new from above/ground press: MUTTER, by Peter Carl Anderson

MUTTER
Peter Carl Anderson
$6

CONCEPTION

We could not conceive of such a thing and yet it came to be, carrying its own luggage with it. A tray of seedlings from the windowsill of a past life, flowers of reincarnation blooming but once a century. The desert deep inside us waits for an opening in the conversation to spread across the landscape and soak up rivers until the fish are left nowhere to spawn. Each day’s count less than the day before. Numbers falling like dandruff. We try to understand but we’re like one-armed backstrokers swimming in circles. Maybe a rise in screen time is yoking us to a downward trend. Maybe our underwear’s too tight, our cycles not monthly enough. We adopt an air of resignation, bury our miscarried explanations and try to look satisfied.

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

Cover design: S. Grand Black / Alias Ink

Peter Carl Anderson is an actor and writer, author of the chapbook Indistinct Chatter & Character Breakdown (our teeth imprint) and a finalist in the 2023 Raven Chapbook contest. He has written more than twenty plays, available on the Canadian Play Outlet, and is the recipient of multiple awards for his acting and playwriting. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, artist and playwright Melody Anderson.

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

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.

new from above/ground press: ignite, by Lori Anderson Moseman

ignite
Lori Anderson Moseman
$6

dismantling the trebuchet


we must save the flywheel
the sling

boulders can be guest stones
in memorial gardens

scaffolding can become ladders

the counter weight?
is it immovable enough 
to tether oligarchs’ greed?

an anchor we can corral
on neutral ground

measured stillness
as hope

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

Lori Anderson Moseman’s earlier chapbooks from above/ground press include: Whittle Gristle (2025) plus Okay and Too Few Words (2023). Quietly Between, a 2022 poetry/photography collaboration, is available from A Viewing Space. Her experimental poetry collections include Darn (Delete Press, 2021) and Y (Operating System, 2019). For her earlier prose poems see Full Quiver (Propolis Press, 2015) and Flash Mob (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016). She lives on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people whose descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon.

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: Cone, Tardi, Barwin, Reid + Flemmer,

Jon Cone has an essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Mark Tardi; Gary Barwin has new work up at The Pi Review; Monty Reid has some poems via Discordia Review; and Kyle Flemmer responds via the '12 or 20 questions' interview.

above/ground press participates in the Fisher Fine and Small Press Fair at the University of Toronto, Sept 19, 2026

Given the success of their prior small press book fairs, The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is once again holding a small press fair in their space! See my report on their 2022 fair (I wasn't able to make their 2024 event).

Come by and see what above/ground press (and numerous other publishers) have been up to lately. I mean, there's a lot happening, quite honestly (and watch soon for 2027 subscription information).

"The Fisher Library will again be hosting some of Canada's finest book and print makers and artists when it hosts the 2026 Fisher Small & Fine Press Fair. A biennial event since 2013, this year's fair will be larger than ever, with plans to use the library's seminar room, the Maclean Hunter Room, as well as the exhibition area."

The date: Saturday September 19, 2026
The time: 10am-5pm

Location: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 120 St. George St. (corner of St. George and Harbord)

https://library.utoronto.ca/event/fisher-small-fine-press-fair

some author activity: Zhang, Hausner, Sparrow, Melançon, Davis + Adams,

Elena Zhang has work in the Spotlight series; Beatriz Hausner is now part of the Canadian Poets Series at Peripety and/or Tronies; Noah Sparrow has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; Jérôme Melançon is featured in a mini-interview over at Amanda Earl's substack; Jordan Davis has an essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Hypertext mag posts a conversation between Carrie Olivia Adams and Nathan Hoks.

new from above/ground press: The Thought Lawn, by Mark Tardi

The Thought Lawn
Mark Tardi
$6

Cztery Kwartety


1.
As close as 
we are I 
don’t remember 

what you look like


2.
Calm 
does not come 
every day

Lamps are calm


3.
Even if I’m no longer 
sure what 

Craig meant 
by “life raft in Hell”


4.
Wiosna lato jesień 

zima part 
blue sky part 

cretaceous coyote

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

Cover art by Małgorzata Myk, from Duration Series (2024).  

Mark Tardi is a writer, runner, and translator whose awards include a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Grant and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Translation fellowship. His translations include Viscera: Eight Voices from Poland (Litmus Press, 2024), Unsovereign by Kacper Bartczak (above/ground press, 2024), The Squatters' Gift by Robert Rybicki (Dalkey Archive, 2021), and Faith in Strangers by Katarzyna Szaulińska (Toad Press, 2021). Recent writing and translations have appeared in Conjunctions, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, MAYDAY, Ilanot Review, Denver Quarterly, Interim, Cagibi, Full Stop, and elsewhere. His newest book, Recapitulation in the Wrong Key, is out from BlazeVOX Books. He is on faculty at the University of Lodź.

This is Tardi’s second title from above/ground press, after his translation of Kacper Bartczak’s Unsovereign (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