new from above/ground press: First you know, and then so ordinary, by rob mclennan

First you know, and then so ordinary,

rob mclennan

$3

published in Ottawa by above/ground press in an edition of 200 copies for a question/answer seminar for MA students, “Small Presses, Little Magazines, and Creative Writing,” at Carleton University, November 18, 2010, alongside Cameron Anstee;  2011 subscriptions now available;

to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2 US) to rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7

Some of these poems appeared previously in the summer 2010 issue of MiPOesias, Otoliths, and an above/ground press broadside.

Born in Ottawa, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. He is the author of nearly two dozen trade publications in multiple countries, including the poetry collections wild horses (U of Alberta Press, 2010), the forthcoming Glengarry (Talonbooks, spring 2011), and a second novel, missing persons (The Mercury Press, 2009). He is currently working to complete a third novel, various short stories, and a non-fiction project concerning grieving, loss and family archives.

new from above/ground press: Continua 1-22 by Chris Turnbull;

Continua 1-22

by Chris Turnbull

$4

published in Ottawa in an edition of 250 copies;  2011 subscriptions now available;

to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2 US) to rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7

Chris Turnbull lives in Kemptville, Ontario. Recent pieces of continua have been published in ottawater, Convergences, How2, ditch and Dusie. continua is a visual text and multi-voiced performative piece.

Mark McCawley on Amanda Earl

Mark McCawley reviews Amanda Earl's The Sad Phoenician's Other Woman (above/ground press) here;

above/ground press author Pearl Pirie

on two of the most recent above/ground press offerings;

2011 subscriptions now available!

I'm now offering my usual annual $40 above/ground press subscription for 2011 (& check out our group on facebook).

YES! I WANT EVERYTHING ABOVE/GROUND PRESS HAS TO OFFER! GIVE ME A 2011 SUBSCRIPTION (STARTING TODAY, THANK GOD) FOR ONLY FORTY (40) DOLLARS (IN THE US, $40 US).

give $40 to rob mclennan, or mail:
c/o 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7

regular notices are also sent out through an email list of Ottawa-area literary events. to get on the list, email me at az421@freenet.carleton.ca

a poem from rob mclennan's "Poems for Lainna" reprinted online

a poem from rob mclennan's Poems for Lainna (above/ground press, 2009) was recently reprinted online as part of Josh Massey's "Blockbuster Poem" curatorial project at The Tyee,

http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/09/03/BlockbusterPoem6/

new from above/ground press: Good People, poems by Gwendolyn Guth

How Armando Became a Ladies Man

He says, “I tell you story.”

Shrugs off grammar-clotted papers to make space

for memory and his hands’ motion. When he saw her

for the first time, he was wrist-high in blood, gore.

The animal death of the shop

enticed her: meat for sale. He knew

how to move his knife. Her eyes flashed jet-dark,

defiant. In a few days, the shining counter dissolved

like an apprentice dream. He wiped

his hands, turned from carcasses to caress

warm perfumed hocks, pink moons.

His young self fascinates him. Two years

living off the avails of a breathtaking hooker.

Imagine him then, pale ovo, thin asperagus,

dressing his body in expensive suits, his hair

in a pouffe. Afternoons sipping port,

his whore-lover having slept off

the night’s work. What kind of man, what kind

of life, pleaded his mother. Two years

of lacrimosa, invocations to the Madonna.

Two heavy years. Hands move swiftly

over his face to check an expression.

He says, “I had to think future.”  

Good People, poems by Gwendolyn Guth
$4

published in an edition of 200 copies, and launched as part of the above/ground press 17th anniversary reading/party, September 3, at the Carleton Tavern;

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, $2 US) to rob mclennan, c/o 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7.

Gwendolyn Guth, mother of three active boys, notes that super mom and super model have far less in common than their assonance would suggest. She has the enviable privilege of talking about literature for a living, at Heritage College in Gatineau. She is a long-time supporter of and participant in Ottawa literary ventures, including Bywords, above/ground, Ottawater, yawp, Friday Circle, Rideau Review, etc. Her chapbook, Good People, anticipates her first trade book, due any year now and fiercely successful in her dreams. She craves inner peace but settles for outer calm. 

new from above/ground press: Stephen Brockwell's Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment)

From Metonymies: Poems by Objects Owned by Illustrious People

Stephen Harper’s Shoes

Long days holding up the country,

short nights breathing fresh air.

Each morning, a minion polishes away

a day’s accumulated scuffs

with matt black petroleum paste.

My burnished upper reflects the blurred image

of the face above but does not shine.

My heel grinds even the iridescent

beetle, silent, powerless, beautiful,

Into the Langevin asphalt. My steel

shank would never pass security

if the face did not control it personally.

The feet have no particular smell,

like winter air or snow. I complain

of the unguents, salves and balms, reeking of sulphur

that, despite all evidence to the contrary, will not

relieve the cracked and callused heels.

Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment)

by Stephen Brockwell

$4

published in Ottawa in an edition of 200 copies, and launched as part of the above/ground press 17th anniversary reading/party, September 3rd, at the Carleton Tavern;

to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2 US) to rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7

Stephen Brockwell's most recent book is The Real Made Up (Toronto: ECW Press, 2007). The first installment of his Impossible Books project was delivered at the Olive Reading Series in December 2007. Brockwell is trying to find a way to run a small IT company and write poems without going completely mad. Stephen recently moved to the charming Ottawa neighbourhood of Lindenlea just north of Beechwood Avenue.

Max Middle's "A Creation Song" (above/ground press) reprinted online;

long out of print, Ottawa poet Max Middle's first above/ground press chapbook, A Creation Song (above/ground press, 2004) reprinted online by The Tyee;

http://thetyee.ca/Books/2010/07/30/BlockbusterPoem1/

are his two other above/ground press publications still available? possibly,

new from above/ground press: rob mclennan’s 16 Yonge

*

point on a point; discuss,

map of scatter, eyes
broadsheet about,

Toronto Star, the Hemingway in you
describes,

pinwheels, skipper, sailing ships

talk like a pirate day,
your birthday,

felt no sun,

*

Yonge + Queen’s Quay govern,
nothing else disturbs,

distillery, grandstand
, emphasis against

the year has been, unequal

to place facts squared
or squarely, in a book

shape of a (shifting) harbour,

16 Yonge
by rob mclennan
$4

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
in an edition of 200 copies, August 2010
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy




to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, $2) c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa ON K1R 6R7

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections Glengarry (2011), wild horses (2010) and kate street (2010) and a second novel, missing persons (2009), An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and expects to spend much of the next year in Toronto. He regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Marilyn Irwin’s for when you pick daisies

humidex

i am drunk off
your scent steam
lingers

august mist
bee sting
bug itch

sparks stream from cigarettes
casualties of war
fuse into fire escape

shift of sand sift

feather breath
kiss whispers
expose

soap scum scars
freckles there
that curve like pisces

for when you pick daisies  
Marilyn Irwin
$4

published in Ottawa by above/ground press in an edition of 200 copies, July 2010
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, $2) c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa ON K1R 6R7

Originally published in a private edition by the author in an edition of 22 copies for a night above/ground poetry reading (with poets Cameron Anstee and Marcus McCann), lovingly hosted by rob mclennan at the Carleton Tavern, Ottawa, Ontario on July 16, 2010. A recent graduate of the Winter 2010 edition of rob mclennan’s seasonal poetry workshops and forthcoming graduate of Algonquin’s Creative Writing program, Marilyn Irwin can be seen (mostly) and heard (less) in and around the multi-faceted poetry scene of Ottawa.

some older, out-of-print items

now available, by George Bowering, Michael Holmes, John Barton, Barry McKinnon, etc;

rob mclennan featured

in the Globe & Mail book blog, by Judith Fitzgerald; the beginning of a month of features, curated by rob mclennan

Pearl Pirie

on Ken Norris' Green Wind;

new from above/ground press:

Frank St.

A sequence of poems by Cameron Anstee

$4

your fingers

and where they make familiar

and this room makes more sense

you arranged the furniture

while I picked up boxes

the things we carried here

and their shapes from light

our pillows match your birthmark

the ivy, and the umbrella, and the cactus

from Champagne

yes, we’ve kept these plants alive

and some days we remember

published in Ottawa by above/ground press in an edition of 200 copies, March 2010; a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy (2010 subscriptions still available); to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, $2) c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa ON K1R 6R7

Cameron Anstee lives in Ottawa ON, where he runs Apt. 9 Press.

new from above/ground press: A history of button collecting Helen Hajnoczky

A history of button collecting

Helen Hajnoczky

$3

published in Ottawa by above/ground press in an edition of 200 copies, March 2010; a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy (2010 subscriptions still available); to order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, $2) c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa ON K1R 6R7

Helen Hajnoczky recently completed her BA Honours in English and creative writing from the University of Calgary, where her research focused on feminist avant-garde poetics. Her work has appeared in Nod, fillingStation, Rampike, and Matrix magazines, as well as in a variety of chapbooks. She is the current poetry editor of fillingStation magazine. Her first book of poetry, Poets and Killers: A Life in Advertising, is forthcoming from Snare Books.

new from above/ground press: Some Forty by rob mclennan

Some Forty

by rob mclennan

$3

published in Ottawa by above/ground press in an edition of 200 copies, mid-March 2010 for distribution during celebrations of the author’s fortieth birthday

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy (2010 subscriptions still available)

write for submission/subscription info, c/o 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa ON K1R 6R7, or check out rob_mclennan@hotmail.com or abovegroundpress.blogspot.com

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of some twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections wild horses (University of Alberta Press), kate street (Moira), and a second novel, missing persons (The Mercury Press). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and currently divides his time between Ottawa and Toronto. He regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com.