founded July 1993 : CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF CONTINUOUS ACTIVITY IN 2023 + MORE THAN 1200 PUBLICATIONS TO DATE! Ottawa-based poetry chapbook + broadside publisher; publisher of The Peter F. Yacht Club (a writer's group magazine) + Touch the Donkey (a small poetry magazine) + G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] + periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, as well as home of The Factory Reading Series (founded January 1993); edited/published/curated by rob mclennan
Saturday, August 30, 2014
some author activity: Young, Armantrout, Higdon, beaulieu + Hall,
Deanna Young has a new website to go along with her forthcoming trade poetry title; The Fiddlehead has a retrospective of the work of Rae Armantrout in their summer 2014 issue; Hailey Higdon's chapbook PACKING (Bloof Books) is now available for free download; derek beaulieu gets some good love from The Star Phoenix; and the University of Ottawa has announced a new undergrad poetry workshop with their fall writer-in-residence Phil Hall.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
above/ground press introduces new logo
For those who have been paying attention, above/ground press introduced a new logo a couple of weeks ago on various publications, just in time for the twenty-first anniversary reading at Raw Sugar Cafe, replacing the Maxville, Ontario address with our little house on Alta Vista Drive, here in Ottawa. Utilizing the same hand-me-down typewriter that produced the original logo back in 1993, I hammered away our new address, and started slipping it onto the backs of the August 2014 publications. Why was the Maxville address there in the first place, you might ask? I've lived in more than a couple of locations throughout Ottawa over the past twenty-one years, and wanted to maintain an address that, no matter where I was, would reach me five or even ten years later. Given my family has been on the same rural road since 1845, and my father remains on the homestead, with my sister and her brood owning the adjacent property, it seemed a rather safe address. For years, my mother delivering a weekly plastic bag of envelopes to various of my Ottawa addresses, from Heron Road to Fifth Avenue to Rochester Street, and the more occasional selection to Somerset Street West. Only now that we've purchased a house on Alta Vista did it seem appropriate to update. While we were still renting, I just didn't see the point. Make sense?
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
The Factory Reading Series: a Beautiful Outlaw Press launch with Mark Goldstein and Phil Hall, October 15, 2014
a Beautiful Outlaw Press launch with readings by:
Wednesday, October 15, 2014;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Black Squirrel Books
1073 Bank Street (directly across from The Mayfair)
Beautiful Outlaw Press is pleased to announce its publication of two new works: Essay on Legend, by Phil Hall, and Blacktoll, by Mark Goldstein.
By its title, Essay on Legend echoes Alexander Pope's 18th century poem Essay on Criticism. It is concerned with the insidiousness of story-telling, narrative, anecdote (forms of legend). The thinnest tip of legend is metaphor – the tiny lie of how each word is not itself. Like the Japanese poets, Issa, Basho ... Hall has had some fun renaming himself: he tells the bogus legend of that old poet, Otty. (Basho was the tree outside Basho's door / I live at Otty Lake.) Al Purdy & Louis Zukofsky make appearances, too. As Hall’s essay-poem tracks A to Z., it speaks also of guns & dogs & revision.
Blacktoll is Goldstein’s transtranslation of Paul Celan’s Schwarzmaut, a work Celan wrote sometime after January 30, 1967 – the date on which he first tried to kill himself. It is a continuation of Goldstein’s transtranslational experiments first begun in After Rilke (BookThug 2008) and continued in Tracelanguage (BookThug 2010). Where Tracelanguage exemplifies a “shared breath” that seeks to break with tired translational orthodoxies, Blacktoll attempts to embrace both old and new methodologies as singular.
With 52 copies of Essay on Legend and 85 copies of Blacktoll available, both titles are issued as limited hand-bound editions.
Mark Goldstein is the author of three books of poetry published by the award-winning BookThug: Form of Forms (2012); Tracelanguage (2010); and After Rilke (2008). His poetry and criticism have appeared in periodicals including The Capilano Review, Open Letter, Matrix Magazine and Jacket2.
He has taught transtranslation workshops at the Toronto New School of Writing and SUNY Albany. Goldstein has also lectured on translation in Paris at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Prior to writing and translation, Goldstein was a founding member of indie rock band By Divine Right. He played drums, toured and recorded with Leslie Feist and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. He now divides his time between Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
Phil Hall won the 2011 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry in English, for Killdeer, published by BookThug.
He also won the 2012 Trillium Book Award for Killdeer. This book of essay-poems also won an Alcuin Design Award, was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize, & will soon be published in a French translation from Éditions Pris de parole.
Hall’s most recent publications are: The Small Nouns Crying Faith (BookThug, 2013), and Notes on Gethsemani (Nomados, 2014). Recently, he has worked in the Wired Writing Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
This fall he is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives near Perth, Ontario.
He is also the author of two chapbooks through above/ground press: Veralum (2011), and, with Australian poet Andrew Burke, the collaborative Shikibu Shuffle (2012).
Mark Goldstein (Toronto)lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
+ Phil Hall (Perth)
Wednesday, October 15, 2014;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Black Squirrel Books
1073 Bank Street (directly across from The Mayfair)
Beautiful Outlaw Press is pleased to announce its publication of two new works: Essay on Legend, by Phil Hall, and Blacktoll, by Mark Goldstein.
By its title, Essay on Legend echoes Alexander Pope's 18th century poem Essay on Criticism. It is concerned with the insidiousness of story-telling, narrative, anecdote (forms of legend). The thinnest tip of legend is metaphor – the tiny lie of how each word is not itself. Like the Japanese poets, Issa, Basho ... Hall has had some fun renaming himself: he tells the bogus legend of that old poet, Otty. (Basho was the tree outside Basho's door / I live at Otty Lake.) Al Purdy & Louis Zukofsky make appearances, too. As Hall’s essay-poem tracks A to Z., it speaks also of guns & dogs & revision.
Blacktoll is Goldstein’s transtranslation of Paul Celan’s Schwarzmaut, a work Celan wrote sometime after January 30, 1967 – the date on which he first tried to kill himself. It is a continuation of Goldstein’s transtranslational experiments first begun in After Rilke (BookThug 2008) and continued in Tracelanguage (BookThug 2010). Where Tracelanguage exemplifies a “shared breath” that seeks to break with tired translational orthodoxies, Blacktoll attempts to embrace both old and new methodologies as singular.
With 52 copies of Essay on Legend and 85 copies of Blacktoll available, both titles are issued as limited hand-bound editions.
Mark Goldstein is the author of three books of poetry published by the award-winning BookThug: Form of Forms (2012); Tracelanguage (2010); and After Rilke (2008). His poetry and criticism have appeared in periodicals including The Capilano Review, Open Letter, Matrix Magazine and Jacket2.
He has taught transtranslation workshops at the Toronto New School of Writing and SUNY Albany. Goldstein has also lectured on translation in Paris at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Prior to writing and translation, Goldstein was a founding member of indie rock band By Divine Right. He played drums, toured and recorded with Leslie Feist and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning. He now divides his time between Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
Phil Hall won the 2011 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry in English, for Killdeer, published by BookThug.
He also won the 2012 Trillium Book Award for Killdeer. This book of essay-poems also won an Alcuin Design Award, was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize, & will soon be published in a French translation from Éditions Pris de parole.
Hall’s most recent publications are: The Small Nouns Crying Faith (BookThug, 2013), and Notes on Gethsemani (Nomados, 2014). Recently, he has worked in the Wired Writing Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
This fall he is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives near Perth, Ontario.
He is also the author of two chapbooks through above/ground press: Veralum (2011), and, with Australian poet Andrew Burke, the collaborative Shikibu Shuffle (2012).
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
CBC Poetry Prize Longlist: Brockwell + Elmslie,
above/ground press authors Stephen Brockwell and Susan Elmslie are among the longlist of thirty-eight writers on this year's CBC Poetry Prize. Congratulations to you both! You can see the entire longlist, here.
Stephen Brockwell is the author of five trade poetry collections, and has had three chapbooks produced through above/ground press over the years: Marin County Poems (2001), Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment) (2010), and Excerpts from Impossible Books, The Crawdad Cantos (2012). Susan Elmslie, the author of a trade poetry collection through Brick Books, has a wee chapbook produced through above/ground press many moons ago, her I, Nadja (2000), which, if you can imagine, might even still have a few copies left, lying around.
The 2014 CBC Poetry Prize shortlist will be announced on Monday, September 8.
Stephen Brockwell is the author of five trade poetry collections, and has had three chapbooks produced through above/ground press over the years: Marin County Poems (2001), Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment) (2010), and Excerpts from Impossible Books, The Crawdad Cantos (2012). Susan Elmslie, the author of a trade poetry collection through Brick Books, has a wee chapbook produced through above/ground press many moons ago, her I, Nadja (2000), which, if you can imagine, might even still have a few copies left, lying around.
The 2014 CBC Poetry Prize shortlist will be announced on Monday, September 8.
Monday, August 25, 2014
new from above/ground press: How the alphabet was made, [an instructional], by rob mclennan
How the alphabet was made,
[an instructional]
rob mclennan
$4
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
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 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), as well as the forthcoming poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) 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
Originally published by Apostrophe Press as a handout for a reading and classroom talk (or two) at St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo ON, March 5, 2014. Thanks much to Tristanne Connolly and Claire Tacon. Produced, in part, as a handout for PHILALALIA, the three-day small press/art fair, September 25-27, 2014 in Philadelphia PA. Thanks much to Kevin Varrone for his help and support.
See Pearl Pirie's generous review of the first edition, here.
rob mclennan is the author of a slew of above/ground press chapbooks, most recently from Hark: a journal (2014), The creeks (2013), The Laurentian Book of Movement (with Christine McNair; 2013), Trace, (2013), Poem beginning with a line by Pinder (2012), Notes, on the subject of marriage: (2012), Prelude: selections from a collaboration (with Christine McNair; 2012), This, circular tower (2012), The underside of the line, (2011), First you know, and then so ordinary, (2010) and Some Forty, (2010) (a variety of which may or may not still be in print).
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
[an instructional]
rob mclennan
$4
AShocked, an appetite. A wispy mess of hair to cusp,be master of. None,(apparent lack, the eldest people, Calcutta of key-strokes. Facts, unmentioned. Underneaththose tricky eyes,bull by the horns, she said,sustaining evidence)We, who are wondrously largepresent no difficulty to an empty room.Creation: made of facets, facts,an almanac, hill country, genitals,Sidebar, notion; plants and seeds and trees from earth,a suspect, carnage; a suspect vehicle,what you would wonder: wewere not an end.Pegasus, thy lusty Minotaur; some alphabets believe.A solitary air; this lamb of dirt,Let me tell you more about her,about whom I know nothing.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
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 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014) and The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), as well as the forthcoming poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) 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
Originally published by Apostrophe Press as a handout for a reading and classroom talk (or two) at St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo ON, March 5, 2014. Thanks much to Tristanne Connolly and Claire Tacon. Produced, in part, as a handout for PHILALALIA, the three-day small press/art fair, September 25-27, 2014 in Philadelphia PA. Thanks much to Kevin Varrone for his help and support.
See Pearl Pirie's generous review of the first edition, here.
rob mclennan is the author of a slew of above/ground press chapbooks, most recently from Hark: a journal (2014), The creeks (2013), The Laurentian Book of Movement (with Christine McNair; 2013), Trace, (2013), Poem beginning with a line by Pinder (2012), Notes, on the subject of marriage: (2012), Prelude: selections from a collaboration (with Christine McNair; 2012), This, circular tower (2012), The underside of the line, (2011), First you know, and then so ordinary, (2010) and Some Forty, (2010) (a variety of which may or may not still be in print).
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
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Ryan Pratt interviews Pearl Pirie over at The Puritan
Ryan Pratt recently sat down for an interview with Pearl Pirie, talking up her most recent chapbook, vertigoheel for the dilly (above/ground press, 2014) as well as her forthcoming third trade collection with BookThug. Their conversation, "I Aim to Work at the Level of Idea: An Interview with Pearl Pirie" is now online in the new issue of The Puritan.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
some author activity: Rogal, Abel, Martin, Stewart + mclennan,
Stan Rogal has a poem up as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; Mercedes Eng writes on Jordan Abel over at Jacket2; Camille Martin has some new work in the third issue of Posit: a journal of literature and art; both Jordan Abel and Fenn Stewart have new work in the new issue of The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada; rob mclennan has a new poem and corresponding short interview online at Canadian Literature; and has three tiny poem-chapbooks reprinted/reissued by Poems-For-All.
Friday, August 22, 2014
The War Series: Ben Ladouceur,
Ben Ladouceur recently discussed the re-issue of his chapbook LIME KILN QUAY ROAD (above/ground press, 2014) as part of his participation in "The War Series: Writers as Readers" questionnaire over at Open Book: Ontario. And did you hear he has a first trade collection of poetry forthcoming with Coach House Books in 2015? Congratulations!
Thursday, August 21, 2014
At The Desk: Pearl Pirie
Pearl Pirie discusses, among other things, her recent vertigoheel for the dilly (above/ground press, 2014) as part of her participation in the "At the Desk" series over at Open Book: Ontario. And we are very much looking forward to her third trade poetry collection out next year with BookThug!
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Missing Jacket magazine, writing & visual art, bibliography: 1996-1997
Given
my recent post detailing the bibliography of STANZAS magazine, I thought it might be interesting to go through
another one of my late projects through above/ground press, the lamented Missing Jacket. Throughout the 1990s, I noticed
how far apart the different artistic communities within Ottawa were, but for
occasional individuals such as Dennis Tourbin and Michael Dennis that existed
as a link between artistic groups. There was so much activity that wasn’t interacting,
and artistic practices that somehow kept up barriers between them. There were
stories of the late 1980s at Gallery 101, when Dennis Tourbin ran it, with
literary events beside shows of artwork (back when Rob Manery and Louis Cabri
ran The Transparency Machine events there).
I
had spent a couple of years prior hanging around the Enriched Bread Studios and
Gallery 101, as well as with artists Diane Woodward and David Cation, and wanted
to attempt a magazine of writing and visual art through the City of Ottawa. We held
the first issue launch at Enriched Bread, with artwork from all of the artists
featured in the issue, and readings from a variety of contributors.
Had
I had more resources (and perhaps wasn’t doing the entire journal by myself),
perhaps it might have been able to continue, and the weight of which might not
have simply collapsed. Almost exclusively run by myself, I was fortunate enough
to have various authors and artists contribute enormously, whether their own
work or via interviews, and former Montreal writer and ga press co-editor/publisher Colin Christie even designed the last couple of issues
(before it all fell apart).
If
anyone is interested, I still have mounds of copies sitting around the house. I
would like to think that there is some interesting material within. Perhaps,
even, a little portrait of the late 1990s arts community in Ottawa.
Where
did the title come from? We had a little gathering in the apartment Tamara Fairchild and I once shared, and Brian Hill, co-editor of Ink magazine, had left his jacket behind; I misunderstood the phone
message when Tamara informed: “Brian from missing jacket called.” I thought it
was a magazine that already existed. When I realized it wasn’t, well…
Missing Jacket
magazine, writing & visual art, #1. 500 copies, January 1996. edited by rob mclennan.
poetry by Robin Hannah, David O'Meara, Lorraine Gamble. fiction by Catherine
Jenkins. interviews with David W. McFadden (by David Collins), Daniel Nadezhdin
(by Tamara Fairchild) and Dennis Tourbin (by michael dennis). artistic
statements by Eliza Griffiths, Jonathan Brownz and Angela McFall. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James
Spyker. Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg
Kerr. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price $3. 8 1/2" x 11". 38 pages.
Missing Jacket #2, spring, March 1996.
poetry by Tamara Fairchild, David Collins, John Barton and Sean Johnston.
fiction by David Scrimshaw and Dayv James-French. interviews with Ken Norris
(part I, by rob mclennan), Mary Borsky (by rob mclennan) and Marie-Jeanne
Musiol (by Cindy Stelmackowich). artistic statements by Valerie Roos-Linse, Adrian
Gollner and Anna Kempffer-Paul. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker
and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah
blah editorial blah blah blah by
rob mclennan. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price, $3.50. 40 pages.
Missing Jacket #3, summer, August 9,
1996. poetry by Stephanie Bolster, Joe Blades, Nadine McInnis & Jim
Larwill. fiction by Douglas Ord. interviews with Ken Norris (part II, by rob
mclennan), Joe Blades (by rob mclennan) & Diane Woodward (by David
Collins). artistic statements by Maria Shin, Barbara Gamble and David Cation. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James
Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg
Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah by rob mclennan.
ISSN#1203-5076. cover price, $3.50. 44 pages.
Missing Jacket #4, fall, October 1996. poetry
by Clare Latremouille, Una McDonnell, Michael Holmes (from 21 Hotels) and Karen Massey. fiction by Douglas Ord and Stan
Rogal. interviews with Eliza Griffiths (by David Collins), Judith Fitzgerald
(by rob mclennan) and Greg Kerr (by rob mclennan). artistic statements by Eric
Walker, Marcia Lea and Doug Van Rosen. project pages by Mark Marsters. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James
Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah
by rob mclennan. layout by Colin Christie. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price, $3.50.
42 pages (including inside cover).
Missing Jacket #5, spring, April 1997.
poetry by R.M. Vaughan, Michelle Desberats Fels, Ian Whistle and Rob Manery.
fiction by Death Waits and Elizabeth Hay. interviews with Christian Bok (by Tricia
Postle), John Moffat (by David Collins) and Patrick Kavanagh (by David
Scrimshaw). artistic statements by Lesya Granger, Christopher Lea Dunning and
Bhat Boy (the artist formerly known as Ian Van Lock). project pages by Adrian
Gollner. Notes from the Bleeding Edge
by James Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah
blah by rob mclennan. layout by Colin Christie. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover
price, $4.00. 48 pages (includes whole cover).
Monday, August 18, 2014
derek beaulieu: Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts Artist-in-Residence
Calgary poet laureate derek beaulieu has been named the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Calgary's Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. Congratulations derek!
The residency begins tomorrow and runs through October 24, 2014. He plans to be "working on a series of text-art pieces and hosting a number of events."
See his blog post describing further details, here.
The residency begins tomorrow and runs through October 24, 2014. He plans to be "working on a series of text-art pieces and hosting a number of events."
See his blog post describing further details, here.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
some author activity: Martin, Pirie, beaulieu, Smith, Browning + Baus,
Camille Martin has curated a small "Robert Zend Sampler" of visual poetry over at Coldfront magazine; Pearl Pirie is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; derek beaulieu's "Game of Life: A User's Manual" is now online at NewPoetry; Jessica Smith has new work up in The Volta, guest-edited by Sommer Browning; and Eric Baus has some new poems up in Wag's Revue.
Friday, August 15, 2014
new from above/ground press: Wintering Prairie, by Megan Kaminski
Wintering Prairie
Megan Kaminski
$4
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Megan Kaminski’s first book of poetry is Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012). She is also the author of seven chapbooks. Her current work Deep City explores the body and the city as architectures in crisis. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas and curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.
Originally produced in an edition of 100 copies as part of the dusie kollektiv, February 2014.
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
Megan Kaminski
$4
Snow drifts the prairie whitepublished in Ottawa by above/ground press
each gathering a prayer a knife a candle
water crystalline seeding warmth
ground expectant bootfall above sod below
the ground between us the ground we share
ground that sprouts green that holds roots deep
soft porous mealy with bug and vole
and this poem will be a long one
will widen will drift like snow
like language like dribbles and artic chill
will stretch to Dakota fox alone in the field
to field mice buried deep
will follow the compass’s pull magnetic north
oil in shale beneath us tallgrass roots beneath us
bodies of fathers and mothers beneath us
the sod the Kanza-call the warmth of snow on this day
will stretch north to you and children by the fire
to pipelines and trains and fractures in bedrock
to artic-alpine fingernail clam and mourning cloak
will carry me wrapped in sound breath encased
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Megan Kaminski’s first book of poetry is Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012). She is also the author of seven chapbooks. Her current work Deep City explores the body and the city as architectures in crisis. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas and curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.
Originally produced in an edition of 100 copies as part of the dusie kollektiv, February 2014.
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
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
new from above/ground press: Concatenations, by Andy Weaver
Concatenations
Andy Weaver
$4
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Andy Weaver has published two books of poetry, Were the bees (NeWest, 2005) and Gangson (NeWest, 2011). He teaches contemporary poetry and poetics at York University.
This is his fifth above/ground press publication and third chapbook publication, after Three Ghazals to the constellation Corvus (The Crow) (2001) and Other Work for your Hands (2004).
[Andy Weaver launches Concatenations as part of the above/ground press twenty-first anniversary event, reading with Anita Dolman and Jason Christie, on Thursday, August 14, 2014]
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
Andy Weaver
$4
concatenationspublished in Ottawa by above/ground press
dictate
easy
figurations
gaudy
highlights
invest
jerkwater
kaleidoscopic
lexemes
mit
noesis
obliquely
prehending
quodammodotative
reality
sublimely
traced
unbreachable
varsal
worlds
x-irradiated
yestern
zeitgeists
alwise
bedevilling
****
August 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Andy Weaver has published two books of poetry, Were the bees (NeWest, 2005) and Gangson (NeWest, 2011). He teaches contemporary poetry and poetics at York University.
This is his fifth above/ground press publication and third chapbook publication, after Three Ghazals to the constellation Corvus (The Crow) (2001) and Other Work for your Hands (2004).
[Andy Weaver launches Concatenations as part of the above/ground press twenty-first anniversary event, reading with Anita Dolman and Jason Christie, on Thursday, August 14, 2014]
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
Monday, August 11, 2014
Brecken Hancock's above/ground chapbook, The Art of Plumbing, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #64
Scott
Bryson was good enough to review Brecken Hancock’s above/ground chapbook, The Art of Plumbing (above/ground press,
2013) in Broken Pencil #64. Thanks,
Scott! This is actually the fifth review of Brecken’s chapbook, after recent
reviews by Joseph LaBine (here), JM Francheteau (here), Michael Dennis (here)
and Ryan Pratt (here). There are a few copies of Hancock’s chapbook still
available, here, or you can simply pick up her first trade collection, Broom Broom (Coach House Books, 2014),
which also includes the piece.
Plumbing, let alone the history of plumbing, is not typically considered enticing subject matter. The recounting of ancient pipes that’s presented here – organized in date-stamped anecdotes – is mostly pretext, mercifully (though even when it’s not, these anecdotes are rarely mundane).At its core, Brecken Hancock’s The Art of Plumbing is a study of human relationships, some mythical, through time – between family members, men and women, husbands and wives, citizens and The Church. In 1183 BCE, “Clytemnestra guts Agamemnon in the bath,” for his infidelities. In 415 CD, “anxious that nudity nurtures licentiousness, early Christian fathers preach against public bathing.”Bathtubs and bathing are the most consistent fixtures in this timeline, and an anecdote from 2323 BCE seems particularly relevant to its undercurrent: “Archimedes stumbles into a method for gauging the volume of irregular objects. Stepping into the bath, he spots water rise…” The lesson typically taken from this tale is to be patient and await a breakthrough, but a different interpretation here proves apt. The same story was relayed at a crucial point in the 1998 movie, Pi, with an unusual take on its moral: “You need a break, you have to take a bath or you will get nowhere,” warns the film’s mathematician Sol Robson.In a moment of abrupt, autobiographical lucidity at the chapbook’s end, Hancock comes to the same conclusion: “I need to soak. Gathering my split hair from the pillow, I ruse from the television news, from the navalia proelia [simulated naval battles] on our sheets.” It’s a fitting conclusion; there are hints of a veiled personal journal throughout this narrative.The Art of Plumbing is a moving read, less for what we see on the pages – though these are eloquently-written historical sketches – than for the subtext that emerges from between its stanzas.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
STANZAS magazine, bibliography: 1993-2006
Perhaps
I should finally admit that my long poem magazine STANZAS is in the past tense. I’d long been hoping that the
journal would make it to fifty issues, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Although
I haven’t given up the idea that I might produce one further, final issue as a
trade anthology, keeping with the model the journal originally had of George
Bowering’s twice a year IMAGO
(1964-1974).
When
I originally started above/ground press, I wanted to produce both magazine and
chapbooks, and couldn’t imagine attempting to sell two different series; the
idea was that if I had the journal as gratis, then it might help publicize the
chapbooks, therefore the far larger print runs. I could mail a box of issues to
anyone, anywhere (which happened far less than I would have liked, given the
state of my finances) for distribution.
Over
the past few months, thanks to our move last year into a house, I’ve been
finally able to start digging through dozens of boxes, attempting to put
together a single set of the whole run for possible inclusion as a perk for our big Chaudiere Books Indiegogo campaign (I’m hoping to add one or three items
over the next week or so, to acknowledge the mid-way point of our current
campaign). There are some issues I have a surprising number of copies of,
still, and some that I have yet to locate. For the sake of interest, here is a
rough bibliography of the entire run:
Volume 1, issue #1. edited by rob
mclennan. 500 copies. November 1993. issue dedicated to George Bowering and IMAGO. “Garden I-V” and “Gardening Tips”
by Clare Latremouille, “THE LAPIDARY
1-9” by Heather Ferguson (sic), “Where
Once There Were 5 Million” by Joy Hewitt
Mann, and “Brahms, 1993” for Henry Beissel by rob mclennan. distributed free. folded and stapled, 8 1/2 by 11. 12
pages.
Issue #2. 500 copies, January
1994. issue dedicated to Frank Zappa. “VIGIL” by Maggie Helwig. distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #3. 500 copies, May 1994.
issue dedicated to Roy Kiyooka. “DON JUAN ON HIS DEATHBED” by Henry Beissel. distributed free. 8
pages.
Issue #4. 500 copies, October
1994. “Sketches of Hands” by Shannon Cowan, “Forgotten Photographs” by Colin Morton, “hockey night in canada,” for patrick hunt, by michael dennis. distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #5. larger print run, 750
copies, April 1995. Coast-to-coast issue. 650 sandstone covers for general
distribution, 100 grey covers for the Spring Toronto Small Press Fair. “Echolocations”
by Gil McElroy and “In Which Alice
Meets Laura Palmer” by Stephanie Bolster.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #6. 750 copies,
July/August 1995. issue gleefully dedicated to George Bowering’s IMAGO magazine from the 70’s. “stiltman”
by C.J. Lockett, “love & the
automatic bank teller” by Brian Burke.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #7. 750 copies, November
1995. “When” by rob mclennan & “REMEMBERING
FRANK O'HARA” by Ken Norris.
distributed free. 20 pages.
Issue #8. 750 copies, May 28,
1996. “The Big Fuck” by Judith Fitzgerald and “HOW TO SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME ALONE AND STILL WRITE
CONVINCINGLY ABOUT SEX” by R.M. Vaughan.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #9. 750 copies, August 1,
1996. this issue mourns the loss of Coach House Press 1965-1996 and first saw
light at the first National Conference of Canadian Small and Micro Presses in
Sechelt, B.C., August 2-4, 1996. “MOUTH or PLACE NAMES” by Ian Whistle. His first solo publication. distributed free. 12
pages.
Issue #10. 750 copies, October
1996. “Crashing Out” by I.M. Wiley,
a(n obvious) pseudonym from Winnipeg. the same piece (slightly altered) was
also published at the same time under another name in Zygote magazine, Winnipeg. distributed free. 12 pages. 76.
Issue #11. 750 copies, February
1997. “Re: Crossing” by Colin Morton
and “Ferries Taken” by Aidan Baker.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #12. 750 copies, April
1997. “BLONDES ON BIKES: 1-20” by George Bowering. distributed free. 28 pages.
Issue #13. 750 copies, June 1997.
“inside first floor at the randomization factory” by meghan lynch (who later became Meghan Jackson). distributed free. 12
pages. cover image by Emily Whist.
Issue #14. 750 copies, September
1997. “A Medical History of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan” by Carla Milo (who later became Carla Barkman). distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #15. 750 copies, March
1998. “last leaves II” by rob mclennan.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue
#16. 750 copies, April 1998. “POEM BOOOOOOOK” by Gerry Gilbert. cover photos by the author. distributed free. 28
pages.
Issue #17. 750 copies, May 1998.
“from COAST ALL JOURN ALL” by Jay MillAr.
published in Ottawa (at Carleton University and at Gallery 101) and Fredericton
(at Gallery Connexion). distributed free. 16 pages. cover illustration by the
author.
Issue #18. 750 copies, September
1998. “TWELVE POEMS FOR HUMAN BUTTERFLIES” by Greg Evason. distributed free. 16 pages. cover illustration, “The
Sacral Butterfly,” by Nicholas Power.
Issue #19. 750 copies, February
1999. “t sea ache” by Joe Blades.
distributed free. 20 pages.
Issue #20. 750 copies, May 1999.
“Eulogistics” by Victor Coleman.
released in Winnipeg, May 8, 1999. distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #21. 750 copies, October
1999. “this evidence against you” by Natalie
Hanna. distributed free. 24 pages.
Issue #22. 750 copies, January
2000. “an unnatural history of the sexes” by Anne Stone. originally appeared in the Contemporary Feminist
Baroque issue of Tessera. distributed
free. 12 pages.
Issue #23. 1000 copies, March
2000 date, although not published until April 9. “cooleys key” by rob mclennan. “renga” page originally
appeared in mo’ gumbo. distributed
free. 16 pages.
Issue #24. 750 copies, May 2000.
“Aequanimitas” by Chris McCreary.
sections originally appeared in Lost
& Found Times, Rhizome and COMBO. distributed free. 20 pages.
Issue #25. July 2001. “further
revisions” by ryan fitzpatrick. cover
artwork by Emily Whist. 16 pages.
$4.
Issue #26. 750 copies, March
2001. “SYNONYMS FOR FISH” by Gary Barwin.
three poems, “SYNONYMS FOR FISH”, “CRUMB FALL” and “THE LOOKOUT MAN”. cover
image by Joe Blades, signed “for
mclennan, the only poet I know whose name is in magnetic poetry 8, 15 NOV 1998.”
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #27. 750 copies, April
2001. “summations : travels through Italy” by Helen Zisimatos. two long poems, “rome” and “siena”. distributed
free. 34 pages.
Issue #28. 750 copies, August
2001. “Strange Days” by Paul Hardacre.
cover artwork collage by rob mclennan.
distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #29. 750 copies. “what
exile this” by nathalie stephens (now Nathanaël).
distributed free. 28 pages.
Issue #30. 750 copies. “Continuations
I-III” by Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy. distributed free. 24
pages.
Issue #31. 750 copies. “Meteor
Showers” by Gil McElroy. distributed
free. 16 pages.
Issue #32. 1000 copies, “irregular
heartbeats” by rob mclennan.
distributed free. 12 pages.
Issue #33. 1000 copies, “The
Museum of Perception” by Lisa Samuels.
subtitled “American takeover issue.” distributed free. 16 pages.
Issue #35. 1000 copies, “Highway
99” by Meredith Quartermain.
subtitled “10th anniversary issue.” distributed free. 8 2 x 7. pages
Issue #36. 1000 copies, “all sets
go” by Daniel f. Bradley.
distributed free. 20 pages.
Issue #37. 1000 copies,
“Americasual” by Rob Budde.
distributed free. 20 pages
Issue #38. 1000 copies, “calcite
gours 1-19” by derek beaulieu.
distributed free.
Issue #39. 1000 copies, “Dream
Songs” by J.L. Jacobs. distributed
free.
Issue #40. 1000 copies, “the
naked & the nude” by Rachel Zolf.
distributed free. 20 pages.
Issue #41. 1300 copies, “ottawa
poems (blue notes)” by rob mclennan.
distributed free.
Issue #42. 1000 copies, “personal
peripherals 1-30” by Jan Allen.
distributed free.
Issue #43. 1000 copies, “more fun
with ‘pataphysics” by Sharon Harris.
distributed free.
Issue #44. 1000 copies, “THE CELEBRITY RAG; Opá” by Stan Rogal. March 2006. distributed
free.
Issue #45 (mis-numbered on cover
as #44). 1000 copies. April 2006. “two poems” by Dennis Cooley. distributed free.