some author activity: Tucker, mclennan, McElroy, Anstee, Hawkins + Barwin,

Aaron Tucker has a couple of new poems up at Moss Trill, as does rob mclennan; mclennan is interviewed over at 'poets touching trees'; Gil McElroy has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series at the dusie blog; Cameron Anstee posted this bibliography of Ottawa poet William Hawkins, for the sake of Hawkins' recent seventy-fourth birthday; and Gary Barwin was recently announced as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario for the 2014-15 academic year. Congratulations, Gary!

Ryan Pratt reviews Janice Tokar's ARRHYTHMIA (2014)

Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Janice Tokar's ARRHYTHMIA (2014) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter. Thanks, Ryan!

Marilyn Irwin reads as part of The TREE Reading Series' 'hot ottawa voices,' June 10, 2014

above/ground press author Marilyn Irwin reads as part of the annual 'hot ottawa voices' night at The TREE Reading Series, June 10, 2014, along with Gabriel Wainio-Théberge, Frances Boyle and Sneha Madhavan-Reese. Irwin is the author of three chapbooks, the first two of which--For when you pick daisies (reprinted in full in the anthology Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press, 2003-2013 (Chaudiere Books, 2013)) and flicker--appeared with above/ground press (and are most likely still available).

some author activity: Hall, Ball, Rosenthal, Browning, Hajnoczky + Pirie,

Phil Hall was featured on The Toronto Quarterly for poetry month; Open Book: Ontario posts a "Poets in Profile" interview with Nelson Ball; Sarah Rosenthal has new work in issue 8 of Lightning'd Press; Sommer Browning has a short piece on writing up at NPM daily; Helen Hajnoczky has one of her folk-art poems up on the McGill-Queen's University Press site for Poetry Month; and Pearl Pirie has a new poem up at Moss Trill.

some author activity: Abel, Hancock, Markotić, Cooley, Graham, hastain, Barbour, Murphy, eckhoff + Pirie,

Jordan Abel is interviewed in the "Six Questions" series for the sake of his inclusion on the 2014 Gerald Lampert Award shortlist; Brecken Hancock has four poems up on Lemonhound; both Nicole Markotić and Dennis Cooley have new poems up at Atticus Review, as well as a short introductory essay on their work by Lea Graham; j/j hastain, as well as Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy, have new work in the second issue of Posit; there's a new interview with kevin mcpherson eckhoff up at Poets Touching Trees; and Pearl Pirie participates in the "My Writing Process: Blog Tour" meme.

above/ground press at Congress 2014: Maguire, Dueck, Schmaltz, Weaver + Betts,

above/ground press authors are apparently all over this year's Congress at Brock University, including a reading at Niagara Artists Centre in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario, 354 St. Paul Street on Sunday, May 25, 2014 from 8-10pm. Lovingly hosted by Gregory Betts (Brock) and Tanis MacDonald (Wilfrid Laurier), the Soirée des Refusés off-site Congress local cultural event features an array of poets from across the country, featuring above/ground press authors and non-authors alike, including nathan dueck, Phoebe Wang, Charmaine Cadeau, Shannon Maguire, Andy Weaver, Peter Midgley, Eric Schmaltz, James O'Sullivan, and more! Snacks, books and beer, I'm told. All welcome.

The Volta Book of Poets: Wilkinson, Browning, Baus, Carr, Gordon, Wagner, etc.

Sidebrow Books has announced an indiegogo campaign in support of the publication of The Volta Book of Poets, edited by Joshua Marie Wilkinson. Normally, I wouldn't be posting fundraisers for all the other publishers, but between Wilkinson and a handful of other names, it means the book includes a number of authors published by above/ground press, as well as through the first two issues of Touch the Donkey (the second issue is due in July), and even the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie. Besides, given the list of names, the book can't help but be anything but amazing. Please consider tossing a couple of bucks their way, or, if not, perhaps pick up a copy once it appears! As the indiegogo write-up begins:

THE VOLTA BOOK OF POETS features an array of talented poets representing a myriad of poetic schools, 25 male, 25 female: 

Rosa Alcalá, Eric Baus, Anselm Berrigan, Edmund Berrigan, Susan Briante, Sommer Browning, Julie Carr, Don Mee Choi, Arda Collins, Dot Devota, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Graham Foust, C.S. Giscombe, Renee Gladman, Noah Eli Gordon, Yona Harvey, Matthew Henriksen, Harmony Holiday, Cathy Park Hong, Bhanu Kapil, John Keene, Aaron Kunin, Dorothea Lasky, Juliana Leslie, Rachel Levitsky, Tan Lin, Dawn Lundy Martin, J. Michael Martinez, Farid Matuk, Shane McCrae, Anna Moschovakis, Fred Moten, Sawako Nakayasu, Chris Nealon, Hoa Nguyen, Khadijah Queen, Andrea Rexilius, Zachary Schomburg, Brandon Shimoda, Evie Shockley, Cedar Sigo, Abraham Smith, Christopher Stackhouse, Mathias Svalina, Roberto Tejada,TC Tolbert, Catherine Wagner, Dana Ward, Ronaldo V. Wilson, Lynn Xu

From Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s introduction:  “My goal is a relatively modest one: to cite a mere constellation. Indeed fifty stars in the night sky are a fraction of what lurks out there. While that’s a drastic metaphor, anybody familiar with poetry these days is readily stunned by the sheer quantity of poets writing and publishing.”

Each poet offers a statement of poetics to accompany their selection of poems. Contrasting styles, diverse voices, unique obsessions, differing poetic influences and approaches to cultural identity, THE VOLTA BOOK OF POETS is a celebration of contrasts. Think of it less as a unifying, thematic gesture than a starter map -- radiating out to poets, books, journals, reading series, nonprofits, and other organizations committed to the advancement of poets and poetry.

Edric Mesmer discusses (briefly) six recent above/ground press chapbooks;

Edric Mesmer was good enough to mention six recent above/ground press titles in the new issue of YELLOW FIELD (#nine; spring 2014): An Overture in the Key of F by Carrie Olivia Adams; The State of Which by Hailey Higdon; Sugar Beach by Camille Martin; from Hark: a journal by rob mclennan; Overheard While Hiding from the Sun: post-notebook poems by Kate Schapira; and Albanian Suite by Hugh Thomas). Thanks, Edric! There are two previous reviews of Adams' title here and here, a previous review of Higdon's title here, two previous reviews of Martin's title here and here, two previous reviews of mclennan's title here and here, and a previous review of Thomas' title here, and copies of all are very much available! Also, you can pick up a copy of the new issue of YELLOW FIELD through: yellowedenwaldfield [at] yahoo [dot] com or by writing to 1217 Delaware Avenue, Apt. 802, Buffalo, New York 14209. For those who haven’t been able to pick up an issue yet, I reprint such here:

6 more from above/ground press        2013-2014

I love a small press, what it can say through its poetics—in this case, chapbooks answering the call of a contemporary lea. Consider a cache of birds, a quintet of strings; but the trope may or mayn’t be limited to birdsong, string, or color-tone…Sometimes there’s a poem in which Buffalo poet emeritus Bill Sylvester writes: “pepper linen incense lobster / lutes viols and ambergris […] what a messy party that would be!” And so we messily hear a great party of Darwinian diversity: “The formalist of formant when our lips make the vowel, it I the act of giving somewhere shape” (An Overture in the Key of F by Carrie Olivia Adams); “I did some trying to voice the regional things –accents and whatnot / I even tried to find that series of hybridized creatures, part person / part place that exist in the park” (The State of Which by Hailey Higdon); “viewing creation / / from a precisely-gauged periphery, clock ticking” (Sugar Beach by Camille Martin); “A stone made out of stone. The dream of people you can’t know. Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, Bay. We know you, myth. What lifestyle will not allow” (from Hark: a journal by rob mclennan); “Anyone can submit / a video to the Free Me Library. Can find / purchase for brilliance, can be avenged sevenfold or / touched relevantly. All that can be shelved in me” (Overheard While Hiding from the Sun: post-notebook poems by Kate Schapira); “cadence address catch dreams / pays and agree, chlorate of poems, / empathic, the old epidemic / things themselves” (Albanian Suite by Hugh Thomas).

some author activity: Irwin, Pirie, Earl, Armantrout, Robertson + Rogal,

Marilyn Irwin responds to the "My Writing Process (a blog tour)" interview meme over at her blog; Pearl Pirie responds to Jennifer K. Dick's "WHAT IS YOUR FRAGMENT" prompt; Amanda Earl posts a new essay, "On Perfection in Poetry & the Need to Hoard One’s Poems" over at her enormously clever blog; Rae Armantrout had a poem posted at The Toronto Quarterly for National Poetry Month; Lisa Robertson has a new essay up at Winter Anthology; and Stan Rogal contributes an essay to the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

The Factory Reading Series: Miller, Brock, Leventhal, Spry + Fiorentino

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
featuring readings by:

D.D. Miller
David James Brock
Anna Leventhal
Mike Spry
+ Jon Paul Fiorentino

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, May 23, 2014;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

D.D. Miller is originally from Nova Scotia but has lived, worked and studied all across the country. His work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. Writing as the Derby Nerd, Miller is known around North America for his writing and commentary on the rapidly growing sport of roller derby. He currently lives in Toronto and his first collection of stories, David Foster Wallace Ruined My Suicide and Other Stories, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in Spring 2014.

David James Brock is a playwright, poet and librettist whose plays and operas have been performed in cities across Canada, the US, and the UK. His first collection of poetry, Everyone is CO2, was recently released by Wolsak & Wynn. David was the winner of the 2011 Herman Voaden Canadian National Playwriting Award, and he is also co-creator of Breath Cycle, an opera developed for singers with cystic fibrosis through Scottish Opera which was recently nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in London.

Anna Leventhal [pictured] is a Journey Prize-nominated author living and writing in Montreal. Her work has been published in Geist, Matrix, Maisonneuve, and The Montreal Review of Books. She was contributing editor for the collection The Art of Trespassing (Invisible Publishing). Sweet Affliction is her first book.

Mike Spry has written for The Toronto Star, The National Post, and Maisonneuve. He is the author of JACK, which was shortlisted for the 2009 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and he was nominated for the 2010 Journey Prize for a story from his collection Distillery Songs, which was shortlisted for the 2012 ReLit Award. His latest work is the poetry collection Bourbon & Eventide from Invisible Publishing.

Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of I'm Not Scared of You or Anything, Needs Improvement,  Stripmalling (a Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction finalist), and five poetry collections, including The Theory of the Loser Class, which was shortlisted for the A. M. Klein Prize, and Indexical Elegies, which won the 2009 CBC Books"Bookie" Award for Best Book of Poetry.

He has written for The National Post, Walrus, Maisonneuve, sub-Terrain, The Huffington Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Barnstomer, New American Writing, Hobo, Joyland, The Capilano Review, Event, The Winnipeg Review, The Queen Street Quarterly, filling Station, Prism International, Opium, and many other publications.

Fiorentino lives in Montreal, where he teaches Creative Writing at Concordia University, is the Editor-in-Chief of Matrix magazine, is a poetry editor for Joyland, the poetry editor for the Snare Imprint of Invisible Publishing, and the fiction editor for the Serotonin/Wayside Imprint of Insomniac Press.

new from above/ground press: LIKE, by Sharon Harris

LIKE

Sharon Harris

$4

TWITTER LOVE SONG

I Will Follow

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down

Follow You Down

I Will Follow You Tonight

I Will Follow You in the Dark

Hell of an Act to Follow

Follow You, Follow Me

I’ll Follow my Secret Heart

No Mythologies to Follow

Follow Me

Follow Me Back Home

Follow My Mind

Follow Blind

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

May 2014

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Sharon Harris is a Person You May Know. She’s a Toronto artist/writer whose poems have been anthologized in The Broadview Introduction to Literature, Ground Rules, The Last Vispo, and Shift & Switch. 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.

Website :: sharonharris.ca

Twitter :: @hnitheuniverse

FB :: Sharon Harris and facebook.com/iloveyouworldgraffiti

This is Sharon Harris’ second above/ground press chapbook, after “More Fun With ‘Pataphysics” STANZAS #43 (2006).

[Sharon Harris launches LIKE in Ottawa at the A B Series on Sunday, May 11, 2014 with Christian Bök]

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

National Poetry Month: Earl, McElroy, Dolman, McCann, Douglas, Irwin, Pirie, Lea, mclennan + Hajnoczky

In case you missed it, the Chaudiere Books blog featured a number of new works by above/ground press authors for National Poetry Month this year, including Amanda Earl, Gil McElroy, Anita Dolman, Marcus McCann, Rhonda Douglas, Marilyn Irwin, Pearl Pirie, derek beaulieu, Roland Prevost, N.W. Lea, rob mclennan and Helen Hajnoczky, as well as whole bunch of others.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, June 6, 2014: Reed, Menear, Eaton, Power + Saklikar

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading

featuring readings by:

Marthe Reed (NY State)
David Menear (Toronto/Montreal)
Chris Eaton (Toronto)
Nicholas Power (Toronto)
+ Renée Sarojini Saklikar (Vancouver)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, June 6, 2014;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern, 
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

as a preview for the following day’s ottawa small press book fair!

Marthe Reed is the author of four books: Pleth, a collaboration with j hastain (Unlikely Books 2013), (em)bodied bliss (Moria Books 2013), Gaze (Black Radish Books 2010) and Tender Box, A Wunderkammer (Lavender Ink 2007). A fifth book of poems will be published by Lavender Ink (2014). She has also published six chapbooks (Dusie Kollektiv, above/ground press, and Shirt Pocket Press). Her collaborative chapbook thrown, text by j hastain with Reed’s collages, won the 2013 Smoking Glue Gun contest and will appear in 2014. An essay on Claudia Rankine’s The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue appears in American Letters and Commentary. She is Co-Publisher of Black Radish Books.

David Menear has spent most of his life between Toronto and Montreal, but has also lived in both London, U.K. & Divonne, France. Schooled in NYC. A father of four he is back in Toronto at ‘The Beach’ writing hard and playing tennis with enthusiasm and mediocrity. His short stories have been published in QWF/Carte Blanche & The Danforth Review. Poetry included in The International Nelson Mandela Tribute Anthology & Ditch. He will be launching a new chapbook produced by Amanda Earl’s DevilHouse!

Chris Eaton is the author of four books of fiction, most recently Chris Eaton, a Biography, and occasionally writes and performs music under the name Rock Plaza Central. He lives in Toronto but his heart still resides in New Brunswick.

Nicholas Power [pictured] is a founding member of the Meet the Presses literary collective, and has performed with the storytelling duo The Wordweavers and the sound poetry ensemble Alexander’s Dark Band. He works as a psychotherapist in private practice. He has been published by Underwhich Editions (wells), The Writing Space (a modest device), and Battered Press (No Poems). Poems have appeared in Rampike, Descant, bywords.ca, leafpress.ca and ottawater.com. He has been editing and publishing with his own Gesture Press for 30 years. His new book just out from Tekst Editions is called Melancholy Scientist.

Educated at the University of British Columbia (B.A., LL.B) and a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio, Renée Sarojini Saklikar writes thecanadaproject, a life-long poem chronicle. Work from thecanadaproject appears in literary journals and newspapers, including The Vancouver Review, Geist, SubTerrain, Poetry is Dead, CV2, and Arc Poetry Magazine and in the anthologies, Alive at the Center, Contemporary Poems from the Pacific Northwest, and Force Field, 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. Renée’s elegiac sequence, children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections, (Nightwood Editions, 2013) is the first book length poetic examination of the bombing of Air India Flight 182 to be published in North America. Renée serves as a mentor for SFU’s Southbank Writers Program and is the co-founder of a new poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU. http://thecanadaproject.wordpress.com Twitter: @reneesarojini