Poetry Month chapbooks by Lisa Robertson + George Elliott Clarke available during April through Mother Tongue Books and Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar

Poetry Month chapbooks by Lisa Robertson + George Elliott Clarke available during April through Mother Tongue Books and Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar

Ottawa chapbook publisher above/ground is pre-releasing two poetry chapbooks for poetry month at two Ottawa bookstores: mother tongue books in Old Ottawa South, and Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar in Parkdale. Fifty copies of each title, normally sold for four dollars each, will be pre-released at one of two Ottawa bookstores gratis, with bookstore purchase only. Given the plight of independent bookstores the past few years, this project hopes to highlight the importance of the independent, community bookseller by encouraging the public to explore just what these businesses provide, not just for readers, but for writers, in the city.

Lisa Robertson’s On Physical Real Beginning and What Happens Next will be available free (with purchase) starting April 1, 2012 at mother tongue books, 1067 Bank Street, Ottawa.

One of Canada’s most engaged poets, Lisa Robertson was born in Toronto and lives in France. Bookthug has just published her new book of essays, Nilling.

George Elliott Clarke’s Selected Canticles will be available free (with purchase) starting April 15, 2012 at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar, 1242 Wellington Street West, Ottawa.

Poet, playwright, novelist and literary critic George Elliott Clarke won the Governor General's Award for Poetry for Execution Poems (Gaspereau Press, 2001). His most recent book is Red (Gaspereau Press, 2011). He is currently the E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.

Fifty copies of each title will be distributed free through the respective bookstores, and will be made publicly available through the above/ground press site two weeks after their bookstore release date.

Edited and published by Ottawa writer rob mclennan, above/ground press was founded in August, 1993 in Ottawa, and has produced over six hundred publications, including works by George Elliott Clarke, Stephen Brockwell, George Bowering, Deanna Young, Monty Reid, Max Middle, Patrick Lane, Christine McNair, John Lavery, Pearl Pirie, Robert Hogg, derek beaulieu, Marcus McCann, Amanda Earl, Sandra Ridley, Louis Cabri, Shane Rhodes, Marilyn Irwin, John Newlove, Rae Armantrout, Barry McKinnon, Cameron Anstee, Phil Hall, Robert Kroetsch and Gwendolyn Guth. A list of recent titles can be accessed through the above/ground press website.

An anthology of the first decade of the press’ operations, Groundswell: the best of above/ground press 1993-2003, edited by rob mclennan, with an introduction by Stephen Cain, appeared in 2003 with Fredericton publisher Broken Jaw Press. A second volume is currently in production.

For more information, contact rob mclennan at 613 239 0337 or rob_mclennan@hotmail.com