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!

some author activity: beaulieu, Barwin, Smith, L'Abbe, McCann, Francheteau, Reid, Hall, Greenstreet, Hancock,

derek beaulieu offers his 'most engaging books of 2013' list over at his blog; Amanda Earl offers not one but two lists of 'chapbook love' over at her blog; Gary Barwin is interviewed over at papirmas; Jessica Smith reads a poem over as part of day eighteen of delirious hem; Sonnet L'Abbe receives some impressive coverage in the Toronto Star; Marcus McCann introduces crowdsourcing for the sake of a specific battle for human rights ; and JM Francheteau offers his list of 'A Year of Pretty Worthwhile Readings and Stuff,' including Factory and non-Factory readings by Monty Reid, Phil Hall, Gary Barwin, Kate Greenstreet, Brecken Hancock, Marilyn Irwin and the last ottawater launch (watch for the new issue to launch on January 24, 2014 at The Carleton Tavern!)

season's greetings and happy yule from above/ground press,

some author activity: Abel, Armantrout, Massey, mclennan + Cooley,

Jordan Abel participated in the "12 or 20 questions" interview series; Dee Morris contributes the third in a series of five of "first readings" on Rae Armantrout's poem "Spin" over at Jacket2 (see the series page here); the first two are by Jennifer Ashton and Katie Price; Karen Massey has a poem in the new issue of Bywords; rob mclennan has two new poems from the suite "Glossary of Musical Terms" now up in the first issue of Posit; and Dennis Cooley has a new poem up as part of the "Tuesday poem" series on the dusie blog.

"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.

some author activity: Armantrout, Smith, Barwin, Paige, beaulieu + McCann,

Rae Armantrout lists her 'Best Books of 2013" over at The Volta; Jessica Smith's chapbook-length The Fortune-Teller appears in The Chapbook: Volume 2; Gary Barwin recently posted a poem for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford; Abby Paige has a new poem featured in the new issue of Room magazine (including online); Calgary Herald does an interesting write-up on derek beaulieu; and Marcus McCann has a poem reprinted on the véhicule press blog as part of their Sunday poem feature, selected by Carmine Starnino.

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

Michael Dennis reviews Rae Armantrout's Rituals (2013)

Ottawa poet and blogger Michael Dennis was good enough to review Rae Armantrout's Rituals (2013) over at his blog. This is the second review of Armantrout's Rituals, after Joseph LaBine wrote on such over at the Flat Singles Press blog.

some author activity: de Meijer, Smith, Robertson, Francheteau, Jacobs + Hancock

Sadiqa de Meijer has both a new poem and an interview over at Susan Gillis' Concrete & River blog; Jessica Smith has some new work up at Cordite Poetry Review; Lisa Robertson's "Hotel Couplets" is now up at Poets.org; and Pearl Pirie was good enough to write up a post-reading report on the recent JM Francheteau, Danny Jacobs and Sadiqa de Meijer event (lovingly guest-hosted by Brecken Hancock) as part of The Factory Reading Series.