Cameron Anstee's 2014 Poetry Chapbook Round-up: Baker, Schmaltz, Pirie + Tokar,

Ottawa poet, publisher and blogger (and above/ground press author) Cameron Anstee was good enough to mention Jennifer Baker's Abject Lessons, Eric Schmaltz' Mitsumi Elec. Co. Ltd.: keyboard poems, Pearl Pirie's today's woods and Janice Tokar's Arrhythmia as part of his 2014 poetry chapbook round-up. Thanks much!

You can see his original post here, with far more titles than the ones excised.

Jennifer Baker. Abject Lessons (above/ground press). Debut chapbook! Smart, funny, thoughtful, steeped in Ontario (literary) history. Jennifer Baker is growing as a poet and you’ll want to have this earliest one on your shelf in another few years time.

Eric Schmaltz. Mitsumi Elec. Co. Ltd.: keyboard poems (above/ground press). Visual/concrete poems build “using a disassembled keyboard, black paint, black ink, and white cardstock.” Engaging visual work taking apart and reconstituting the mechanical means of production. Possibility and order (possibility of order?) set against decay, imprecision, and disorder.

Pearl Pirie. today’s woods (above/ground press). A hugely entertaining re-telling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears that thinks through the implications of each decision in the story, and what the conditions of their home says about their family dynamic.

Janice Tokar. Arrhythmia (above/ground press). Tokar’s first chapbook (I believe). A meditative lyric sequence in 12 parts. I was glad to encounter Tokar’s work for the first time this year, and look forward to seeing where it goes in the future.