some author activity: Kolewe, Naughton, Webb, Kemp-Gee + (ottawa) small press almanac,

R. Kolewe is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Katie Naughton and Lindsey Webb both have new work at interim poetics; forthcoming author Meghan Kemp-Gee is also interviewed at Touch the Donkey; and did you see that above/ground press is now part of the "(ottawa) small press almanac" collective of Ottawa-based small and micro press publishers?

new from above/ground press: This Folded Path, by Robert van Vliet

This Folded Path
Robert van Vliet
$5

1


The
gentle wind
above the houses.

Everything that is
new is
not

new.
Heaven creates
itself without doing

anything. A long
river like
a

claw.
A flat
cloud stained like

a bloody liver.
What else
but

this
can any
of it mean?

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Robert van Vliet’s poetry has appeared in The Sixth Chamber Review, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Wine Cellar Press, Selcouth Station, Eunoia Review, Guesthouse, Otoliths, and elsewhere. He has been, among other things, a typographer, a singer/songwriter, a repair technician for Macintosh computers, a process designer, and a tutor & substitute teacher for middle school & high school. His first book, Vessels, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2024. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Ana. His website is robertvanvliet.com.

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: Mayday, by Stephen Cain

Mayday
Stephen Cain
$5

May 1, 2023
Won’t say sundown
No lightness, no levity
What makes a Canadian?
CBC songs & squibs
Lumps of lyricism
Or that we see it differently
A national imaginary or
An imaginary nationalism

May 2, 2023
Losing leaves, like losing hair
The trees & me
Small schadenfreude
The Great Creep Forward
Aspersions to the contrary
Some Klanada flags
Call the cops on “Commies”
Or mismanage the missive

May 3, 2023
The crash of dishes
Symbols & snares
Percussive aggression
Passive insistence
Red rage is coming down
Pellets against glas
Sing a song of Spring
Sakura suicide
With a cherry on top

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Note:
31 poems of 31 words, where May Day becomes mayday.

Cover design by Eric Schmaltz.

Stephen Cain lives, teaches, writes, & walks with gratitude in Tkaronto. His newest poetry collection, Walking & Stealing, is forthcoming from Book*hug Press.

This is Cain’s fifth above/ground press title, after CIRCA DIEM (1997), ZOOM (2013), Tag & Run: Canto One (2019) and the collaborative Hijinks: A Sequence from Double Helix (with Jay MillAr; 2003).

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: Cadsby, Swensen, Martin, Solomon + Williams,

Heather Cadsby is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Cole Swensen has two new poems in Big Other; Camille Martin's work is featured in the latest issue of Of Poets & Poetry; Misha Solomon has a new poem up at Plenitude magazine; and an excerpt of Evan Williams' new chapbook is now online at Cleveland Review of Books.

new from above/ground press: LIVID REMAINDERS, by Geoffrey Olsen

LIVID REMAINDERS
Geoffrey Olsen
$5

 ease splits long this
        about class, marks white
  tree distillate, fierce gloom
recede in place of
    accumulated people not said
  straight forward ocean recedes along
 shore vast purple black depth
   terror dailiness
   in proactive form
  everything in the space of “my life”
 rooted poet name
   fed cats at dawn
action resides collective turn
  broke piano

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Geoffrey Olsen is the author of four chapbooks in addition to this one, most recently Nerves Between Song (These Signals Press 2022) and The Deer Havens (above/ground press 2020). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

This is Olsen’s second above/ground press chapbook, after The Deer Havens (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

above/ground press at the TIFA Small Press Market at Harbourfront Centre Toronto this Saturday!

above/ground press (that's me!) will be exhibiting as part of the TIFA Small Press Market this Saturday from 11-5pm: you should come by! I'll have a whole slew of above/ground press new and recent items, and will be joined by a wealth of other incredible small publishers.

https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/small-press-book-fair/

Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto M5J 2G8

please come! huzzah!

Here's the full list of incredible small presses that will be participating!

Invisible Publishing
knife | fork | book
Anstruther Press
Simulacrum Press
above/ground press
Puddles of Sky Press
Coach House Press
Wolsak & Wynn Publishers
Gordon Hill Press
Proper Tales Press
Teama Publishing
Augur Magazine
nOIR:Z
Dumagrad Books
Gap Riot Press
Book*hug Press
Serif of Nottingham
Nietzsche’s Brolly

All presses attending are also part of TIFA’s Interactive Small Press Map of Canada.
https://festivalofauthors.ca/small-press-interactive-map/

Benjamin Niespodziany's virtual reading marathon, September 24, 2023: Logan, mclennan, Walker, Williams, Barwin etc

above/ground press author Benjamin Niespodziany has curated a virtual reading marathon that will go live on Sunday, September 24, 2023 at noon CT, featuring thirty-one readers and nearly three hours of footage! the event also includes plenty of other above/ground press authors, including Nate Logan, rob mclennan, Laura Walker, Evan Williams and Gary Barwin! The premiere link for the event will be here, "live" on YouTube and will continue to be available after the event on his YouTube channel. He has included a list of authors and timestamps, also, if you aren't able to sit through all three hours.

00:00 Intro
01:02 Sparrow
05:12 Rebecca Wadlinger
07:44 Rainie Oet
10:15 Vi Khi Nao
13:07 Nate Logan
15:59 Jose Hernandez Diaz
19:31 Kristin Lueke
20:54 william erickson
25:06 Zachary Schomburg
29:36 Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi
34:37 Angelo Maneage
36:35 Joe Aguilar
42:08 Tyler Barton
50:58 Vik Shirley
54:53 Michael Bazzett
55:21 Daisuke Shen
57:24 rob mclennan
1:07:51 Laura Walker
1:12:56 Tom Snarsky
1:22:00 Evan Williams
1:34:49 Réka Nyitrai
1:36:24 David Wojciechowski
1:45:40 Jay Besemer
1:49:42 Paul Cunningham
1:58:00 David Dodd Lee
2:03:36 Lesle Lewis
2:10:09 Daniel Miller
2:15:51 Rick Bursky
2:24:08 Kai Ihns
2:27:44 Jeff Alessandrelli
2:37:34 Gary Barwin

new from above/ground press: How to, by Heather Cadsby

How to
Heather Cadsby
$5

How to look at a broken fountain

You see water running down the driveway. Somewhere a source gets turned off and a man in a plaid scarf tut tuts some kids who run away. You look at plaid. It could be someone’s clan. It looks like Dress Gordon. Can it be a fountain wrap? It’s a waste of time to ask. No one knows what is wrong. A girl in a plaid skirt says Huh and heads on to school. You look at a broken fountain. It has never really worked yet.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Heather Cadsby is the author of five books of poetry. The most recent is titled Standing in the Flock of Connections (Brick Books).

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: Witek, Armantrout, Burdick, Dardis + Campos,

forthcoming author Terri Witek has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Rae Armantrout has five new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Alice Burdick has two new poems and a statement in the Spotlight series; forthcoming author Colin Dardis also has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Isabel Sobral Campos has new work up at Black Sun Lit.

new from above/ground press: An Extremely Well-Funded Study of Doors, by Evan Williams

An Extremely Well-Funded Study of Doors
Evan Williams
$5

My door is kicked in. It is splintered and sputtering. I stand in its shards, mixed with window glass. It is a structure which resembles a structure only insofar as I still can turn the knob. I turn the knob, and the door does not work. The knob works, the door does not. It is splintered and sputtering.

The intruder jumps from the window upon seeing my doorway stance. I take in hand the knob as a consolation weapon. In the glass of his exit window is a note and pile of money. There is so much money, $800,000. A tricky amount of cash to carry when hoping to be lithe. It is, however, not as large a bill bundle as expected. It is both overwhelming and underwhelming as a feat of agility. Only underwhelming after it is overwhelming, like the beautifully unkempt outside of an abandoned house.

The note says only: Go out and buy the best door.

                                                               *

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2023
as the twenty-first title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover illustration/design: Angelo Maneage

Evan Williams lives behind a white door in Chicago. It has, in its upper third, a peephole partially painted over. Evan is looking through it right now. Someone is knocking.

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

The Factory Reading Series: Adrienne Adams, Dessa Bayrock + Jason Christie,

The Factory Reading Series Presents:

readings by:

Adrienne Adams (Calgary)

Dessa Bayrock (Ottawa)

+

Jason Christie (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan

Monday, October 9, 2023

Doors 7pm / Reading 730pm

Ten Toes Coffee House and Laundry

837 Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,

Adrienne Adams: artist, poet, writer, curator, herb nerd and gardener living and breathing in Treaty 7 territory, dedicated to creating safer inter-sectional space to honour the feminine. She founded and curated Woolf’s Voices, a reading series and collective (2013-2023) with the mission of creating safer intersectional space. You can view her art and writing in filling Station, Herizons, The Firework New Forum, Freefall, NōD, Antilang, Lida, Corvid Queen (Sword & Kettle Press), Deathcap (Coven editions), Rose Quartz, Politics/letterslive (Car Poems), Polyglot, M(O)thering anthology (Inanna Press), Artizein: Arts & Teaching Journal, Herizons, Art-Care Practices for Restoring the Communal (by B. Bickle & M. Fisher) and others. Her chapbook Red Heads was released by above/ground Press in 2022

She has featured at the Single Onion Reading Series, South Country Fair, The New Beat, The Storytellers (IndieYYC), Expressions Poetry, FlyWheel, U of C Spoken Word, YYCSPEAK, PPF, Ignite Festivals and many others, and co-curated for Single Onion and CiSWF.

Dessa Bayrock lives in Ottawa with two cats, one of whom is very loud and almost always nearby. She ran post ghost press for two years and has published three chapbooks: IS IT ABOUT RUINS AND GHOSTS?, The Trick to Feeling Safe at Home, and Worry & Fuck. She recently completed a doctorate about Canadian literary awards. You can find her, or at least more about her, at dessabayrock.com, or at @dessayo on Instagram.

Jason Christie [pictured] lives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of Canada Post (Invisible), i-ROBOT (Edge/Tesseract), Unknown Actor (Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). His most recent chapbooks are: Glass Language Untitled Exaltation (excerpt) (above / ground) and Heavy Metal Litany (Model press). He is looking for a home for a new manuscript of poetry he wrote with the help of several Python scripts. Most recently, he is trying to get AI to not write poems that rhyme.

some author activity: Witek, eckhoff, Kemp-Gee, Casteels + Archer,

forthcoming author Terri Witek has new work up at Michigan Quarterly Review; kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberley Dyck collaboratively answer some questions on their collaborations at Touch the Donkey; forthcoming author Meghan Kemp-Gee has work in Columba Poetry; and both Michael e. Casteels and Sacha Archer have new visual work up at utsanga.

Jérôme Melançon is a Francopresse recognition award finalist!

Jérôme Melançon is one of the finalists of the Francopresse recognition award for the chronicle of the year alongside Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault and Julie Gillet! As they write via facebook: "To discover the pen of your reporters and your reporter, it is on page 32 of the finalists' notebook."

some author activity: van Vliet, Armantrout, Niespodziany, Eleftherion, Novak + Heroux,

forthcoming author Robert Van Vliet and Rae Armantrout have new poems up at Guesthouse; Benjamin Niespodziany has a new piece up at Maudlin House; Melissa Eleftherion has a new poem up at Sixth Finch; JoAnna Novak is featured in the Between the Covers podcast via Tin House; and Jason Heroux has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series via the dusie blog.