!

Very cool to catch today's announcement of the longlist for this year's Nelson Ball Prize! Three above/ground press titles are on this year's longlist: A PANDEMIC INVENTORY, SPRING-SUMMER 2020, BROOKLYN NY by Zane Koss (2023), Between the Lakes by Ben Robinson (2023) and edgeless : letters, by rob mclennan (2023) (all three of which are still in print, by the by). And very cool to see above/ground press author Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi on there as well for their Pamenar title. Congrats to the whole list! Yay!

some author activity: Armantrout, hanna, Boyle, Levy + Pakdel,

Rae Armantrout was recently interviewed by Parker Menzimer, now posted online at the Poetry Society of America website; Rusty Priske highlights an above/ground press title by natalie hanna as part of his ongoing reading list; Frances Boyle has a new poem online at The New Quarterly; John Levy is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time ; and you saw Saba Pakdel is launching her latest above/ground press chapbook in Vancouver on November 15, 2024 as part of the Simon Fraser University Fall Poetry Salon, hosted by above/ground press author Geoffrey Nilson?

new from above/ground press: Fragments of a Mirrored-Voice For a Friend, by Alexander Hammond Benedict

Fragments of a Mirrored-Voice For a Friend
Alexander Hammond Benedict
$5

 Ich habe Tote, und ich ließ sie hin
 und war erstaunt, sie so getrost zu sehn,
 so rasch zuhaus im Totsein, so gerecht,
 so anders als ihr Ruf. Nur du, du kehrst
 zurück; du streifst mich, du gehst um, du willst
 an etwas stoßen, daß es klingt von dir
 und dich verrӓt. O nimm mir nicht, was ich
 langsam erlern. Ich habe recht; du irrst
 wenn du gerührt zu irgendeinem Ding
 ein Heimweh hast. Wir wandeln dieses um;
 aus unserm Sein, sobald wir es erkennen.

 I carry the dead, and I let them go
 and was surprised to see them so confident,
 so soon at home in death, so satisfied,
 so unlike their reputation. Only you, you turn
 back; you brush me, you skirt by, you want
 to bump against something, so that it sounds of yourself
 and betrays you. Oh, don’t take from me what I
 am slowly learning. I am sure; you wander
 when you are moved toward any one thing
 out of homesickness. We transform this;
 from within our being as soon as we recognize it.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Raised in the Cuyahoga Valley, alex nested in the Cleveland area and cleans ink off the massive cylinders of offset printers for a living. He runs betweenthehighway press (betweenthehighway.org) and is currently writing a biography on d.a. levy.

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

some author activity: Praamsma, Dyckman, Novak, Barwin + Beaulieu,

Wanda Praamsma is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Susanne Dyckman has new work up at Posit; JoAnna Novak is interviewed by Tara Anne Dalbow for BOMB; Gary Barwin is interviewed by Open Book; and Derek Beaulieu writes about his time at filling Station for The Typescript.

Lillian Nećakov and Karen Massey are Finalists for The Montreal International Poetry Prize!

In case you hadn't heard, Toronto poet Lillian Nećakov (3¢ Pulp) and Ottawa poet Karen Massey (bullet, Strange fits of beauty & light, SONGS FROM THE DEMENTIA SUITCASE), both above/ground press authors, have poems included in the list of fifty-one finalists for this year's Montreal International Poetry Prize! Congratulations!

new from above/ground press: Inconsistent Cemeteries, by Mckenzie Strath

Inconsistent Cemeteries
Mckenzie Strath
$5

Bring Back the Wolves of Cape Breton


I dipped my feet into the Atlantic ocean
during a thunderstorm

It puddled around my toes and seeped into my veins
as I pondered whether the weather would electrocute
me for thinking

About how a moose
can eat an entire Christmas tree
without dying

Though many trees are
deciduous in the East
like Betula papyrifera
or Sorbus americana

moose eat Christmas trees
that are protected

Smashing needles
and cones with gnarled teeth
pulverizing bark with sharp hooves
they create havoc on our ecosystem
just by existing

They squat throughout the Cabot Trail
having no predators
except for brain worms
and sometimes bears

But bears are often humble
and couldn’t care less for a moose
unless it has babies
So let's bring back the wolves

The wolves of Cape Breton
whose paws create earthquakes
crumbling mountains
into small hills

The Wolves
that snarl at antlers
and gouge out spleens
while howling during the solstice

The wolves of Cape Breton
eating moose like royalty
dining on them for feasts

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Mckenzie Strath is an (almost graduated) undergraduate at Simon Fraser University studying Archaeology, English and Creative Writing.

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