above/ground press: 2024 subscriptions now available!

The race to the half-century continues! And with nearly THIRTEEN HUNDRED TITLES produced to date and nearly thirty-one years, there’s been a ton of above/ground press activity over the past calendar year, including MORE THAN FIFTY TITLES (so far) produced in 2023 alone (including poetry chapbooks by Robert van Vliet, Stephen Cain, Geoffrey Olsen, Heather Cadsby, Grant Wilkins (three chapbooks this year!), nina jane drystek, Sophia Magliocca, Jennifer Baker, Karen Massey, rob mclennan (two chapbooks!), Jérôme Melançon, Monty Reid, George Bowering + Artie Gold, Brad Vogler, Andrew Gorin, Julia Drescher, Ken Norris (five chapbooks in three years!), Joseph Donato, Samuel Ace, Stuart Ross, Leesa Dean, Jessi MacEachern, Jordan Davis, Nick Chhoeun, Ben Jahn, William Vallières, Derek Beaulieu, Isabel Sobral Campos, Mark Scroggins, Laura Walker, Nathanael O'Reilly, Lindsey Webb, Jason Heroux and Barbara Henning, all of which are still in print), as well as issues of the poetry quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], the occasional journal G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] (with 2023 issues guest-edited by Laurie Fuhr and Adam Katz) and two new issues of The Peter F. Yacht Club. 2023 also saw the continuation of the Report from the Society series, producing individual festschrifts (as this period could use some more positive) celebrating the work of Pearl Pirie, Nikki Reimer, Jessica Smith, Brenda Iijima and Amish Trivedi! And there are plenty more coming! Part of the fun is that none of the subjects have a clue the projects are even happening until finished copies land on their doorstep.

The Factory Reading Series is gearing up for some events again soon (including next week!), but have you seen the virtual reading series over at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics (with new monthly online content, by the way; the pandemic-era extension of above/ground press). And the next edition of the ottawa small press fair is November 18th! with a reading upstairs at the Carleton Tavern the night before, even!

One can't forget the prose chapbook series that above/ground started during the pandemic-era, with new titles this year by Evan Williams, Jamie Hilder and Ryan Stearne, with a further forthcoming by Joan Naviyuk Kane! Forthcoming items through the press also include individual chapbooks by Saba Pakdel, Lydia Unsworth, Katie Ebbitt, Colin Dardis, Russell Carisse, Micah Ballard, Cary Fagan, Amanda Deutch, Kyla Houbolt, Gary Barwin, Adriana Oniță, Noah Berlatsky, Blunt Research Group, Phil Hall + Steven Ross Smith, Zane Koss, Peter Myers, Gil McElroy, Ben Robinson, Miranda Mellis, MLA Chernoff, Terri Witek, Pete Smith, Marita Dachsel and Kevin Stebner (a couple of which have already been sent to the printer, by the by), as well as a whole slew of publications that haven't even been decided on yet.

Oh, and groundswell: the best of the third decade of above/ground press, 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing) is available for pre-order, yes? but you probably already knew that.

2024 annual subscriptions (and resubscriptions) are now available: $75 (CAN; American subscribers, $75 US; $100 international) for everything above/ground press makes from the moment you subscribe through to the end of 2023, including chapbooks, broadsheets, The Peter F. Yacht Club and G U E S T and quarterly poetry journal Touch the Donkey (have you been keeping track of the dozens of interviews posted to the Touch the Donkey site?). Honestly: if I’m making sixty or seventy titles per calendar year, wouldn’t you call that a good deal? I mean, it all does seem ridiculous.

Anyone who subscribes on or by December 1st will also receive the last above/ground press package (or two or three) of 2023, including those exciting new titles by all of those folk listed above, plus whatever else the press happens to produce before the turn of the new year, as well as Touch the Donkey #39 (scheduled to release on October 15), featuring new work by Robyn Schelenz, Andy Weaver, Dessa Bayrock, Anselm Berrigan, Noah Berlatsky, Rasiqra Revulva and Alana Solin. Can you believe the journal turns ten years old next spring?

Why wait? You can either send a cheque (payable to rob mclennan) to 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 7M9, or send money via PayPal or e-transfer to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com (or through the PayPal button at robmclennan.blogspot.com).

Stay safe! Stay home! Wear a mask! Wash your damned hands!