Tuesday, December 31, 2013

the peter f. yacht club regatta, 2013;

While we usually hold a Christmas reading/party/regatta, hosted by The Peter F. Yacht Club, somewhere between Christmas and New Year, this year Christine and myself hosted a small pot-luck. In part to show off the house and our new five-week-old Rose, it was also a sign of our inability to easily leave the house; we thought, why not bring the party to us, instead?

With roughly a third of those invited unable to make it, we still managed to host some twenty people or more in our little house, as I spent the day baking in preparation. Pearl Pirie posted photos of the cake I made for such over at her food blog, as well as the creamy spaghetti squash primavera and the asparagus and white bean salad I prepared (the fourth photo of her quartet I wasn't responsible for). Given that at least one of our group is vegan and has a gluten allergy, I spent more than a week online seeking out recipes.

During the day, I also prepared a lovely beef stew, and an apple/pear (Japanese pear) crisp. And why is there a cow on the cake? Well, I couldn't find any yacht/nautical cake-y decorations at any of the dollar-stores I visited; and who doesn't love cows?


[A lovely wooden item gifted to us by the Piries] We were able to host a ton of Yacht Club regulars and irregulars, including Monty Reid, Sarah Hill and their Frances, Brecken Hancock, Amanda and Charles Earl, Pearl and Brian Pirie, Sandra Ridley, Roland Prevost and Janice Tokar, Vivian Vavassis, Rhonda Douglas, Marilyn Irwin and plenty of others. I could barely keep track! And, given the distraction of food, house and baby, I took barely any photographs. We stayed up far too late, had so much food and wine that we ended with more than we began, and never even got to the readings. Perhaps next year we'll be able to be public again, and Rose will allow us out of the house long enough to host our regular reading/regatta/party back at The Carleton Tavern!

And who knows -- now that we have a house and are beginning to settle, we may even be gearing up for regular meetings again in 2014; perhaps even a new issue? I'm already gearing up to a whole slew of new above/ground press chapbooks by Camille Martin, Nicholas Lea, Hugh Thomas, David Phillips and more; keep watching this space!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

"poem" broadsheet #323: Husha, by Brecken Hancock


Some animals eat their young.
Animals sweet on their young.
Sh shh, sleep, little ones.

Carson says foetal sharks scarf
each other to abortion. Yum yum
in Mom’s womb. It’s on YouTube.

Lance says male dolphins will gang
rape a lady dolphin to death. Stuff her
blow hole, can’t take a breath.

Tucker whispers, your cousin fucked
a bunny
. But I can’t imagine
enough room in her tummy.

Husha
by Brecken Hancock
above/ground press broadside #323
Brecken Hancock’s poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews have appeared in Riddle Fence, Event, CV2, Grain, and Studies in Canadian Literature. She is Reviews Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine and Interviews Editor for Canadian Women in the Literary Arts. The Art of Plumbing, her most recent chapbook, is out with above/ground press and her first full-length manuscript of poems, Broom Broom, is forthcoming with Coach House Books. She lives and walks dogs in Ottawa.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

now available! Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003 - 2013

Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013
ed. rob mclennan

published by Chaudiere Books

poetry / $24.95
ISBN 978-0-9783428-7-6

Working out of Ottawa, poet and publisher rob mclennan's baby, above/ground press, marks a second decade of the production of broadsheets, chapbooks, magazines, and anthologies that trace out the best shapes of the best of contemporary Canadian (and, increasingly, international) poetry. From the span of that second ten of years, he has compiled this book of traceries: a selection of work by writers ranging from the likes of the late Artie Gold, and Robert Kroetsch, to the living derek beaulieu, Rachel Zolf, Eric Folsom, Natalie Simpson, etc., all collected here as representative of a decade's aesthetic count.
    from Gil McElroy's "Introduction: An Integral"
Edited by rob mclennan, with an introduction by Gil McElroy, Ground Rules features writing from the second decade of one of the most active micro publishers in Canada, selected from a series of hundreds of publications lovingly edited, produced and distributed by editor/publisher rob mclennan. A follow-up to Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003), Ground Rules includes a wide range of work by Artie Gold, Mark Cochrane, Suzanne Zelazo, derek beaulieu, Stephanie Bolster, Amanda Earl, Nathanaël, Lisa Samuels, Rachel Zolf, Sharon Harris, D. G. Jones, Julia Williams, Eric Folsom, Gregory Betts, Natalie Simpson, Aaron Tucker, Monty Reid, William Hawkins, Emily Carr, Cameron Anstee, Helen Hajnoczky, Marilyn Irwin, Stephen Brockwell, Robert Kroetsch and rob mclennan.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Artie Gold, “doublet”

Mark Cochrane, “Rotator Cuff at 33 1/3,”

Suzanne Zelazo, “SUIT”

derek beaulieu, dream poem for dieter roth #1
derek beaulieu, untitled #3

Stephanie Bolster, “Night Zoo,”

Amanda Earl, "ivre,"

Nathanaël, “what exile   this”
STANZAS magazine, volume 1, issue #29

Lisa Samuels, "The Museum of Perception”
STANZAS magazine, volume 1, issue #33

Rachel Zolf, "the naked & the nude”
STANZAS magazine, volume 1, issue #40

Sharon Harris, “more fun with 'pataphysics”
STANZAS magazine, volume 1, issue #43

D. G. Jones, standard pose

Julia Williams, MY CITY IS ANCIENT AND FAMOUS

Eric Folsom, NORTHEAST ANTI-GHAZALS

Gregory Betts, The Cult of David Thompson

Natalie Simpson, The writing that should enter into conversation

Monty Reid, cuba A book

William Hawkins, the black prince of bank street

Emily Carr
]
& look there goes a sparrow transplanting soil
                    ]            [3 eclogues]

Cameron Anstee, Frank St.

Helen Hajnoczky, A history of button collecting

Marilyn Irwin, for when you pick daisies

Stephen Brockwell, Impossible Books
(the Carleton Installment)

Robert Kroetsch, Further to Our Conversation

rob mclennan, The creeks,

In August, 2013, Ottawa's Apt. 9 Press published the limited-edition chapbook (click to read the excerpt - I simply began: above/ground press at 20 [an interview with rob mclennan]) a lengthy interview with rob mclennan on the beginnings and history of the press conducted by Cameron Anstee.

to order: add $5 for postage, and paypal (here) or cheque to Chaudiere Books, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1H 7M9

Monday, November 25, 2013

"poem" broadside #322: The Key of N, by rob mclennan



Dividends, bewildered powers. Stretch-marks, nursery. Secondary heart-beat. Listen: blood pools, pulse, the powdered structure. Spilling forth. Grammatic, slowness. Slowness of the ground, the passage, seasons’ fall. Belonging to. Fragments, disappear. The sun sometimes divides, a music. Pressure points. Take pleasure in, a run-on, run-off. Sentenced. Is the theme of voice. Montage, a vessel. What, you hold her. Listen, pulse. Attention, all. As if to recognize.

The Key of N
from Glossary of Musical Terms
by rob mclennan
above/ground press broadside #322
produced as above/ground press’
700th publication, October 2013
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan’s most recent titles include the forthcoming notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), as well as the poetry collection Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

Friday, November 22, 2013

The Reading Series Presents Amanda Earl, Wednesday, November 27, 2013

above/ground press author and AngelHousePress (as well as Bywords.ca) editor/publisher Amanda Earl [to be inducted into the 2014 VERSeFest Hall of Honour] (photo credit: Charles Earl) reads this month as the feature at The Reading Series (the reading series of In/Words), hosted by Chris Johnson. Earl has published a small handful of chapbooks, including three with above/ground press: E l e a n o r (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), and Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), all of which are possibly (most likely) still available. She may even have a new small item for this reading as well (sometimes she produces small publications for readings).

The Reading Series Presents: Amanda Earl
Wednesday, November 27 at 9:00pm
Clock Tower Brew Pub (basement), 575 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario


See the facebook event here:

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

book launch! Ground rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013



Produced to begin the re-launch of Ottawa literary publisher Chaudiere Books, co-publishers rob mclennan and Christine McNair invite you to the launch of Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013.

Co-sponsored by our friends at the Ottawa International Writers Festival and The Manx Pub, the event will feature readings by three of the book’s contributors: Sharon Harris (Toronto), Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa) and Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa). The event will be (lovingly) hosted by Chaudiere Books co-founder, editor and co-publisher rob mclennan.

5pm, Saturday, December 7, 2013
The Manx Pub
370 Elgin Street, Ottawa

Sharon Harris is a Toronto artist/writer whose poems have been anthologized in The Broadview Introduction to Literature, The Last Vispo, and Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry. She is the author of chapbooks from bookthug, In Case of Emergency Press, and above/ground, and her first full-length collection, Avatar, was published by The Mercury Press. She has written articles for Geist, The Globe & Mail, and Open Book Toronto;  is a past contributor to Torontoist and Word Magazine; and her work has been published in The National Post, dANDelion, The Capilano Review, Drunken Boat, The Volta, broken pencil, and Vallum. I Love You Toronto, her exhibition of photographs, appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television across Canada.

Marilyn Irwin’s work has been published by above/ground press, Arc, Bywords, and New American Writing. A graduate of Algonquin College’s Creative Writing program, she has three chapbooks: for when you pick daisies (2010), flicker (2012), and little nothings (2012). She won Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize this year.

Stephen Brockwell cut his writing teeth in the eighties in Montreal, appearing on French and English CBC Radio and in the anthologies Cross/cut: Contemporary English Quebec Poetry and The Insecurity of Art (both VéhiculePress, 1982). George Woodcock described Brockwell's first book, The Wire in Fences (Balmuir, 1987) as having an extraordinary range of empathies and perceptions. Harold Bloom wrote that Brockwell's second book, Cometology (ECW Press, 2001), held rare and authentic promise. Fruitfly Geographic won the Archibald Lampman award for best book of poetry in Ottawa in 2005. His Complete Surprising Fragments of Improbable Books is newly out from Mansfield Press. Brockwell currently operates a small IT consulting company from the 7th floor of the Chateau Laurier and lives in a house perpetually under construction.

Working out of Ottawa, poet and publisher rob mclennan’s baby, above/ground press, marks a second decade of the production of broadsheets, chapbooks, magazines, and anthologies that trace out the best shapes of the best of contemporary Canadian (and, increasingly, international) poetry. From the span of that second ten of years, he has compiled this book of traceries: a selection of work by writers ranging from the likes of the late Artie Gold, and Robert Kroetsch, to the living derek beaulieu, Rachel Zolf, Eric Folsom, Natalie Simpson, etc., all collected here as representative of a decade’s aesthetic count.
                        from Gil McElroy’s “Introduction: An Integral”

Edited by rob mclennan, with an introduction by Gil McElroy, Ground Rules features writing from the second decade of one of the most active micro publishers in Canada, selected from a series of hundreds of publications lovingly edited, produced and distributed by editor/publisher rob mclennan. A follow-up to Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003), Ground Rules includes a wide range of work by Artie Gold, Mark Cochrane, Suzanne Zelazo, derek beaulieu, Stephanie Bolster, Amanda Earl, Nathanaël, Lisa Samuels, Rachel Zolf, Sharon Harris, D. G. Jones, Julia Williams, Eric Folsom, Gregory Betts, Natalie Simpson, Aaron Tucker, Monty Reid, William Hawkins, Emily Carr, Cameron Anstee, Helen Hajnoczky, Marilyn Irwin, Stephen Brockwell, Robert Kroetsch and rob mclennan.

Copies of the book will be available at the event. See the OIWF link to the event here.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

new from above/ground press: @BillMurray in Purgatorio, by nathan dueck


@BillMurray in Purgatorio
nathan dueck
$4

Dante Alighieri @DanteAlighieri

May these hashtags thy tune accompany:
#nicktheloungesinger croons show whilst I troll
#toddthenerd with mockery virtual.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy


Produced, in part, as a handout for Meet the Presses, November 16, 2013 in Toronto (while supplies last). Thanks much to Gary Barwin for his help and support.

The last two letters of nathan dueck’s first name & the first letter of his last spell “and.” only, he prefers writing it “&.” He is the author of king’smère (Turnstone Press, 2004) and he’ll (Pedlar Press, forthcoming).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 [NEW ADDRESS!] or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Monday, November 4, 2013

Jordan Abel's chapbook, Scientia, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #61

Alma Talbot was good enough to review Jordan Abel's chapbook, Scientia (2013) in Broken Pencil #61. Thanks, Alma! Although why is the reviewer obsessed with calling such a small publication a 'zine? As though there is no other lens through which to consider small publishing. This is the second review of Abel's chapbook, after our pal Ryan Pratt discussed such, here. Copies of Scientia are still available, here.
Jordan Abel's Scientia had me thinking for a long time before I actually sat down to write this review. The eight poems and their corresponding images work together in dealing with negative space and absent language. This zine seemed to rely more on what was missing than what was given. For example, each of the images is the white block figure of an insect--the insect for whih the corresponding poem is titled--against the scattered text of the poem. "The author", who appears sporadically within the poetry, is hidden amongst the scientific language of the words. The mind-tangling author/subject/poem relationship is almost like a code, and had me succumbing to the powers of Google as I hit a brick wall at names like, "Pterophylla atlanta". This is one of the more complex zines I've read recently, with a lot to mull over in the language of this zine.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Amanda Earl to be inducted into the 2014 VerseOttawa Hall of Honour!

above/ground press author Amanda Earl (see information on her three above/ground press titles here and here and here) is one of two inductees in the 2014 VerseOttawa Hall of Honour, following the announcement of William Hawkins (another above/ground press author) and Greg "Ritalin" Frankson for 2013. Congratulations, Amanda!

The VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour is an independent body with close to ties to VERSeOttawa and VERSeFest. It was formed to recognize the important contributions of individuals to the Ottawa poetry community.

An induction ceremony will be held on March 30th, 2014 – the final day of VERSeFest ’14.

As the press release begins:

It is with great pleasure that the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour announces the two inductees for 2014: Amanda Earl and Danielle K.L. Gregoire.

Amanda Earl is a fearless and supportive promoter of poetry and poets in Ottawa, and she is a long-time poet herself. She is a very visible and active member of the community. Through her organizational work, she promotes and encourages poets — emerging and established, and of diverse styles. The Ottawa poetry community would not be what it is without Amanda’s contributions through Bywords and her many other important contributions. In these activities, Amanda Earl is vital in keeping the poetic arts alive and thriving in the Capital.
See the entire press release here.

Amanda Earl will also be doing a lecture as part of The Factory Reading Series' VERSeFest fundraiser later this month!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

new from above/ground press: tones employed as loss, by lary timewell

tones employed as loss
(a section from molecular hyperbole)
lary timewell
$4

 
… and, as Ezra Pound’s eyebrows crept ever closer,
the outlaw reunion came to an abrupt end, the

I-vow-my-Troth recurring dream
hung on for dear laugh, went eventually

belly-dancing out of the room,
much to the dismay of

poets in their
heated nests

eating enchiladas, face up on the sofa like
flappers in repose. Now all that this

lights out in the bungalow means
is another possible brush with self-realization.

As the work goes on
a few perfect notes taking form within

the unshaven limits of formality,
an eternally Al Neil squeals across

the real room, the room itself
takes on the form of

a glassworks, a conversation.
May I have a word with you?

Poetry: the equivalence that licks
the baby-spoon, the scurry

of mnemonic mice, a mass of restless
piecemeal motives. The dumb

goat that bleats, that will eat
anything.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

lary timewell
is a North Vancouver writer recently returned from 20 years in Fukushima. The co-founder and publisher of the late 1980s and early 90s Tsunami Editions, he has published a number of titles, including two recent chapbooks from Obvious Epiphanies.

The author would like to thank Pierre Coupey and Renee Saklikar for their encouragement in the writing of this piece.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 [NEW ADDRESS!] or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Helen Hajnoczky's chapbook, The Double Bind Dictionary, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #61

Scott Bryson was good enough to review Helen Hajnoczky's chapbook, The Double Bind Dictionary (2013) in Broken Pencil #61 (despite mangling the book's title). Thanks, Scott! This is the second review of Helen's chapbook, after this one by our pal Ryan Pratt, and Broken Pencil was good enough to review the previous chapbook above/ground press produced of hers as well. Copies of The Double Bind Dictionary are still available, here.
The nine poems in this experimental collection are culled from a larger project -- called Magyarazni -- in which Helen Hajnocsky chose a Hungarian word to represent each letter of the Hungarian alphabet, then wrote a poem in English "about that word." In The Double Blind Dictionary, we get poems for all the multi-character letters: cs, dz, dzs, gy, ly, ny, sy, ty, and zs.
    Most of these poems are, fittingly, about language: the unpronouncable, the ixnexpressible and, understandably, frustration. Tongues go numb, throats are swollen, voices are "stuck in tar" and "clogged with muck." The Double Blind Dictionary thus functions like a literary quicksand pit, where deep-seated fears bubble to the surface -- like the physical manifestation of a recurring teeth-falling-out dream. There are a couple of poems about drinking, as well; it's the cure, perhaps -- the medicine that might loosen the tongue.
    It's inevitable that readers not fluent in Hungarian will be missing a piece of Hajnoczky's puzzle. That grievance aside, there are some clear successes here, most notably when Hajnoczky manipulates syllable count and near-rhyme to create the illusion of rhythmic real-rhyme. The result is a laid-back and effortless style; the words cascade down the page. There are, unfortunately, nearly as many instances where a complete absence of capitalization and frequent awkward pauses turn poems into clunky excursions.

Monday, October 28, 2013

The Factory Reading Series : Jacobs, de Meijer + Francheteau, November 29, 2013;



with readings by:

JM Francheteau (Ottawa ON)
Danny Jacob (Riverview NB)
+ Sadiqa de Meijer (Kingston ON)

lovingly hosted by guest-host Brecken Hancock
Friday, November 29, 2013;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

JM Francheteau is a rural transplant based in Ottawa. In 2013 he released a chapbook, A pack of lies, and his writing has appeared in CV2, The Steel Chisel and Bywords. He has five wisdom teeth.

Danny Jacobs grew up in Riverview, NB. His poems have been published in a variety of journals across Canada, including ARC, Event, The Antigonish Review, Riddle Fence, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Grain and CV2. After living in a number of cities and towns in the Maritimes, Danny is back in Riverview and works as the librarian in the village of Petitcodiac, NB. Songs That Remind Us of Factories is his first book.

Sadiqa de Meijer [pictured] [see her '12 or 20 questions' here] was born in Amsterdam and moved to Canada as a child. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been published in a range of journals and anthologies, including The Malahat Review, Geist, Riddle Fence and Poetry Magazine. Her first book of poems is Leaving Howe Island (Oolichan Books). A selection from the manuscript won the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012.