This is the thirty-sixth
in a series of short essays/reminiscences by a variety of authors and friends
of the press to help mark the quarter century mark of above/ground. See links to the whole series here.
above/
& grounded: looking back on a fine press
When
did you first hear of and/or interact with the press?
XRSS:
Somewhere back in 2009/2010, enrolled in the Writer’s Studio, I attended a
presentation by Anne Stone: we were up in the Diamond Lounge on the third floor
of SFU Vancouver, the light from the harbour drifting in on a June
evening. We exchanged stories about making little books of poetry and
Anne said something like, “if you are ever in Ottawa, look up a guy called rob
mclennan” and that’s how it all started. Once I graduated from the Studio,
immersed in the wayward path that become the process that became my first book
length poem, children of
air india, un/authorized
exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2018), I would visit all
the “rob” websites: I spent lots of time online, fascinated onlooker, situated
on The Outside, peering longingly Inside, to the world of small presses, all
those poets, their work. I learned so much and still do by reading the poets
published by above/ground press: all the ways a poem can be and become―
What did it mean for you to have titles through the press?
XRSS:
Oh, everything! As if a door in a stone gate, locked for years, slowly swung
open. Tribe/less, and
as always, not really feeling too comfy with that word, and nevertheless
wanting to belong to a cadre, a circle, a network of poets, from Outside to
Inside, that helped me gain confidence in writing. I should have liked, looking
back, to have not been needy for Belonging and yet—and so, when above/ground
published After the Battle
of Kingsway, the bees, a sequence of poems from my much larger work,
THOT-J-BAP (a sci-fi epic), and the chapbook: sweet yellow paper—
―that was restorative, because the generation of those poems
happened during the summer of 2013, a difficult time in my life. I remember
writing After the Battle of
Kingsway the bees, out of grief, and despair, the taste of aloes in my
mouth. To see the book then bring delight to others: I am smiling my slow slant
smile as I type these words—
Have
you a story of something around the press? An event that was particularly good?
XRSS:
Ottawa. Summer, circa 2014: Factory Reading Series. Upstairs in “The
Tavern”. With rob and the late Marthe Reed, both generously interested in
seeking out and publishing those of us on the Outside, bringing us Inside. And
Marthe invited me to submit work for DUSIE. These invitations by above/ground
press, leading to other invitations, vital to a long poem writer, helping to
keep me on the path of the epic, following that thread that pulls—I still
cannot believe Marthe is gone, at least from this planetary orbit.
How
did you see the press comparing to what else was around when you first heard of
it?
XRSS:
Everything that Jason Christie says!! There’s this sense of community, of work
made on the margins, for the love of what is in us to make, to bring forth,
despite seeming indifference from anyone else. Outside of the low misery of
grasping for achievement, there abides the makers: crafting, stitching,
folding, stapling, paper between our thumbs. Fragments pressed to our lips.
Renée Sarojini Saklikar recently completed her term as the first Poet Laureate for
the City of Surrey, British Columbia. Her latest book is a B.C. bestseller: Listening to the Bees (Nightwood Editions, 2018). Renée’s first book, children of air india
(Nightwood Editions, 2013), won the 2014 Canadian Authors Association Award for
poetry. Renée co-edited The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (Anvil Press/SFU
Public Square, 2015,) a City of Vancouver book award finalist. Renée’s chapbook, After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees, (above/ground press, 2016), was a finalist for the 2017 bpNichol
award. Her poetry has been made into musical and visual installations,
including the opera, air
india [redacted]. Renée was called to the BC Bar as a Barrister
and Solicitor, served as a director for youth employment programs in the BC
public service, and now teaches law and ethics for Simon Fraser University in
addition to teaching creative writing at both SFU and Vancouver Community
College. She curates the popular poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU and
serves on the boards of Event magazine
and The Capilano Review and
is a director for the board of the Surrey International Writers
Conference. Renée belongs to the League of Canadian Poets and The
Writer’s Union of Canada (TWUC) and is active on the TWUC Equity Committee. She
is currently working on an epic-length sci-fic poem that appears in journals,
anthologies and chapbooks.
The evening held a myriad of short readings by PFYC regulars, including Amanda Earl, Monty Reid, Frances Boyle, Pearl Pirie and myself, as well as special guests Stuart Ross and PFYC founding member Laurie Anne Fuhr, launching her first trade collection! As with an event like this, there were absences a-plenty, as Jason Christie, Chris Turnbull, Anita Dolman, James Moran, Cameron Anstee, Vivian Vavassis, D.S. Stymiest, Roland Prevost and Janice Tokar simply couldn't make it. And of course, Marilyn Irwin had put herself down as a "maybe" to read, and then I completely forgot to put her on the set list (dammit!). (I'll just have her read twice next year.)
