new from above/ground press: The Appetites of Tiny Hands: Twentieth Anniversary Edition, by Natalee Caple

The Appetites of Tiny Hands: Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Natalee Caple
with a new afterword by the author
$5

Be lenient with me

(tiny white signals
too small to be photographed.)

I make no music
(exposed by the wind.)

I do not claim to suffer

To spur the sorry
(blue one I never meant to love)

the birds I have kept hidden in my attic
are quiet now.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 26, 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

The Appetites of Tiny Hands was originally produced through above/ground press in an edition of 150 copies, November 26 1997, “for a reading at the Imperial Library Pub, Toronto as part of an above/ground press night – Natalee Caple, Stephen Cain, Jim Larwill & rob mclennan.”

Natalee Caple is the author of seven books of poetry and fiction and the co-editor of an anthology of contemporary Canadian writers. The New York Times called her fiction “moving … unsettling.” The Washington Post described her writing as “breathlessly good.” Caple’s latest novel, In Calamity’s Wake, was published by HarperCollins in Canada and by Bloomsbury in the US. She is a professor of English, teaching Canadian literature and Creative Writing at Brock University.

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

some author activity: Cook, hastain, McElroy, Armantrout + Siklosi,

Sarah Cook has a new essay, "In Defense of Infiltration," at ASAP Journal; j/j hastain has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Gil McElroy; Rae Armantrout has a new poem up at the Poetry Foundation website, and then another one; and Kate Siklosi collaborates on an interview on Gap Riot Press.

new from above/ground press: Nervous System, by N.W. Lea

Nervous System

by N.W. Lea

$4

Here,

within the mood,

night wrestles itself

to the known

ground.

I’m amazed

at my doubts: stomachal.

Ginger is a nonstarter ...

there’ll be no solace tonight

for the wordy.

The yes-spectrum

is broad, yes,

but totally dependent

upon ignition.

One argues

that everything is second

-hand, a pedestrian

bargain. Rummage

in the pitch

toque.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

November 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

N.W. Lea’s second book of poems, Understander (Chaudiere Books, 2015) was a finalist for the 2016 Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry. He currently lives and writes in Eastern Ontario with his partner, their newborn baby girl, and two cats.

This is Lea’s third above/ground press chapbook, after light years (2006) and Present! (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

some author activity: Earl, Tucker, Betts, Archer + Kronovet,

The second issue of where is the river :: a poetry experiment features new work by Amanda Earl and Aaron Tucker; Gregory Betts has some new visual work up at Brave New Word; Sacha Archer is featured over at rob mclennan's monthly "Spotlight" series; and Jennifer Kronovet is interviewed via Podcast over at Public Radio International.

Scott Bryson reviews Kyle Flemmer's ASTRAL PROJECTION (2017) in Broken Pencil

Scott Bryson was good enough to provide a second review of Kyle Flemmer's ASTRAL PROJECTION (2017) in Broken Pencil, after Greg Bem's review of the same over at Yellow Rabbits. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

Reading this collection tends to produce the sensation that you’re in the thick of that old Atari game, Asteroids. Stanzas — fragments, really — are spread around the page like tumbling space rocks.

While the disjointed text makes for a more entertaining read, it can also be difficult at times. It’s not always easy to tell which direction your eyes should be heading. The clunky formatting choices are obviously meant to mirror the subjects of Kyle Flemmer’s poems: 24 Themis, 87 Sylvia, 10 Hygiea and their brethren — the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

In addition to remarking on the asteroids’ location and makeup — “Note the / sublimated surface / ice” — Flemmer explores the origins of their names, in Greek mythology: “Rhea Silvia: / vestal virgin / mother of twins / (by a war god).” It brings the asteroids to life, and assigns motivation to their actions in space: “She has the brightest radar / albedo in the asteroid belt… & if anyone dared / become immortal / it would be she.”

The creativity in this collection lies more in the arrangement of the text than in the text itself — much of this is readily available information. The chapbook’s title doesn’t make an appearance until the very end, but the way Flemmer marries science with mythology is his way of carrying out a sort of astral projection. There’s more going on here than meets the eye.

new from above/ground press: Pattern refuses to repeat itself = is divine, by Elizabeth Robinson

Pattern refuses to repeat itself

= is divine

[Rothko Chapel]

a suite by Elizabeth Robinson

$4

Black at center

is blue

like memory

Color’s semblance a form of the holy

smudged

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

November 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Elizabeth Robinson is the author of multiple books of poetry, most recently Counterpart (Ahsahta, 2012) and Blue Heron (Center for Literary Publishing, 2013). Robinson was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for On Ghosts (Solid Objects) and has been the winner of the National Poetry Series and the Fence Modern Poets Prize.  She was awarded the 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award and has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts and the Maison Dora Maar.

This is Robinson’s second above/ground press chapbook, after Simplified Holy Passage (2015).

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

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 24: Earl, Thomas + hanna,

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

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

Amanda Earl (Ottawa)
Hugh Thomas (Montreal)
and natalie hanna (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 24, 2017;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

Amanda Earl writes poetry, prose and visual poetry in Ottawa. She's managing editor at Bywords.ca, fallen angel of AngelHousePress, co-host of The Small Machine Talks podcast with a.m. kozak, editor of the Close Reading Service for New Women Poets and chief troublemaker at the Home for Whimsical Misfits. More about chapbooks, books, awards, grants and professional stuff at AmandaEarl.com.

Hugh Thomas is a poet and translator living in Montréal, where he teaches mathematics at UQAM.  His most recent chapbook, Six Swedish Poets, was published in the summer of 2015 by above/ground press.  It records his attempt at translating Swedish poems without knowing any Swedish.

natalie hanna [pictured] is an Ottawa lawyer working with low income populations, and an alumna of Carleton and Ottawa universities. Her writing focusses on feminist, political, and personal themes. In 2016, she joined the Sawdust Reading Series as Administrative Director and joined the board of Arc Poetry Magazine later that year. She runs battleaxe press - a local poetry small press. dark ecologies is her ninth chapbook, and second with above/ground press (this evidence against you, 1999). "dark ecologies" tries to balance identity and violence.

new from above/ground press: IN MY EAR CONTINUOUSLY LIKE A STREAM, by Geoffrey Nilson

IN MY EAR CONTINUOUSLY LIKE A STREAM

by Geoffrey Nilson

$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

November 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Geoffrey Nilson is a writer, musician, multimedia artist, and father. He is the author of three chapbooks, Alchemy Machine (2015), We Have To Watch (The Quilliad Press, 2016), and O (Swimmer’s Group, 2017). Nilson’s poems and essays have appeared widely in Canada and internationally including in Poetry is Dead, Event, PRISM international, subTerrain, Lemon Hound, The Rusty Toque and Qwerty. He has been shortlisted for The Malahat Review Far Horizons Award for Poetry and his book-length manuscript won Honourable Mention for the 2015 Alfred G Bailey Poetry Prize.

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

some author activity: Archer, Drake, Flemmer, Beaulieu + Siklosi,

[a fraction of the above/ground press home archive] Sacha Archer has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Kristina Drake; Kyle Flemmer has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie; "Housepress/no press at 20: a talk by Calgary poet and publisher Derek Beaulieu," which recently occurred at SFU, is now online at the SFU website; and forthcoming (spring) above/ground press author Kate Siklosi has a new essay (also) at my (small press) writing day.

CBC Poetry Prize longlist : Bolster + mclennan,

above/ground press authors Stephanie Bolster and rob mclennan made the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize longlist, alongside thirty-one other Canadian writers. Hooray! Congratulations to all! Stephanie Bolster is the author of more than a couple of above/ground press titles still in print, including Three Bloody Words: Twentieth Anniversary Edition (2016) and GHOSTS (2017), which is made up of poems from the same work-in-progress as her poems on the longlist; and rob mclennan is the author of far too many items that remain in print, but most recently include King Kong (2014) and It's still winter (2017), which is also made up of poems from the same work-in-progress as his poems on the longlist.

new from above/ground press: Trips from Here to There: Poems from the Dreamachine, by Eric Schmaltz

Trips from Here to There: Poems from the Dreamachine

Eric Schmaltz

$4

the whirr of turquoise

tufts of pulsing moss;

enter paradoxical sleep.

the turquoise pulls.

moments of rust.

a sense that eyelids have failed.

somewhere beyond that

not quite centred,

i can feel the sketches of a carousel,

grayscale;

a fragmented familiarity

looking back in age,

a silhouette of elsewhere.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

November 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Eric Schmaltz is an intermedia artist, writer, & educator living in Toronto. Eric’s work has been featured online and in print across Canada & internationally in places including Carousel, Broken Pencil, Lemon Hound, The Capilano Review, Open Letter, & Poetry is Dead. His visual work has been featured in Canada and the United States in places such as Havana Gallery (Vancouver), Lab T.O. (Toronto), Sugar City Arts Collective (Buffalo), the Critical Media Lab (Kitchener), Rodman Hall (St. Catharines), & Niagara Artists Centre (St. Catharines). More at ericschmaltz.com

This is Schmaltz’ second above/ground press chapbook, after MITSUMI ELEC. CO. LTD.: keyboard poems (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