some author activity: Pirie on Hawkins, Markotić, McElroy, McNair, Brockwell, Gelèns and Lindner, + an interview with Butler,

Pearl Pirie was good enough to post some reports on William Hawkins being one of the first inductees into the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour, as well as the recent Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest lecture by Gil McElroy and Nicole Markotić; and even post a whole slew of photos from the event, with all the above, as well as Christine McNair, Stephen Brockwell, rob mclennan, Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner; and there's a new interview with Jenna Butler on Connotation Press, alongside some new poems.

Call for Submissions: The bpNichol Chapbook Award 2013

ANNOUNCING: The bpNichol Chapbook Award 2013

“Small press is the guardian of literary culture and free speech.” – bpNichol

The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $2,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

-- Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of a chapbook of poetry in English published in Canada in 2012.
-- Chapbooks must contain no fewer than 10 pages and no more than 48 pages.
-- Submissions must include a brief CV of the author, plus the address, telephone number, and email address of both the author and publisher.
-- Send to: Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award, 6249-2100 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M6S 5A5
-- The closing date for submissions to the 2013 competition is July 1, 2013. (Submissions must be received by this date.)
-- The winner will be announced at the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market in fall 2013.

The cash prize to the publisher is generously donated by writers Jim Smith and Brian Dedora. All chapbooks submitted will be archived at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

Please check the link here, or email Meet The Presses for more information: meetthepresses@gmail.com.

*

Meet the Presses is a Toronto-based collective devoted to promoting micro, small and independent literary presses. This collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses event launched in Toronto in the mid-1980s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross. Meet the Presses organizes a variety of curated public events, all focussing on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – is comprised of Gary Barwin, Lucy Cappiello, Paul Dutton, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Hazel Millar, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, and Stuart Ross.

Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award.

new from above/ground press: damascene road passaggio, selections, by Wanda O’Connor

damascene road passaggio, selections
by Wanda O’Connor
$4



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

Wanda O'Connor is a graduate of Concordia’s Creative Writing and Classics programs, and most recently completed an MA in Literature with a considerable focus on Robin Blaser’s stunning carmen perpetuum. damascene road passaggio, selections is an excursus through transitions of semi-tones and silence, possessing no address nor addressee nor gaze nor superior flattery. Wanda is currently at work on a long poem manuscript and is an editor at Lemon Hound.

O’Connor also has work in the new issue of The Peter F Yacht Club.

Wanda O’Connor will be launching damascene road passaggio, selections in Ottawa on March 28 at The Factory Reading Series, alongside Lauren Turner and Deborah Poe.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Some author activity: MillAr, Poe, Hancock, Lindner, Markotic + Paige

Jay MillAr has a new poem up at Stuart Ross' The Week Shall Inherit The Verse; Deborah Poe has two new poems up at Shampoo #40; Brecken Hancock interviews Sue Sinclair, CWILA Critic-in-Residence; Erik Lindner writes a column in Dutch on the Poetry International website referencing Nicole Markotic's use of the term "prairie poetry"; and Vermont's Times Argus has a short article on Abby Paige's upcoming one-woman show in Montpelier, Vermont.

above/ground press @ VERSeFest: a small report (with pictures): Markotić, McElroy, McNair, Hawkins, Dolman, Lindner + Gelens,

On Saturday, March 16, The Factory Reading Series hosted its annual lecture series as part of VERSeFest 2013, with readings and talks by Nicole Markotić and Gil McElroy. The text of each of their talks will be posted online in the next issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.Previous poets in the series (most of whom have already had their pieces posted online) include Monty Reid and Marcus McCann [see my report on such here], Barry McKinnon and Paige Ackerson-Kiely [see my report on such here], and Stephen Brockwell, Pearl Pirie and Cameron Anstee.

Windsor, Ontario poet, writer and critic Markotić's talk was a response (in part) to a recent piece by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, "On Poetry and Accessability." Gil McElroy's talk (which also launched his chapbook Twentieth) was far more informal, talking about chance and accident, astronomy and other threads.  

The talks were lively and compelling, and triggered an interesting question-and-answer period, with contributions by jwcurry, David Currie, Steven Price and Rod Pederson.

Markotić and McElroy are easily two of my favourite poets. I first heard Markotić read in Ottawa at The Manx Pub back in 1994, around the time I first started reading the work of Gil McElroy. I'm pretty sure that this event was McElroy's first reading in Ottawa.

above/ground press author and press favourite Christine McNair did a reading at The Dusty Owl event from her trade book, Conflict (BookThug, 2012), as well as a couple of new poems, finished just in time for the reading. Below is a picture of her in all yellow, reacting somehow to the light in the space.

At the 7pm event, VERSeOttawa inducted William Hawkins and Greg "Ritalin" Frankson into its first annual VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour. There was something oddly soothing about the regular sigh of Hawkins' oxygen tank through the sound system that a number of the audience noticed, and mentioned to me after the event. 

Despite looking a bit frail, William Hawkins [see his updated website here] was his usual sly self, and gave perhaps one of the finest readings I've heard in some time. Pearl Pirie was good enough to post some photos of such online.
 

Dutch poets Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner closed our third annual festival, with a brief opening reading by Ottawa poet Anita Dolman, who is also the translator of their new above/ground press chapbook, Two Dutch Poets.  

Dolman published a chapbook through above/ground press way back in 2004, and we've all pretty much decided she requires a trade book soon. Lindner, who has read in Ottawa previously through the ottawa international writers festival, read his poems in Dutch alongside David O'Meara (left), who responded with the same poems in English translation.

Hélène Gelèns gave an utterly charming reading from her work, performing a call-and-response in Dutch and English. Here she is reading from their chapbook, which was produced for the sake of making their work available in English translation. It's great to have the opportunity to produce a work by the two of them, but why hasn't someone else long produced a book each of their works in English?

Some author activity: Hawkins, Turnbull, Sand, Anstee, MacLeod, Pirie, Earl + Young,

rob mclennan has written a profile of Ottawa's most dangerous poet, William Hawkins, performing tomorrow as part of the inaugural Verse Ottawa Hall of Honour; Chris Turnbull has some new work up at ditch; Kaia Sand was recently selected for the inaugural City of Portland Archives and Record Center Artist in Residence Program; Cameron Anstee, Kathryn MacLeod and Pearl Pirie all have new work in the sixth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics; Cameron Anstee and Amanda Earl each have new work up in the March issue of The Steel Chisel; and Deanna Young reads at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library for Poetry Month at 2pm, Saturday, April 20, 2013 with Heather Cadsby and Mary Ellen Csamer.

Some author interviews: McKinnon, Mangold, Landman, Lindner, McNair, Barbour + Butler,

A wide array of author interviews! The full interview rob mclennan conducted with Barry McKinnon for filling Station magazine is now online; Sarah Mangold is interviewed over at seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics; Seth Landman, Erik Lindner and Christine McNair participate in the "12 or 20 questions" series; and Douglas Barbour and Jenna Butler have a conversation over at Canadian Poetries.

new from above/ground press: Two Dutch Poets: Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner

Two Dutch Poets: Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner
translation by Anita Dolman
$4

how above everything II

do we hang out the window? we murmur: stop
not under the tree. there’s glass hanging there. don’t walk
beneath the tree. a champagne glass spins
on a ribbon. it sing. it’s going to fall. sir
stop. it’ll fall. go back. a glass in the tree.
it will fall. the ribbon is fraying. ma’am

do we turn to barmaid watchman officer?
we sketch: the storm the tree the glass on the ribbon
the grime-bleached ribbon the tatters the glass the glass
we holler: you’ve got to do something! now! the tatters
the swaying the crunching black and blacker the sky
now! it has to be now! the singing the falling – do something!

do we storm onto the square? do we wave our arms wildly?
we scream away! away from the tree! we point upwards
glass! we chase the businessman zigzag zigzag away
a cyclist a stray kid a map-reading couple away!
beer-drinker caller tourist away! we bump we shove
we drag the guffawing teen zigzagzigzag away

shall we keep doing what we’re doing? formulating arguments
shall we look for support in lines within our sight we find
the branch the tight ribbon we ignore the head-hung glass
we have our mind-bruising conversation we follow the line
obliquely up along the branch down along the ribbon (to the stem
of the glass) and still: up the branchline down the ribbonline
and back again: branchline ribbonline ribbonline branchline and on
branchline ribbonline (jump) branchline ribbonline (jump)
                                    (Hélène Gelèns)

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
for the third annual VERSeFest, March 12-17, 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Hélène Gelèns is a writer of poetry, essays and prose. Her debut niet beginnen bij het hoofd (2006) was shortlisted for the C. Buddingh’ Prize for New Dutch Poetry and her second collection of poetry zet af en zweef (2010) was awarded the prestigious Jan Campert Prize. A third collection will be published spring 2013. Gelèns’s poetry has been translated in English, German, Spanish, Polish and Albanian. English translations appeared in literary Magazines in the UK (Ambit (2009), Poetry London (2011), The North (2010)), and the USA (Interim (2009), Pleiades (2012), Sampsonia Way (2012)). Gelèns lives in Amsterdam and Antwerp.

Long considered one of the most outstanding poets of his generation, Erik Lindner advocates spreading poetry using all available means and media, and does so not only in his own homeland, but abroad as well. He regularly publishes his poems in renowned international literary magazines such as Poetry Review (England), Manuskripte (Austria), Interim (USA), Action poétique (France), and Luvina (Mexico), which has even led to translations of his work into Chinese and Macedonian. Aside from his own volumes of poetry – Tramontane (1996), Tong en trede (Tongue and Step, 2000), Tafel (Table, 2004), and Terrein (Terrain, 2010) – and a book on the art of poetry published in 2009, Erik Lindner published a French anthology with contemporary Dutch poetry, Le verre est un liquide lent (Glass is a Lazy Liquid, 2003), presenting 33 of his poetry colleagues.

[Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner perform at Ottawa’s VERSeFest on Sunday, March 17 at 8pm]  

Anita Dolman’s poetry and/or postcard fiction has appeared in journals, websites and magazines throughout Canada and the United States, including The Antigonish Review, Ottawater, Geist, The Storyteller Magazine, PRISM international, Utne, The Fiddlehead and Grain, and in the anthology Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets (Chaudiere Books, Ottawa, 2006).

All three also have new work in the new issue of The Peter F. Yacht Club.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #18; VERSeFest special!

The Peter F Yacht Club #18
VERSeFest 2013 special
edited by rob mclennan
[see the link here for information on the previous issue]
[see the link here for a history of the publication]
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2013 participants, including Cameron Anstee, Stephen Brockwell, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Laurie Fuhr, Hélène Gelèns, William Hawkins, Marilyn Irwin, Meghan Jackson, Ben Ladouceur, Erik Lindner, Michael Lithgow, Nicole Markotić, Marcus McCann, Gil McElroy, rob mclennan, Christine McNair, Peter Norman, Wanda O’Connor, Pearl Pirie, Monty Reid, Sandra Ridley and Rob Winger.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[a small stack of copies will be distributed free as part of the third annual VERSeFest, March 12-17, 2013]

above/ground press 2013 subscriptions still available!

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: beaulieu, Armantrout, McNair + Maguire,

derek beaulieu has three new visual poems up at Canadian Poetries; Rae Armantrout has a new poem from the new issue of Poetry magazine up at the Poetry Foundation blog;  Christine McNair has a work included in the Contemporary Book Arts in Eastern Ontario exhibit at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario until the end of May, 2013, and she will be participating with Shannon Maguire in Harbourfront's Battle of the Bards in Toronto on April 3, 2013; and until the end of March, we have a banner ad over at The Review Review (produced with our eternal gratitude by Pearl Pirie); might it gain us a few more subscribers? Some more individual orders? Who knows...

The Factory Reading Series presents: Deborah Poe, Wanda O'Connor + Lauren Turner,

The Factory Reading Series presents:

Deborah Poe (Westchester NY)
Wanda O'Connor (Montreal)
+ Lauren Turner (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Thursday, March 28, 2013;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern (upstairs)
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale)

Deborah Poe’s books include Our Parenthetical Ontology (CustomWords 2008), Elements (Stockport Flats 2010), Hélène (Furniture Press 2012), and the last will be stone, too (Stockport Flats Press 2013). She has several published chapbooks, most recently Keep (above/ground press 2012). Deborah co-edited Between Worlds: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction and Criticism (Peter Lang 2012) and is currently co-editing In/Filtration, a book of Hudson Valley New York innovative poetics, which will be published by Station Hill Press in 2013. Deborah's work is forthcoming, or has appeared recently, in Coconut, Handsome, The Volta's Medium, and Denver Quarterly. For more, please visit www.deborahpoe.com.

Wanda O'Connor is a graduate of Concordia’s Creative Writing and Classics programs, and most recently completed an MA in Literature with a considerable focus on Robin Blaser’s stunning carmen perpetuum. damascene road passaggio is an excursus through transitions of semi-tones and silence, possessing no address nor addressee nor gaze nor superior flattery. Wanda is currently at work on a long poem manuscript and is an editor at Lemon Hound.

O'Connor will be launching her first above/ground press chapbook damascene road passaggio (selections).

Lauren Turner is an Ottawa-based poet and a recent graduate of Queen’s University. She is the recipient of the 2012 Diana Brebner award. Her poetry has previously appeared in several publications, such as Arc Poetry Magazine, Geist, ottawater, and various campus journals, as well as in the anthology Lake Effect 5 edited by Carolyn Smart.

new from above/ground press: Trace, by rob mclennan

Trace,
rob mclennan
$4

[dactyls, syllable, your bluesky dress]

One voice, among a thousand. Recreational, winter. Syllabi. Transmitted, boxwood. Weak, in this noise. Hand-painted ethics, sign. Sliced, misspelled, a principle of cross-stitch. Useful spurs, to feature. A park of open links. Natural depressions, slip. A delta made of decades, tulip. Endless, in the face of. Exhaust, and sooty diamonds. Hinged, the dream. Sheep continue, horses. Causeway, feathered features monument. Unsolicited birds. A bitter fence, this fertile colophon of property, remains. Straight stretches south, and south. Arcades, down Dow's Great Swamp. Dow's Lake.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Produced, in part, as a handout for the 2013 AWP Conference and Bookfair, Boston MA, March 6 – 9, and the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, Buffalo NY, April 6 – 7, 2013. Thanks much to Sarah Rosenthal, Jill Stengel and Chris Fritton for their help and support.

To pick up a free copy at AWP, head over to the combined Black Radish / Dusie booth.

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, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2011, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles are the poetry collections Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012), grief notes: (BlazeVOX [books], 2012), A (short) history of l. (BuschekBooks, 2011), Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011) and kate street (Moira, 2011), 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 regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com