new from above/ground press: Sugar Beach, by Camille Martin

Sugar Beach
Camille Martin
$4

Identity as Norwegian Pagoda

It never was the right time to travel to Rome
to find yourself. Autumn fog and rainy wind
are symbols of crushed hopes—miasma
birthing counterfeiters who clutter the globe
with shields of Sistine junk. Praise the miasma.
Who wants to be gulled by the hand
that pulls back the curtain? Better to re-invent
metacarpals for houseflies, to hullabaloo
down the pike tearing blank after blank
to bits. Rome’s an imposter. Mimicry
ripples from the dying words of the last
spelunker on earth. Surf’s roar summons
beached puddles ad infinitum. Bred
in chiaroscuro, savvy pilgrims fashion
caves of ice adorned with sequined plums
and settle in for a long night.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Camille Martin’s most recent poetry collections are Looms (2012) and Sonnets (2010), both from Shearsman Books. She lives in Toronto.

This is her second chapbook with above/ground press, after If Leaf, Then Arpeggio (2011).

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

new from above/ground press: Albanian Suite, by Hugh Thomas

Albanian Suite

Hugh Thomas

$4

Triumph

What fraction I?  A delve of endlessness

in everything's great act.

One whirled among millions,

a first star like some last release.

Triumph at life, of other, triumph at finish til!

That moment ice-cold run its ardour,

hear night's deepest flood,

stand as mountain under sun.

Time changes, understands, controls;

you come with new ranks, a thousand lists to tie me.

Time, you murderous;

sun fills my lungs with honey,

says: the stars are going slower,

and nonetheless very quietly. 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

January 2014

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Hugh Thomas is a poet and translator living in Fredericton, where he teaches mathematics at the University of New Brunswick. His most recent chapbook, Opening the Dictionary, published by above/ground press, was shortlisted for the 2012 bpNichol chapbook award. Franzlations, a collection of illustrated Kafka remixes, created with Gary Barwin and Craig Conley, was published by New Star Books in 2011.

This is his second chapbook with above/ground press, after Opening the Dictionary (2011).

[Hugh Thomas launches Albanian Suite on February 6, 2014 in Ottawa alongside m erskine and N.W. Lea as part of The Factory Reading Series]

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

some author activity: Stewart, beaulieu, Martin, Earl, Armantrout + Adams,

Fenn Stewart has the first dusie Tuesday poem of 2014, and derek beaulieu has the second; Camille Martin has some new work up at Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics; there's a lengthy interview with Amanda Earl over at margento: a uOttawa Arts website, and she has also composed a new essay on her ghazals over at The Town Crier; A. Bradstreet interviews Rae Armantrout; and Carrie Olivia Adams features at the Phoenix Reading Series in Arizona on January 30, 2014.

new from above/ground press: Present!, by N.W. Lea

Present!
N.W. Lea
$3

the gangster

with rubber extendable arms
holds me up
like a baby
to the sun

I can see up close
the gilded cliffs
with their innumerable catacombs

there is an edgy love
to the way
he sways me

possibly,
I am in heaven

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

N.W. Lea lives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of two previous chapbooks, light years (above/ground press, 2006) and Actual Girl (The Emergency Response Unit, 2011) as well as the full-length collection, Everything is Movies (Chaudiere Books, 2007).

This is his second chapbook with above/ground press, after light years (2006).

[N.W. Lea launches Present! on February 6, 2014 in Ottawa alongside m erskine and Hugh Thomas as part of The Factory Reading Series]

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

some author activity: Folsom, hastain, MillAr, McCann, Barwin + Sand,

Eric Folsom provides a new essay in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; j/j hastain is interviewed by Amanda Earl over at DevilHousePress; over at his blog, Jay MillAr posts a short essay on Toronto small press legend Crad Kilodney; we seem to have missed this new poem by Marcus McCann in the September 2013 issue of The Steel Chisel; Gary Barwin interviews Geof Huth over at Jacket2; and Kaia Sand has some new work and accompanying statement over at Everyday Genius.

Call for submissions to the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award!

Meet the Presses has announced their call for submissions for the annual bpNichol Chapbook Award. As they write in today's release:

Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of a chapbook of poetry in English published in Canada.

Chapbooks should be not less than 10 pages and not more than 48 pages. The chapbooks must have been published between January 1st and December 31st of the previous year (2013), and the poet must be Canadian.

Submissions must be sent by Canada Post or courier (and not hand-delivered to a Meet The Presses collective member) and include a brief C.V. of the author, including address, telephone number, and email address. Publisher contact information (contact person, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone contact) must also be included. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

The closing date for the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award is March 31, 2014. Submissions must be received by this date. If submission confirmation has not been received by e-mail by April 30, 2014, please send a query to Beth Follett at: feralgrl@interlog.com.

Send submissions to:

Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award
113 Bond Street, St John's NL A1C 1T6

Please visit the Meet The Presses website for more information: www.meetthepresses.wordpress.com

some author activity: Reed, mclennan, Earl, Anstee, Young + Stewart,

Marthe Reed has a new poem up as part of "The Trash Issue" of The Volta, and rob mclennan's small press book fair interview, along with interviews with Amanda Earl, Cameron Anstee and Kimberly Dawkins, was posted as part of a selection of interviews in The Volta's sister publication, The Conversant (the original list of twenty-nine interviews from the fall 2013 ottawa small press book fair is posted here); Amanda Earl's AngelHousePress introduces a new imprint for transgressive work, DevilHousePress; Deanna Young reads at Ottawa's Pressed Cafe's Railroad Reading Series (750 Gladstone Avenue) at 7pm, January 16, alongside Dean Steadman, Susan McMaster, Lesley Strutt and Bruce Taylor; and Fenn Stewart reads with Mat Laporte at Toronto's HIJ Reading Series (260 Ryding Avenue), January 19, 4-7pm.

The Factory Reading Series: Lea, Thomas + Erskine, February 6, 2014

The Factory Reading presents:

a night of readings and chapbook launches

with readings by:

N.W. Lea (Ottawa ON)

Hugh Thomas (Fredericton NB)

+ m erskine (Toronto ON)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan

Thursday, February 6, 2014;

doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm

The Carleton Tavern, Ottawa

223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

author bios:

N.W. Lea lives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of two previous chapbooks, light years (above/ground press, 2006) and Actual Girl (The Emergency Response Unit, 2011) as well as the full-length collection, Everything is Movies (Chaudiere Books, 2007).

He will be launching his second above/ground press chapbook Present! (2014).

Hugh Thomas [pictured] is a poet and translator living in Fredericton, where he teaches mathematics at the University of New Brunswick. His most recent chapbook, Opening the Dictionary, published by above/ground press, was shortlisted for the 2012 bpNichol chapbook award. Franzlations, a collection of illustrated Kafka remixes, created with Gary Barwin and Craig Conley, was published by New Star Books in 2011.  

He will be launching his second above/ground press chapbook Albanian Suite (2014).

m erskine is a long-time corrupter of words. The poetry condition is responding well to treatment, thanks for asking.

She also had an above/ground press “poem” broadside reprinted in the anthology Groundswell: the best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003).