calgary wordfest: beaulieu, Robertson + Simpson, October 17, 2014

derek beaulieu hosts the Poetry Cabaret at Calgary Wordfest, Friday October 17, 2014, with performances by Dennis Lee, Nikki Reimer, Lisa Robertson and Natalie Simpson.

Friday, October 17 • 8pm
Theatre Junction Grand – Studio
Tickets: $15
$13 seniors, students and friends of cjsw

Buy Tickets / Call Wordfest to purchase tickets and passes: 403 237 9068

some author activity: Kaminksi, Dyckman, Carr, hastain + Ursuliak,

Megan Kaminski offers an "object lesson" on the box of wine in The Atlantic; Susanne Dyckman is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Emily Carr has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; j/j hastain has a new essay posted as part of the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Emily Ursuliak has a new piece up at One Throne magazine.

Make Contact: Circulating Small and Micro Press Poetry in Canada

Congress 2015 is being hosted at the University of Ottawa. Colin Martin (University of Calgary) and above/ground press author Cameron Anstee (University of Ottawa) wrote a CFP for a member-organized session for ACCUTE that has been accepted. Full details below (pdf over at Anstee's original link, here), and further member-organized session CFPs available here. Send them your stuff!

new from above/ground press: THE MOTIONS, by Kate Schapira

THE MOTIONS
Kate Schapira
$4

What did I expect?
That things would rename.
I clambered and sank
in nature and in
houses, head of
the stairs pausing
me, suspended,
successful, in high dry
air. No fire anywhere.
Dispatcher warns of accident.
Demands an alternate route.
Ten-year-old kids duck,
dissolve and collapse,
face window after
window immersed
in their topography.
Brick and small-leafed
cluster, asphalt, ill-
traveled and steep: my
eye runs from creature to
dark burrow, runs
me into the ground.
Silences over the island.
Not island, peninsula.
Not surrounded, surrendered.

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

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.

Kate Schapira is the author of four full-length books and nine other chapbooks of poetry. She lives in Providence, RI, USA, where she writes, teaches, and co-runs the Publicly Complex Reading Series. Learn more about her current project at climateanxietycounseling.wordpress.com.

This is her second above/ground press chapbook, after OVERHEARD WHILE HIDING FROM THE SUN (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

above/ground press at Word on the Street: Toronto (today!)

If you wander by The League of Canadian Poets booth at Word on the Street in Toronto today, they'll be handing out (while supplies last) a stack of above/ground press "poem" broadsides! I've been digging through the archives lately, and have discovered multiple broadsheets still in print by Sarah Pinder, Natalee Caple, Nelson Ball, Gil McElroy, Ken Norris, Steven Heighton, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Wanda Praamsma, George Bowering, Joe Blades and Christine McNair, among numerous others. Why not stop by?

some author activity: Armantrout, Barwin, Robertson, Kaminski + Brockwell,

Rae Armantrout is interviewed by Kaveh Akbar over at divedapper; Gary Barwin has some new visual poems over at NewPoetry (check out his writer-in-residence office hours and upcoming reception and reading/performance here); Lisa Robertson writes on Nicole Brossard, newly translated and posted up at Lemonhound; Megan Kaminski has four new poems in the New Orleans Review; and we didn't know until now that Stephen Brockwell had a poem up at Porkopolis.

on the handmade: sandra ridley interviews phil hall, christine mcnair + jennifer still

As part of her tenure as September's Writer-in-Residence over at Open Book: Toronto, Ottawa poet Sandra Ridley has composed a three-part interview post "on the handmade," posting interviews with Phil Hall, Christine McNair and Jennifer Still, asking each of them questions on the physical act of producing literary and non-literary works.

some author activity: Hancock, Earl, Dolman, Adams, Kaminski, Wilkinson + Armantrout,

Brecken Hancock gets a glowing review in the LA Review of Books; Amanda Earl participates in the Canadian Writers Poets Blog Tour over at her blog, as does Anita Dolman; Carrie Olivia Adams has a book trailer preview posted at Poetry Seen; Megan Kaminski has new work in issue #11 of Smoking Glue Gun, as does Joshua Marie Wilkinson; and Rae Armantrout is featured on the Poetry International Rotterdam website.

Ryan Pratt reviews Eric Baus' THE RAIN OF THE ICE (2014) and Emily Ursuliak's Braking and Blather (2014)

Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Eric Baus' THE RAIN OF THE ICE (2014) here and Emily Ursuliak's Braking and Blather (2014) here in separate posts over at the ottawa poetry newsletter. Thanks, Ryan!

rob mclennan interviewed at The Review Review on ottawater and Touch the Donkey

I was recently interviewed over at The Review Review on ottawater (with some input from designer Tanya Sprowl-Martelock) and Touch the Donkey. Apparently there wasn't space to talk about all the rest of them: seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics, or The Peter F. Yacht Club, etcetera.

some author activity: Higdon, Kaminski, Carr, Landman, Butler + Robinson,

Hailey Higdon has a recent piece up at Coldfront; Megan Kaminski picks another "song of the week" over at Coldfront as well; Emily Carr has new work in the August 2014 issue of Front Porch; Seth Landman has some new work over in NOO Journal #15; Jenna Butler has a short piece on the CBC website on why one should never write in a vacuum; and forthcoming above/ground press author Elizabeth Robinson responds to Where Do You Write, My Lovely?

Pearl Pirie interviewed at Poets Touching Trees

Pearl Pirie took the leap, and responded to interview questions over at Poets Touching Trees. Not that long ago, rob mclennan also answered questions through the same series, as did kevin mcpheron eckhoff and a whole slew of others. Who might be next?

The Factory Reading Series : smith, Blackman, Anstee, Million + Simpson, October 11, 2014;

with readings by:

jesslyn delia smith
Jeff Blackman
Cameron Anstee
Justin Million
and Rachael Simpson

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, October 11, 2014;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Five approximately Ottawa-based poets are hitting the road. jesslyn delia smith, Jeff Blackman, Cameron Anstee, Justin Million, and Rachael Simpson are reading in four cities in five days, taking their show to Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and Peterborough from October 11-15, 2014.

Apt. 9 Press is publishing a book to mark the occasion. Five is Apt. 9’s first venture into publishing a book with a spine, and is currently being printed at the legendary Coach House in Toronto. Five collects new work.

Follow along at anaccordofpoets.wordpress.com.

jesslyn delia smith lives in Ottawa, ON, where she works 9-5 in a real estate office. 2014 poems have appeared in ottawater and The Steel Chisel, and her most recent chapbook the grass is a yard now, again was published in fall 2013 by Apt. 9 Press.

Jeff Blackman [pictured] grew up shy in Thornhill, ON, then got a little brave, moved to Ottawa, ON, and has a great love for the roads in between. His poetry has appeared over the last year or so via Blacklock’s Reporter, Bywords, and The Steel Chisel. Last year saw the publication of his first solo chapbook in some time, So Long As The People Are People, which is pretty much his hymnal.

Cameron Anstee lives in Ottawa, ON, where he runs Apt. 9 Press and is pursuing a PhD studying Canadian literature at the University of Ottawa. He has published chapbooks with above/ground press (Ottawa), The Emergency Response Unit (Marmora), and In/Words (Ottawa).

Justin Million [pictured] lives in Peterborough, ON, sells shoes in Pickering, ON, and might even make it to Toronto, ON someday.

Rachael Simpson’s poetry has been published in Canada (including as a broadsheet through above/ground press) and the United States. She lives in Ottawa, ON.

Jordan Abel at The TREE Reading Series, Ottawa, September 23, 2014

above/ground press author and Vancouver resident Jordan Abel heads east for his first Ottawa reading, appearing at The TREE Reading Series alongside David Groulx on September 23, 2014.

For a complete list of upcoming readers at The TREE Reading Series, check out their website at http://www.treereadingseries.ca/readings