new from above/ground press: TAKE COVER, EVERYONE, by Clara Yeager and Sarah Burgoyne

TAKE COVER, EVERYONE
Clara Yeager and Sarah Burgoyne
$6

Fish that I am, and what I am.
I hold impressive secrets. They fill my ears.
Fridge in the back of my fish cave. Yes, 
I am brave. I am. Am I?

Windows peer into my eel-like soul that jolts electrically
when I listen. I only hear screams
Oh-so-da-Gama-ray…

Why was it that when I dyed my hair you stared
at me with dismay, like the auburn-coloured rocks
that you gave me on my 734th birthday, like the yarn
with which I spin this incredible sub-aquatic tale. 

Unseaward is my name and my father’s. And his father’s
and not his father but his mother’s. 

Seabored, yes I am that. Dear reader, 
try to discover with me this light in my skull
that guides my future descendants back home. 

Plastic may be the main terrestrial ingredient of Garbage Island
but I wish to leave. 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Clara Yeager and Sarah Burgoyne have collaborated on three poetry collections, Take Cover Everyone, Yes, Your Majesty and We’ve Lost Our Celebrity. Each of their titles is based on a line Clara has uttered on stage and each book is written in the span of three hours. Sarah Burgoyne is the author of Because the Sun (Coach House: 2021), Saint Twin (Mansfield: 2016) and Mechanophilia (Anvil: 2023), an infinite collaboration with American poet Vi Khi Nao. Clara Yeager is a grade nine student in Montreal and an actrice who has starred in productions such as Mean Girls the Musical as Karen, as well as Anything Goes, Frozen and Legally Blonde. They have been friends for over a decade. 

This is Sarah Burgoyne’s fifth above/ground press title, after A Precarious Life on the Sea (2016), TENTACULUM SONNETS (2020), the collaborative WHERE FORTH ART THOUGH (with Susan Burgoyne; 2020) and AN ACCURATE CIGARETTE: Poetry & Prompts (2026).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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: Mellis, Munson, Christie, Brockwell, Niespodziany + Levy,

Miranda Mellis is interviewed over at Tricycle; Jed Munson has new work up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does Jason Christie (a poem for Stephen Brockwell), Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up at The Bulb Region; and John Levy has new work up at The Pi Review.

some author activity: Sandhu, Sawyer, Vitkauskas, Weaver, Marlatt, Pirie, Logan + Shirley,

Mandy Sandhu has some poems up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Larry Sawyer and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas; Andy Weaver has a new poem up as part of National Poetry Month on the Chaudiere Books blog, as does forthcoming author Daphne Marlatt, and even Pearl Pirie; Nate Logan has new work up at Some Words; and Vik Shirley has new work up at And Other Poems.

some author activity: Clayton, Niespodziany, Sikkema, Earl, Levy + MacEachern,

Conyer Clayton is included in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; Benjamin Niespodziany has two new poems up at HAD; Michael Sikkema has new work up at Antiphony; Amanda Earl has new visual poems up at talking about strawberries all of the time, where John Levy also has new visual collaborations with Shloka Shankar; and Jessi MacEachern has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month.

some author activity: Barwin + Nećakov, Harder, Ebbitt, Koss, Adams + Pirie,

Gary Barwin and Lillian Nećakov have work from a collaboration-in-progress over at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Shelly Harder also has new work, and Pearl Pirie has new work, and Katie Ebbitt is interviewed; Zane Koss has a poem on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, ; Carrie Olivia Adams writes on her reading series, poetry, and biscuits over at LitHub; and Pearl Pirie has two new poems up at The Pi Review.

new from above/ground press: Consequences, by Susan Rudy

Consequences
Susan Rudy
$6

Telling the truth about my own experiences as a body

That kiss in Mrs Dalloway.

That life is complicated is a fact of great analytical importance. 

That sickening moment when I realise, sitting across the table and listening to her story, that I feel scorn for conventional women. 

That’s great, he said, how wonderful.

That’s the fiction of memoir, that you can actually remember.

The ‘wife’ he refers to in the Cabaret video, while singing ‘Fancy Free’, the wife who was me, where is she now?

The abandonment of a prescribed way of living for the abyss of self-determination.

The ache of desire, pushed away.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
as the thirty-third title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
April 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover Artwork by Alisa Ochoa

Susan Rudy is a London-based academic and writer whose work creates space for voices that are often silenced or split—especially those navigating complex relationships to gender, care, and creativity. 

She works with language as archive and medium, drawing on decades of journal entries and academic research to assemble texts that challenge conventional memoir and academic prose. 

Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary, she has been based in London, England since 2011 where she is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. 

Recent publications include a conversation about queer parenting (2026) with writer Hannah Silva, a creative piece at London’s Something Other (2025), and interviews with writer Caroline Bergvall (2023) and feminist theorist Clare Hemmings (2019). 

Work in progress includes Hand Over, a poetic and experimental book of creative nonfiction which emerged during a six-week Leighton Artists’ Studio Residency at Canada’s Banff Centre for the Arts in 2024.

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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

new from above/ground press: pinion, by Shelly Harder

pinion
Shelly Harder
$6

sparrow

wings shed night
feathers shred light
sparrow, won’t you stay?

stay, sparrow

leave me not where bulbs burn 
leave me not where screens beam 

draw me through the skin of night
dress me in rags of light

sparrow, stay

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Shelly Harder is the author of remnants, intimology, and zero dawn. They hold a doctorate from the University of Oxford and live and write in London, UK.

This is Harder’s second above/ground press title, after zero dawn (2021).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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