some author activity: Whistle, Harris, Braune, mclennan + Earl,

Ian Whistle wrote on Judith Copithorne for many gendered mothers; Sharon Harris has a new poem up as part of National Poetry Month on the Chaudiere Books blog, as does Sean Braune; and rob mclennan is interviewed by Nathaniel G. Moore in his new Roaring Nineties series, as is Amanda Earl.

Robert Kroetsch Conference this weekend : Anstee, Baker, Cooley, Markotić, Hall etc

In case you weren't aware, the 2017 Canadian Literature Symposium at the University of Ottawa is this weekend: Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet. Running from April 27-30, 2017, presenters include a variety of above/ground press authors (and non-authors), including panelists, presenters and chairs Nicole Markotić, Jennifer Baker, Rudy Wiebe, David Eso, Cameron Anstee, Claire Farley, Dennis Cooley, Aritha van Herk, Robert Stacey, Phil Hall and others. I even have a couple copies left of Robert Kroetsch's above/ground press chapbook, as well as the memorial chapbook we put together for him, if such appeals. Apparently the public is more than welcome to attend, and you can see the full schedule for the conference here.

And: I took this photo of Robert Kroetsch during our shared University of Alberta Press on-campus book launch, April 2010.

some author activity: Young, Hancock, Rogal + McEwen,

Geoffrey Young is interviewed by Thomas Fink and Leila Rosner on his recent poetry, over at Dichtung Yammer; Adrienne Gruber writes on Brecken Hancock over at many gendered mothers; Stan Rogal has a new poem posted on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month; as does Andrew McEwen, a collaboration with Vancouver poet Elee Kraljii Gardiner.

New Orleans Poetry Festival + Small Press Fair, April 20-23, 2017 : Smith, Iijima, Hunter, Reed + Poe, etc

above/ground press authors Jessica Smith (The Lover is Absent, 2017), Brenda Iijima (SWAMP/SWAMP, 2017), Carrie Hunter (Series out of Sequence, 2017), Marthe Reed (After Swann, 2013) and Deborah Poe (Keep, 2012) read along with a whole mound of other poets as part of this year's New Orleans Poetry Festival and Small Press Fair, April 20-23, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. You can see their full schedule here.

Greg Bem reviews Sarah Fox's Invisible Wife (2017)

Seattle WA poet and reviewer Greg Bem was good enough to provide the first review for Sarah Fox's Invisible Wife (2017) over at Yellow Rabbits. Thanks so much! You can see Bem’s review here.

some author activity: Blades, Ursuliak, Swan + Hogg,

Joe Blades has a new poem as part of the Chaudiere Books National Poetry Month series; Emily Ursuliak is interviewed in the "12 or 20 questions" series; Sarah Swan is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Robert Hogg speaks stone mill, organics and poetry over at CBC Radio Ottawa.

some author activity: Ursuliak, Barwin, Blades, Polyck-O'Neill, Betts + Whistle,

Emily Ursuliak has a new essay in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Gary Barwin has a new videopoem up at Moving Poems; Joe Blades has some new work and a short statement in rob mclennan's spotlight series; Julia Polyck-O'Neill has a new poem in Chaudiere Books' National Poetry Month series for 2017; and Gregory Betts was interviewed by Ian Whistle for the ottawa poetry newsletter.

new from above/ground press: The Lover is Absent, by Jessica Smith

The Lover is Absent
Jessica Smith
$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Jessica Smith, Founding Editor of Foursquare and name magazines and Coven Press, serves as the Librarian for Indian Springs School, where she curates the Indian Springs School Visiting Writers Series. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she received her B.A. in English and Comparative Literature: Language Theory, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and M.L.S. from SUNY Buffalo, where she participated in the Poetics Program. She is the author of numerous chapbooks including Trauma Mouth (Dusie, 2015) and two full-length books of poetry, Organic Furniture Cellar (Outside Voices 2006) and Life-List (Chax Press 2015).

This is her third chapbook with above/ground press, after Shifting Landscapes (2006) and MNEMOTECHNICS (2013).

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

Katie L. Price: Poetry & Practice: Perspectives on Medicine and Narrative WSU

above/ground press author Katie L. Price (author of the 2015 chapbooks Sickly and BRCA: Birth of a Patient) tomorrow afternoon at Washington State University!

"This may seem tangential to our class at first glance. However, Katie L. Price has a very interesting project to turn the information contained on her medical records into poetry. In formal terms, the project shows how restructuring information—from documentary form to poetic form—can alter its meaning in dramatic ways, even if the data stays the same. The process of making private health records public also resonates with what Frank Pasquale writes about health insurance scores. Rather than letting her medical history add up to a numeric identity assigned by some data broker, Price works to regain a kind of control over her health records. In the process, she works against narratives of private illness and private risk, showing instead how perceptions of health have very public consequences. Medical patients bear the brunt of those consequences, her poetry suggests, not commercial insurance services.

This event should help us imagine interesting new angles for the course material. Price’s poetry could become an interesting point of entry for a final project about individual reputation in the era of run-away data. Attend the talk and blog about it for extra-credit—brownie points if you ask a question about digital technology!"

new from above/ground press: Inaccuracies, by Ian Whistle

Inaccuracies
Ian Whistle
$4

Mistranslation

Khatumo Ceuta in the Spanish Mediterranean. The level of water is full of clothes and spread their weight and paddleboard illicit production. Thousands of foreign vessels in sealed boxes. Rarely forest safe in Brazil and Indonesia Coach handbags are leading the way. A meeting of the Russian military process. smuggling snuff products is prohibited in the Mohawk in Canada. Uday Hussein deals Mystery, workers of color television. Northern Canada, frogs and turtles coach products, household and office sales are sold worldwide. For smuggling on the border with Mexico, was nāki'i'ia peace. Brazil and lapa'au'ia, and millions of animals. Children between two and ten thousands of people traffic at the border. Nigeria "or" son of the victim, and sells cocoa harvest. Cocaine starts ka'ūhā. Syria Real illegal. Bible cocaine prison for women. The Warsaw ghetto wall power supply, doors, drainage and register the land illegally. 1800 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and plaster illegally. It was a mystery. Incorporated. It was the shadow of the cross.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Ian Whistle has published in filling Station, CRASH: a litzine, Moss Trill and Nöd. Small poetry publications have appeared via jwcurry’s 1cent and Ken Hunt’s Spacecraft. He currently runs h&, an occasional journal of visual/concrete poetry and assorted other oddities: http://handandpoetry.blogspot.ca/

This is Whistle’s third above/ground press chapbook, after “MOUTH or PLACE NAMES” (STANZAS magazine, issue #9, 1996) and resemblances (1998).

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