some author activity: Deutch, Tate, fitzpatrick, Hyland + Hogg,

Amanda Deutch has new work up at house journal; Bronwen Tate has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog, as part of National Poetry Month, as does ryan fitzpatrick ; MC Hyland has some new work up at Solstice: a magazine of diverse voices; and Robert Hogg has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie.

new from above/ground press: Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright, by Jérôme Melançon

Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright
Jérôme Melançon
$5

Fifty-Three Kilometers

Emptied of the May snow
The branches across the highway
 – those branches still articulated
    without any exposure of cartilage –
Will find their place in this impatient
Thrust upwards of the Shield.
An ornament on its edges perhaps.
In the meantime the path winds,
Mattawa a distant memory: no one
Would even try to turn around. We come
Close to stopping to move one that had
Snapped – one branch that might have held me
And entire families, unlike those bent in a bow,
Ready to shoot back up and bury
Whatever leaves itself within reach.
The lack of agreement in seasons
Hides the reversal in the motives for this trip.
A coming death, spring already verified,
Leaves grabbing on to the snow out of curiosity
A desire to be transformed, exhaustion
Already. I see hares, living in a future
Landscape, foraging for what’s left of this
Forest’s promises in each other’s shade.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Jérôme Melançon writes and teaches and writes and lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, SK. His most recent poetry collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). This chapbook is a supplement to that book. He is also the author of a bilingual chapbook with above/ground press, Coup (2020), and of two books of poetry with Éditions des Plaines, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (2016), as well as one book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018) and a bunch of different attempts at figuring out human coexistence in journals and books nobody reads. He’s on Twitter and Instagram at @lethejerome and sometimes there’s poetry happening on the latter.

This is Melançon’s second above/ground press title, after Coup (2020).

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: Graf, Mody, Lea, Pirie, Armantrout, Anstee, Dyckman + mclennan (plus Pakdel launch info!

Adele Graf has a poem on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Monica Mody, and N.W. Lea ; Pearl Pirie continues her mini-interviews and write-ups, featuring Rae Armantrout and Cameron Anstee; Susanne Dyckman has new poems online via Conjunctions; rob mclennan has a new poem up for Steven Heighton (1961-2022) ; and Saba Pakdel launches her forthcoming above/ground press title in Vancouver on May 14th!

new from above/ground press: Report from the Robinson Society. Vol. 1 No. 1

Report from the Robinson Society
Vol 1. No. 1
edited by rob mclennan
$7

an assemblage of writing in response
to the work of Elizabeth Robinson

including
poems, critical writings
and
philosophical transactions

with contributions by:
George Albon
Avery Burns
Valerie Coulton
Patricia Dienstfrey
Tiff Dressen
Susanne Dyckman
rob mclennan
Benjamin Niespodziany
Steven Seidenberg
Laura Sims
Edward Smallfield
Ginny Threefoot
Barbara Tomash
Laura Walker
Maw Shein Win

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
full list of published reports here
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Report on the Society logo by C. McNair, editor’s devil (retired)

Elizabeth Robinson has two chapbooks with above/ground press--Simplified Holy Passage (2015) and Pattern refuses to repeat itself = is divine (2017)--and edited issue #11 of G U E S T [a journal of guest editors].

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: Divination, by Marita Dachsel

Divination
Marita Dachsel
$5

I can see you.

Can you see me?

In the mirror, you don’t see how you really look, you see how you want to look.

No way, you’re saying. You’re saying you know all your faults. You wish you didn’t
have them. You look in the mirror and you see your drooping eye or the weird shaped mole or how your nose is too big or too small or too flat or too pointed. The only person who ever liked her nose was Anne of Green Gables.

But all those faults you see, only you are seeing them. They are yours. You’re projecting. Most people can’t see them at all.

And don’t call them faults.

If I were your auntie, I’d remind you that they are signs of character.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Marita Dachsel is the author of the poetry collections There Are Not Enough Sad Songs, Glossolalia, and All Things Said & Done. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry, and the ReLit Award. Her play Initiation Trilogy was nominated for both a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script and The Critics’ Choice Innovation Award. She has created interactive poetry-based installations for festivals and conferences in Victoria, Edmonton, and Toronto. She lives with her family on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia where she teaches in UVic’s Writing Department and knits on the sly at any opportunity.

This is Dachsel’s second above/ground press title, after learning to breathe (1996). A third 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: Mangold, Smith, Clayton, o'brien, Solomon + O'Reilly,

Sarah Mangold has a new poem up on the Chaudiere blog as part of National Poetry Month (who also has a short write-up she did on her most recent title at the Poetry Society of America site), as does Dale Martin Smith, Conyer Clayton, and katie o'brien; Misha Solomon has a new poem up in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; and Nathanael O'Reilly has new work in The Elevation Review.

some author activity: Betts, Pakdal, Archer, Pirie, Clayton, hanna, Boyle + mclennan,

Gregory Betts has a new poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog, as part of National Poetry Month, as does forthcoming author Saba Pakdal, and even Sacha Archer; Pearl Pirie has been posting mini-interviews/reviews lately, featuring Conyer Clayton, natalie hanna, Frances Boyle and rob mclennan, among others.

new from above/ground press: Andante: Scales and Proportions for a Chemical Orchestra Amid the Fraying Social Norms, by Anne Tardos

Andante: Scales and Proportions for a Chemical Orchestra Amid the Fraying Social Norms
Anne Tardos
$5

Meanwhile, astronomers have discovered that the Milky Way galaxy resembles champagne, full of bubbles, so we live inside the so-called Local Bubble, where among other things, Yiddish scholars are rescuing women’s novels from obscurity.

 

Their frustration with men’s advocacy for unrestrained sexuality and their lack of concern about the consequences for her.

 

The relationship between a small-town Jewish girl uprooted due to anti-Semitic violence and the dashing revolutionary who routinely disappoints her.

 

The fact that the astronomer who spends much time looking at the new images of our galaxy’s center, never gets tired of it.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Anne Tardos is the author of twelve books of poetry, and editor of three posthumous collections of poetry by Jackson Mac Low. Her work has been translated and published in dozens of anthologies and journals around the world.

Tardos pioneered a unique multilingual writing style, often complementing her texts with video stills, photographs, and collages. Her writing is renowned for its fluid use of multiple languages and its innovative forms. She has worked in numerous media, creating performance pieces, radio plays, videos, and musical compositions. Her multilingual and multimedia works have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the West German Radio, WDR; the XLIV Venice Biennale; and in many international sound poetry festivals, including Festival La Bâtie, Geneva; text- ljud Festival, Stockholm; Scene Wien, Vienna; and Zwischentoene, Cologne.

Among her grants, fellowships, and commissions are The Ford Foundation, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Emily Harvey Foundation. Her works have been commissioned by baritone Thomas Buckner and the Dominque Lévy Gallery.

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: Niespodziany, Pakdel, Mc Donnell, Logan, mclennan + Earl,

Benjamin Niespodziany is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time; forthcoming author Saba Pakdel is featured over at rob mclennan's Spotlight Series; Conor Mc Donnell is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews, as is Nate Logan, who also has new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; as does rob mclennan ; and Amanda Earl has a piece posted in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets.

new from above/ground press: Okay?, by Lori Anderson Moseman

Okay?
Lori Anderson Moseman
$5

stay

as a teen I lived in California near a mission
in Father Junípero Serra’s chain
when visiting the edifice I’d gawk
at artifacts blatant in their colonialism
my mother would refuse to go inside
she’d stay in their garden stealing seeds

            *
“stay” is a version of “place”
we are taught “stay” without the word “stay”…
“sit” we say     then walk away
if pooch bolts we block that motion with our bodies
if pooch stays immobile until we return
we say “good”     only then do we offer food

*
when a doe places a fawn, she says “stay” by licking
she leaves her fawn when it is scentless
I first approached an “abandoned” fawn
with an unleash puppy by my side
the chase ends when the fawn forges the river
the puppy refuse to risk water
retrieves a stick and banks it
the same pup—a bit older—stays
nose to nose with another fawn
having learned not to run

*
off leash, pup’s ma—a shepherd mix—tries
to drown a doe who charges her pup
we do not call “place” or “come”
we stop the kill by calling our dog’s name

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Lori Anderson Moseman’s latest poetry collections include: Darn (Delete Press, 2021), Y (Operating System, 2019), Light Each Pause (Spuyten Duyvil, 2017), Flash Mob (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016) and All Steel (Flim Forum, 2012). Her collaboration with book artist Karen Pava Randall, Full Quiver, is available from Propolis Press. A former educator, she ran Stockport Flats press from 2006 to 2016.  See https://loriandersonmoseman.com

A second above/ground title 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

Touch the Donkey : eighth anniversary sale,

To celebrate the eighth anniversary of the quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] this April: anyone who subscribes (or resubscribes) anytime between now and the end of April 2022 has the bonus option of three (3) items: three Touch the Donkey back issues of your choice, OR three above/ground press (2021 or 2022) titles of your choice (while supplies last) OR any combination thereof.

Issue #33 of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] lands on April 15, 2022.

2021-2022 above/ground press titles include chapbooks by: Rob Manery, Lillian Nećakov, Amanda Earl, Karl Jirgens, df parizeau, Wanda Praamsma, Lydia Unsworth, Michael Schuffler, rob mclennan, Natalie Simpson, Nate Logan, Stan Rogal, Sean Braune and Émilie Dionne, Urië V-J, Sarah Rosenthal, Andy Weaver, Simon Brown, Mayan Godmaire, Phil Hall, Kevin Varrone, Susan Rukeyser, Barry McKinnon, Benjamin Niespodziany, Ken Norris, Terri Witek and Amaranth Borsuk, George Bowering, Franklin Bruno, Gary Barwin, Emily Izsak, Jen Tynes, Valerie Witte, Robert Hogg, Ken Sparling, Jessi MacEachern, Nathan Alexander Moore, Katie Naughton, Summer Brenner, Monica Mody, Kōan Anne Brink, Gregory Betts, Michael Sikkema, M.A.C. Farrant, Jamie Townsend, Conor Mc Donnell, Adam Thomlison, Alyssa Bridgman, James Lindsay, David Miller, Amish Trivedi, Ava Hofmann, JoAnna Novak, Sandra Moussempès (trans. Eléna Rivera), Helen Hajnoczky, Edward Smallfield, Valerie Coulton, James Hawes, Anik See, David Dowker, Shelly Harder, Alexander Joseph, Joseph Mosconi, Brenda Iijima, Al Kratz, Saeed Tavanaee Marvi (trans. Khashayar Mohammadi), Jason Christie, katie o'brien, N.W. Lea and Andrew Brenza.

Canadian subscriptions $35 for five issues / American subscriptions $40 / International subscriptions $50 / All prices in Canadian dollars

To order, e-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com or www.touchthedonkey.blogspot.com

Issues are also available as part of the above/ground press annual subscription.

Because everybody loves a birthday. Who doesn’t love a birthday?

Touch the Donkey. Everywhere you want to be.

some author activity: Bell, Maloukis, Reid + Mohammadi,

Wade Bell is interviewed via Chaudiere Books; Rose Maloukis has new work in long con magazine; Monty Reid has new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; and Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi is interviewed over at nothing/in particular.

new from above/ground press: Report from the Siklosi Society. Vol. 1 No. 1 + No. 2

Report from the Siklosi Society
Vol 1. No. 1 + No. 2
edited by rob mclennan
$7 each / both for $12

an assemblage of writing in response
to the work of Kate Siklosi

including
poems, critical writings
and
philosophical transactions

with contributions by:
No. 1
Sacha Archer
Gary Barwin
Dessa Bayrock
Derek Beaulieu
Samantha Annie Bernstein
Gregory Betts
Angela Caporaso
MLA Chernoff
Brian Dedora
sophie anne edwards

No. 2
Kyle Flemmer
Helen Hajnoczky
Genevieve Kaplan
Kirby
Dona Mayoora
rob mclennan
Geoffrey Nilson
Astra Papachristodoulou
M. NourbeSe Philip
Rasiqra Revulva
Eric Schmaltz
Petra Schulze-Wollgast
Dani Spinosa
Anna Veprinska
Andy Weaver

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
full list of published reports here
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Report on the Society logo by C. McNair, editor’s devil (retired)

Kate Siklosi has two chapbooks with above/ground press: po po poems (2018) and 1956 (2019), and co-edited (with Dani Spinosa) G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #8 (2020).

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