new from above/ground press: Planting Seeds : Fletcher Garden Poems, ed. David O’Meara

Planting Seeds : Fletcher Garden Poems
edited by David O’Meara
$6

featuring new poems by:

Laurie Koensgen
Ellen Chang-Richardson 
Anita Lahey
Conyer Clayton 
Sneha Madhavan-Reese
David Stymeist
David O’Meara
Blaine Marchand

Introduction
David O’Meara,
Poet Laureate (anglophone) of the City of Ottawa (2024-2027)

Living in an urban area, it is often easy to forget the rich natural habitat that surrounds us. Thankfully, in the Ottawa region, there are numerous opportunities for “appreciation, preservation, and conservation of Canada’s natural heritage,” a listed objective of the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club. In late April, eight local poets took a ramble with Sandy Garland, a volunteer and educator at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden / Bill Holland Trail, and a passionate advocate for conservation, to appreciate and respond to the flora and fauna of this unique and valuable site within the city. The poets returned, walked, sat, imagined, researched, and wrote. The result is this chapbook, which shapes an informal guide to a leisurely walk on the provided paths. I encourage you to take it to the Bill Holland Trail, or any local trail, and read, look, and listen. Wear a hat and long pants. Bring a water bottle. And visit the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club website, a valuable resource, for more information on how to create wildlife-friendly habitat and gardens on urban and rural properties: https://ofnc.ca/programs/fletcher-wildlife-garden

Thank you first of all to Sandy Garland, volunteer-extraordinaire, who generously donated her time, energy, enthusiasm, and endless knowledge to the poets and audience during our tour of the trails and garden. Thanks to the support of rob mclennan for work on this chapbook, Allison Armstrong for media and publicity, Frances Boyle and Nik Ives-Allison. Thanks to Edward Farnworth and Stuart Tomlinson at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Thanks to Leigh Thorpe and Jane’s Walk. Many thanks to the City of Ottawa for support through the Ottawa Poet Laureate program, and to all the participating poets for their thoughtfulness and creativity.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
produced for the event PLANTING SEEDS: NATURE POETRY ON THE TRAIL, June 27, 2026, Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa

author biographies:

Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet, hybrid genre writer, judicial assistant, editor, community organizer, and author of Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024). 

Conyer Clayton is a queer writer, editor, and bookseller from Louisville, Kentucky living in Ottawa. Their third full-length collection of poetry, the lake-shaped excuse, is forthcoming in October 2026 with Buckrider Books, Wolsak and Wynn. 

Laurie Koensgen’s poetry has appeared internationally in more than 100 journals, anthologies and online magazines. Her fourth chapbook, this clingstone love, is with Pinhole Poetry Press. 

Anita Lahey loves wandering Ottawa’s pockets of urban wild. Her latest poetry collection is While Supplies Last. Her memoir, The Last Goldfish: A True Tale of Friendship, was an Ottawa Book Award finalist.

Sneha Madhavan-Reese is the author of two poetry collections, Observing the Moon and Elementary Particles. Originally from Michigan, she has lived in Ottawa since 2009.

Blaine Marchand has been active in the literary scene in Ottawa for over 50 years. A chapbook, Anthems for Dead Youth, will be published this November by Big Pond Rumours. He has published seven books and two chapbooks of poetry.

David O'Meara is the author of five collections of poetry and a novel, Chandelier. He is currently the English-language Poet Laureate for the City of Ottawa.

DS Stymeist’s most recent collection, Cluster Flux (Frontenac Press) was short-listed for the Archibald Lampman Poetry Award. Alongside living with chronic disease (Crohn’s), he currently teaches creative writing at Carleton University.

This is David O'Meara’s third edited title through above/ground press, all part of his tenure as Ottawa’s English-language Poet Laureate, following Verse on the Banks / Poèmes sur le rivage (2025) and Words and Image / Entre mots et images (2026), both of which were co-edited by Ottawa's French-language Poet Laureate, Véronique Sylvain, with translations by Myriam Legault-Beauregard.

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: This Guy Gets It, by David Currie & IAN MARTIN

This Guy Gets It
David Currie & IAN MARTIN
$6

Stand Up Poem

Sometimes I walk into rooms and there aren’t enough chairs. So, I end up standing because I don’t ever feel comfortable sitting on the floor, but when you’re standing and most people are sitting it’s pretty hard to find people on your level to talk to.

It’s awkward talking to someone sitting down when you’re standing because you don’t know if you should kneel or bend at the waist. If you bend at the waist, you’re right in their business, but if you kneel, your knees crack, and then the person looks down on you.

If you’re talking to someone sitting on a bar stool, then you’re both on the same level, but at the same time, it feels like you both have somewhere better to be and don’t know what to do with your feet.

You don’t want to walk into a room with too many chairs, because you’ll look conspicuous. If someone you don’t want to talk to walks in (and they will) they will come right over because you’re the only person in a mostly empty room.

Sometimes walking into rooms and there aren’t enough chairs is way better than sometimes walking into a room with too many chairs. 

Forget I said anything.

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

[David Currie and IAN MARTIN launch this title in Ottawa on Friday, June 19 as part of the ottawa small press book fair pre-fair reading at Anina's Cafe]

David Currie is not IAN MARTIN.  He is a different writer with whom IAN MARTIN is collaborating. David's work has appeared in various places – he wishes he could be more specific, but he forgot to write them down, and has been collected into six chapbooks. He is the author of no-book-books, so what are we even doing here?

IAN MARTIN is large and barely in charge. Their work has appeared recently in periodicities, BAD DOG Mag, Discordia Review, and Sumac Literary Magazine. IAN has published six chapbooks, most recently EVERYONE IS MY ENEMY (2022). When not writing, IAN makes small video games and complains. Visit www.ianmartin.rocks at your own risk.

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: avoice be heard, by Jérôme Melançon

avoice be heard
Jérôme Melançon
$6

bp leaves 
no doubt

no doubt
sounds more alive than paper

in through between bo
dy parts bodies bo
th sets of eyes voices

locational 
definational

def
ying any ki
nd of mixing it so
unds like it so
unds like so
unds so
unding

nothing pure or empty
time is no
t mine here i am ca
ugh
t in his
have to wai
t for him his wai
ling his wa
ndering re
petit
ive in
cant   (at)
ing

self distorting

wait as he stretches sounds

*

These sections of the poem “speechletting” are a response to bpNichol’s recorded sound poems. It disassembles, reflects upon, and reincorporates elements of Nichol’s poems, at least as I heard them. Many are available on the bpNichol Digital Archive (bpnichol.ca). The image that appears on the cover is a still of a video that can be found online titled “My concern...” My thanks to Gregory Betts and the team at the bpNichol Digital Archive for giving us that endlessly generous arrangement of alphabets. And to rob mclennan for the continuing support. And to my family for sitting through me listening to these sound poems and working out new ones at the kitchen table.

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

Jérôme Melançon writes and teaches and writes and lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, SK. His fourth collection, Prairial·es, is now out with Prise de parole. Let us not forget his three chapbooks with above/ground press: Bridges Under the Water (2023), Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright (2022), and Coup (2020), his occasional translations, and his book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018). He has also edited books and journal issues, and keeps publishing academic articles that sometimes have to do with some of this. He is on various social media under variations of @lethejerome, notably at bsky.social.

This is his fourth chapbook with above/ground press.

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: Tierney, Beaulieu, Saklikar + Robertson,

Orchid Tierney has new work in Posit; Derek Beaulieu is included in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies, and is interviewed over at The Commentary, as is Renée Sarojini Saklikar; and Lisa Robertson is interviewed at David Naimon's Between the Covers.

new from above/ground press: THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN: prose poems, by Dag T. Straumsvåg

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN: prose poems
Dag T. Straumsvåg
$6

THE THUMB GRIP

You want to get your life in order and grab it by the neck, but it’s difficult: a mixture of laziness and poor skills you must mould into something useful. It doesn’t work in the company of others, it doesn’t work alone. You must reconstruct your entire life. Even your soul. Maybe you’d better try the thumb grip orienteerers use, marking your current position by constantly thumbing the map. That way, you’ll always have one hand free to swat away insects and the other runners in the woods. Each checkpoint you reach will be a disappointment. You adjust your thumb, and continue running toward the next checkpoint. In the distance you can glimpse the finishing line. Maybe you’ll be the first to cross.

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

Cover design by Beth Elliott

Dag T. Straumsvåg lives in Trondheim, Norway, and is the author and translator  of eleven books of poetry, including But in the Stillness (Apt. 9 Press, 2024), Tom Hennen: Finn eit stille regn (Find a Quiet Rain, translations, A + D Trondheim | Minneapolis, 2024), A Further Introduction to Bingo w/Jason Heroux (above/ground press, 2024) and The Mountains of Kong: New & Selected Prose Poems (Assembly Press, 2025). He co-founded and ran the micro press A + D Trondheim | Minneapolis with Angella Kassube, who died in December 2025 and whom this book is for. The press will continue, with creative director and designer Beth Elliott, Angella's long-time friend, doing the cover art and design. His work has appeared in a wide variety of journals in Norway, Canada and the United States.

This is Straumsvåg’s second title with above/ground press, after the collaborative A Further Introduction to Bingo (with Jason Heroux, 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

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, June 19: Bebenek, carisse, Currie, MARTIN + Saklikar,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents

The Factory Reading Series
the pre-small press book fair reading

featuring readings by:

Jessica Bebenek (Montreal)
russell carisse (NB)
David Currie (Ottawa)
IAN MARTIN (Ottawa)
+
Renée Sarojini Saklikar (Vancouver)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, June 19, 2026
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Glebe Community Centre]

Jessica Bebenek is a queer interdisciplinary poet, bookmaker, and educator living between Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) and an off-grid shack on unceded Anishinaabe territory. Her most recent chapbook, You Don’t Get Out Much (2024), is a memoir of chronic illness & her first ‘real’ book, No One Knows Us There (Book*hug Press, 2025), was a finalist for two Quebec Writer’s Federation Awards and was named a CBC Books Best Book of the Year. @notyrmuse www.jessicabebenek.art

russell carisse is currently living on unceded Wolastoqiyik/Mi’kmaw territory in New Brunswick. Here they live in an off-grid trailer in the woods with their partner and animals, growing food and practicing other forms of underconsumption. Author of five chapbooks, their work appears in the anthology On Occasion: Poems for the People, and ARC Poetry, Queen’s Quarterly, The Temz Review, Touch the Donkey, Website: russellcarisse.carrd.co Mastodon: @russellcarisse@writing.exchange Bluesky: @russellcarisse.bsky.social 

David Currie is not IAN MARTIN. He is a different writer with whom IAN MARTIN is collaborating. David’s work has appeared in various places - he wishes he could be more specific, but he forgot to write them down, and has been collected into six chapbooks. Heat a neutral oil to a boil before turning it to medium-low. Add Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cloves, cardamom, bay leaves, and a nub of ginger. Simmer for an hour, but make sure not to burn. strain the oil into a mason jar with about a cup to a cup and a half of chili pepper powder (the more varieties the better). Oil can be used immediately and kept for about 6 months. He currently resides in Ottawa. Currie and MARTIN are launching a collaborative above/ground press chapbook at this event, so be warned.

IAN MARTIN [pictured] is large and barely in charge. Their work has appeared recently in BAD DOG Mag, Discordia Review, and Sumac Literary Magazine. IAN has published six chapbooks, most recently EVERYONE IS MY ENEMY (2022). When not writing, IAN makes small video games and complains. Visit WWW.IANMARTIN.ROCKS at your own risk.

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is the author of six books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, and Pulp Literature. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey (2015-2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU, and teaches Creative Writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery is the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOTJBAP. Renee Sarojini is grateful to work, create, and live in East Vancouver on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples.

new from above/ground press: Pillars of Sand, by Mrityunjay Mohan

Pillars of Sand
Mrityunjay Mohan
$6

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

Mrityunjay Mohan’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry Northwest, The Indianapolis Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Fourteen Hills. He’s a Tin House scholar, Lambda Literary fellow, and a Brooklyn Poets fellow. He was a recipient of the Nella Larsen Memorial Scholarship for the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference. He’s an editor for ANMLY magazine, and a reader for Split/Lip Press, Harvard Review, and The Masters Review.

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