above/ground press (mini) lockdown sale,

Until the end of May 2021: you can have any six above/ground press 2021-so-far titles for $20 (Canadian; outside Canada, $20 US; plus shipping; rates below). Can you believe that above/ground press has produced twenty-five titles (so far) this year?

2021 titles-to-date: that i want, by Ava Hofmann ; Knife with Oral Greed, by JoAnna Novak ; I am a language you are the sound device, by Sandra Moussempès translated by Eléna Rivera ; Clinging & Grasping, by Franklin Bruno ; a grain of sand, Photograph by Julya Hajnoczky Poem by Helen Hajnoczky ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #29 : with new poems by Bill Carty, Michael Turner, Nina Vega-Westhoff, Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Colby Clair Stolson, Robert Hogg, Elizabeth Robinson, Tom Prime and Simina Banu ; a journal of the plague year, by Edward Smallfield ; still life with elegy, by Valerie Coulton ; The Hotdog Variations, by James Hawes ; The Great Beauty, by Anik See (prose/naut) ; Chronotope, by David Dowker ; zero dawn, by Shelly Harder ; buttons & bones, by Alexander Joseph ; a field guide to fanciful bugs, by Amanda Earl ; OCCUPATIONAL ELEGIES, Joseph Mosconi ; Moonbathing in Al Faiyūm, by Brenda Iijima ; Transmissions from the Crawdad Constellation, by Michael Sikkema ; OFF THE RESTING SEA, by Al Kratz (prose/naut) ; THE OCEANDWELLER, by Saeed Tavanaee Marvi, translated by Khashayar Mohammadi ; Bridge and burn, by Jason Christie ; micro moonlights, by katie o'brien ; Less Dream, by N.W. Lea ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #28 : with new poems by MLA Chernoff, Geoffrey Olsen, Douglas Barbour, Hamish Ballantyne, JoAnna Novak, Allyson Paty and Lisa Fishman ; Geometric Mantra, by Andrew Brenza ; The Universe in an Earth-Shaped Urn, by Amish Trivedi ;

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at robmclennan.blogspot.com

Forthcoming chapbooks by Andy Weaver, Stan Rogal, Matthew Owen Gwathmey, Summer Brenner, Benjamin Niespodziany, Ken Sparling, Phil Hall and Madhur Anand, Jen Tynes, Franklin Bruno, Gregory Betts, Robert Hogg, Amaranth Borsuk, Katie Naughton, Valerie Witte, Kōan Anne Brink, Alyssa Bridgman, Michael Sikkema, M.A.C. Farrant, Monica Mody, Conor Mc Donnell, James Lindsay, Jamie Townsend, Barry McKinnon, David Miller, Amish Trivedi and plenty of others! And there’s totally still time to subscribe for 2021, by the way (backdating to January 1st, obviously). Oh, and you are checking out periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics regularly, yes? lots going on there.

Stay home! Stay safe! Get vaccinated! Wash your damned hands. Be nice to each other.

new from above/ground press: that i want, by Ava Hofmann

that i want
Ava Hofmann
$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Originally from Oxford, Ohio, Ava Hofmann is a trans writer currently living and working in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has poems published in or forthcoming from Poetry Daily, Black Warrior Review, Fence, Anomaly, Best American Experimental Writing 2020, The Fanzine, Datableed, and elsewhere. Her interactive chapbook, THE WOMAN FACTORY, was published via The OS. Her latest chapbook is my my summer of total failure, published by The Offending Adam. Her full length collection [...], is forthcoming in 2021, with more books on the way. She also edits SPORAZINE, a magazine of experimental writing written by trans people. Her website is www.nothnx.com and her twitter is @st_somatic

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Bryce Warnes reviews Amanda Earl's a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) at The Pamphleteer

Bryce Warnes was good enough to provide a first review for Amanda Earl's a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) over at The Pamphleteer. Thanks so much! You can see his original review here. As he writes:

Amanda Earl | above/ground press | Ottawa, 2021

Staple-bound, 24 pages | Purchase

Even if there are 10 quintillion insects on our planet, it can be easy to overlook them—until they sting, or until someone pins them in a display case. The same goes for the printed word and its components. Amanda Earl won’t let us ignore these ubiquitous swarms, collecting them, arranging them, sometimes dissecting them with a naturalist’s eye for subtle harmonies. “intersects” threatens to overwhelm the margins with a swarm of i’s, until it doesn’t. “the vampire mosquito” puts a stake through V’s axis, while “the demon caterpillar” is hungry hungry for your dreams. And something about the interzonal a/symmetry of “burroughs’ araknid” keeps this reviewer returning to the page. Entomophobes beware.

some author activity: Armantrout, O'Reilly, Sikkema, McElroy, mclennan + Turner,

Rae Armantrout has a new poem posted in the London Review of Books; Nathanael O'Reilly has work in the debut issue of Bealtaine magazine; Michael Sikkema has a new poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Gil McElroy; and rob mclennan and Michael Turner (among others) have new poems posted as part of The Mirimachi Reader.

new from above/ground press: Knife with Oral Greed, by JoAnna Novak

Knife with Oral Greed
JoAnna Novak
$5

The barefoot
heroine, white
wax on her front
teeth, drags the
book across the rug. 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

JoAnna Novak’s debut memoir Contradiction Days will be published by Catapult in 2022. Her short story collection, Meaningful Work, won the 2020 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest and will be published by FC2 in August. Her third book of poetry, New Life, will be published by Black Lawrence Press later in 2021. She is the author of the novel I Must Have You and two previous books of poetry: Noirmania and Abeyance, North America. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. She is a co-founder of the literary journal and chapbook publisher, Tammy.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: I am a language you are the sound device, by Sandra Moussempès (translated by Eléna Rivera

I am a language you are the sound device
Sandra Moussempès
translated by Eléna Rivera
$5

What connection are we looking for while watching a film,
while reading a poem?
anticipation or eloquence
using a repetitive metaphor

enjambment                “caesura”

the sequences between sound and sense, the poetry of affect,
the juxtaposition of the poem, time and light, fade(s) to black,
point of view, fragment, the metric, subtraction

what’s the difference between exorcism and the close-up
a way of writing in the dark (the visual narrative)

at first it’s a composition of living matter        barely
resized
our thoughts noted        inside the sculpted house

these fragments in a film-loop

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover photograph by Russell Switzer, 2019

Sandra Moussempès is a poet and vocal artist, born in Paris in 1965, and former resident of the Villa Medici. She has published twelve books of poetry including : Cassandre à bout portant (Poésie/Flammarion, 2021), Cinéma de L’affect (Boucles de voix off pour film fantôme) (L’Attente, 2020), Colloque des Télépathes & CD Post-Gradiva (L’Attente 2017), and Sunny girls (Poésie/Flammarion 2015). As a sound and vocal artist, she has recorded four albums and has performed at the Centre Pompidou, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and MAMCO in Geneva, among others. above/ground press also published a selection from Sunny girls, translated by Eléna Rivera (2017).

Eléna Rivera was born in Mexico City and raised in Paris. Her most recent book of poetry is Epic Series (Shearsman Books, 2020). Her translation of Bernard Noël’s The Rest of the Voyage (Graywolf, 2011) received the Robert Fagles Translation Prize. She also translated Noël’s The Ink’s Path (Cadastre8zéro, 2018), Isabelle Baladine Howald’s Hantôme (forthcoming Black Square Editions, 2021) and Isabelle Garron’s Body Was (forthcoming, Litmus Press, 2021). She received a National Endowment for the Arts in translation and fellowships from MacDowell (2020) and the Trelex Paris Poetry Residency (2019).

This is their second above/ground press chapbook, after From: Sunny girls (2017).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Hunter, Barbour, Robinson, Hajnoczky, hanna + Downs,

Carrie Hunter has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; Douglas Barbour is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Ben Robinson has a new poem posted as part of National Poetry Month over at the Chaudiere Books blog, as do Helen Hajnoczky, natalie hanna and Buck Downs.

Bryce Warnes reviews The OceanDweller by Saeed Tavanaee Marvi (trans. Khashayar Mohammadi (2021) at The Pamphleteer

Bryce Warnes was good enough to provide a first review for The OceanDweller by Saeed Tavanaee Marvi (trans. Khashayar Mohammadi) (2021) over at The Pamphleteer. Thanks so much! You can see his original review here. As he writes:

Saeed Tavanaee Marvi, trans. Khashayar Mohammadi

above/ground press | Ottawa, 2021

Staple bound, 10 pages | Purchase

Via Khashayar Mohammadi’s translation, Saeed Tavanaee Marvi cruises the strait between Earth and Hell, acacias and tornadoes, Buster Keaton and a swarm of insects. “Pain is the key to the human interior,” we learn in White Poplar; the door opens on a dizzying inner/outer world, where phones both “resemble planets  / giving meaning to long incomprehensible numbers,” and smell of violets (Me, Her, Telephone), where ancient battles break out, and a mysterious vehicle called the OceanCruiser sings, in its “most cordial hymn,” that “we’re born to test our hearts … kiss whomever you love without a word,” (The Deep Wound.) On meaning’s rough seas, The OceanDweller—the first volume of Marvi’s work in English—keeps us precariously, giddily afloat.

new from above/ground press: Clinging & Grasping, by Franklin Bruno

Clinging & Grasping
Franklin Bruno
$5

Anamorphic Table

I crossed the room and the room stayed self-
Identical, although it had changed.

I went outside, though only briefly,
And found it pleasant, also only briefly.

Dusk, still air. What we need’s a Shazam
For plant life. My father was afraid of fog.

So was mine. I think about his colleague
In a sanatorium, wonder how to contact

His daughter who cares for a schoolmate
Who fell off a mountain. “I am not feeling

Myself today.” But how would you know?
It’s a trick: a room is not an entity.

Dice connect two fields of mathematics:
Solid geometry and probability. Each face

Must be equally likely to come up
And this constrains their design.

The regular polyhedra, of which there are five,
Are elegant traditional solutions.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Franklin Bruno is the author of The Accordion Repertoire (poetry, Edge Books), the chapbooks MF/MA (Seeing Eye) and Policy Instrument (Lame House), and Armed Forces (criticism, in Continuum/Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series). He has released 20 albums of original songs as one-third of Nothing Painted Blue, under his own name, and (currently) as frontman of The Human Hearts. Raised in Southern California’s Inland Empire, he now lives and writes in Jackson Heights, Queens. A second chapbook through above/ground press is forthcoming.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Coulton, Smallfield, Downs, Stuart, O'Reilly, Weaver + Solomon,

Valerie Coulton is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time, as is Edward Smallfield, Buck Downs, and Cecilia Stuart; Nathanael O'Reilly has a new poem up at Crow of Minerva; and National Poetry Month has begun over at the Chaudiere Books blog, with new poems by, among others, Andy Weaver and Misha Solomon!

new from above/ground press: a grain of sand, by Helen Hajnoczky

a grain of sand
Photograph by Julya Hajnoczky
Poem by Helen Hajnoczky
$5

what i escape through memory

 

 

                        my imprints a memorial

 

what land spread out

                                                in this way

 

                        i am an imprint

                                                like a wave

 

how have i sculpted my

                                    own shores and

 

                                                the moments
                                                            like sand

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Julya Hajnoczky was born in Calgary and raised by hippie parents, surrounded by unruly houseplants, bookishness and art supplies, with CBC radio playing softly, constantly, in the background. It was inevitable, then, that she would grow up to be an artist. She holds a BDes in photography from the Alberta University of the Arts. Her multidisciplinary practice includes photography, sculpture and installation. She draws inspiration from the natural sciences, in-depth study of ecosystems, and a deep personal relationship with the wilderness. If she's not in her home studio working on something tiny, she's out in the forest working on something big. See more of her work online at www.obscura-lucida.com and on Instagram @obscuralucida and @alfrescosciencemachine

Helen Hajnoczky was also born in Calgary and raised by the aforementioned hippie parents as well. She is the author of Magyarázni, shortlisted for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, Poets and Killers: A Life in Advertising, shortlisted for Expozine’s English Book of the Year award, and the chapbook Bloom & Martyr, winner of the 2015 John Lent Poetry/Prose Award. Her next book, Frost & Pollen, is forthcoming from Invisible Publishing. Helen’s written and visual poetry have also appeared in a variety of chapbooks and magazines. Helen shares her artwork, including collaborations with her late father Steve Hajnoczky, on Instagram @ateacozyisasometimes and at www.ateacozyisasometimes.com

This is Hajnoczky’s fourth chapbook with above/ground press, after A history of button collecting (2010), The Double Bind Dictionary (2013) and No Right on Red (2017).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: a journal of the plague year, by Edward Smallfield

a journal of the plague year
Edward Smallfield
$5

meditations in an emergency

1 reading Defoe—A Journal of the Plague Year

2 fare Boccaccio

3 spring sun the same

4 color as

5 ‘locked down’

6 ‘high alert’

7 in the isolation chamber

8 the higher pitched

9 ambient sound here

10 the lower pitched

11 just what you thought: an interior

12 a broken flowering

13 & dust &

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Edward Smallfield is the author of The Pleasures of C, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (with Doug MacPherson), equinox, and to whom it may concern. He is also the author of several chapbooks: locate (with Miriam Pirone) and lirio and anonymous (both with Valerie Coulton) and, most recently, americana (from above/ground press). His poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, e-poema.eu, Five Fingers Review, New American Writing, Páginas Rojas, parentheses, Parthenon West Review, talking about strawberries all the time, where is the river: a poetry experiment, 26, Wicked Alice, and many other magazines and websites. He has participated in poetry conferences in Delphi, Paou, Paros, and Sofia, and lives in Barcelona with his wife, the poet Valerie Coulton.

This is Smallfield’s second chapbook with above/ground press, after americana (2018).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com