some author activity: Armantrout, Naughton, Barwin, Beaulieu, Kratz + mclennan,

Rae Armantrout has two poems in Granta; Katie Naughton has a poem up at Poets.org; Gary Barwin is interviewed over at River Street Writing, and again, via podcast by Jamie Tennant; Derek Beaulieu offers his year in review, as does Al Kratz, and rob mclennan as well.

happy merry seasonal things, from your pals at above/ground press,

some author activity: Naughton, Swensen, O'Reilly, Mohammadi, Rogal + Beaulieu,

Katie Naughton is interviewed by Josephine Gawtry for the blog for Colorado Review, as is Cole Swensen, interviewed by Jake Friedman; Nathanael O'Reilly has work in the fourth issue of Saltbush; Khashayar Mohammadi has some new poems in The /tƐmz/ Review, as does Stan Rogal; and Derek Beaulieu offers his 2023 year in review.

new from above/ground press: But Then I Thought, by Kyla Houbolt

But Then I Thought
Kyla Houbolt
$5

Ethics

Is it ethical to be a frog when the snow is on the ground? To be a frog in winter, in a sound mind and body of amphibious elegance? It isn't right! sing the bugs in their dens, we never got a chance to have amphibious elegance, we only got chitinous chic which is far far less groovy. The bugs grouse among themselves, crowding the rotting tree trunks, clicking and whirring and taking committee votes. But the unconcerned frog, who is not hungry for bug at the moment, casts no stones. There is no call to fiddle with all them bugs! thinks the frog to itself, preening in its winter mudhole. Meanwhile, Creator, in the form of Raven, listens in with amusement. None of these creatures know what's to come, or how blessed their lives are. Though that smug frog might need to be taken down a peg or two, he thinks. Maybe it's time to send in the crows. And of course the poets are listening to all this, and each one is writing notes, and all the notes are different. This is the blessing and the curse of poetry: that it never agrees and that it never agrees. Ethics? Maybe in the spaces between.

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

I read Kyla Houbolt’s poems with excitement — where else am I going to hear about spam farms, heron language, wish onions, and other statistically improbable but poetically inevitable concepts? Who else can find complete and shapely stories to go with those words? What happens next? Something we wouldn’t guess, I think.
        Jordan Davis, author of Noise and Yeah, No

cover artwork by the author

Kyla Houbolt has been writing poems all her life, and began publishing in 2019.  Her first chapbook, Dawn's Fool, was published by Ice Floe press and is sold out; her second, Tuned, was published by CCCP Chapbooks + Subpress. Surviving Death, from Broken Spine, is her third. But Then I Thought is her fourth.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Sublunary Review, Barren, Janus, Juke Joint, Moist, Neologism, Ghost City Review, and Saginaw. Most of her online work can be found on her Linktree: @luaz_poet | Linktree Her current social media presence is on BlueSky Social (still in beta as of this writing), here: @luaz.bsky.social, facebook.com/kyla.houbolt/ and on Instagram @kyla_luaz. https://kylahoubolt.us/

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 PANDEMIC INVENTORY, SPRING-SUMMER 2020, BROOKLYN NY, by Zane Koss

A PANDEMIC INVENTORY, SPRING-SUMMER 2020, BROOKLYN NY
Zane Koss
$5

when we thought it would be over in a month or so.

when we thought it would be over by summer.

when we thought it would be over by the fall, surely.

when we thought probably by christmas we could travel again.

when we began planning travel for next summer.

when we pushed those plans to next winter.

when it was all going to be over soon.

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

Zane Koss is a poet and translator, currently living in Guelph, Ontario. He is the author of harbour grids (Invisible, 2022) and co-translator of Hugo García Manríquez’s Commonplace with Gerónimo Sarmiento Cruz and Whitney DeVos. His poetry, translations, and essays can be found in various print and web publications, and a handful of chapbooks, including Invermere Grids and The Odes (Incomplete with above/ground press. His next book of poetry, Country Music, is forthcoming from Invisible Publishing in 2025.

This is Koss’ third above/ground press chapbook, after Invermere Grids (2019) and The Odes (Incomplete (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: Turnbull, Hogg, Houbolt, Armantrout, Baker + mclennan,

a videopoem by Chris Turnbull (and Robert Hogg) is now online at The Typescript; Kyla Houbolt has new work up in the Spotlight series; Rae Armantrout has a new poem online, via Poetry Magazine; Jennifer Baker recently launched her interactive poem, "Hands"; and rob mclennan has recently been announced as a Juror for the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2024!

some author activity: Mody, Berlatsky, Johnson, Rogal, Morton, Boyle + Kronovet,

Monica Mody has a substack now, and has work featured at Scroll India; five fleas has published a short poem by Noah Berlatsky; Chris Johnson is interviewed by Andrew French for the Page Fright Podcast; Stan Rogal, Colin Morton and Frances Boyle each have new work in the latest issue of Pinhole Poetry; and Jennifer Kronovet has new work up at Zocalo: Public Square.

new from above/ground press: Between the Lakes, by Ben Robinson

Between the Lakes
Ben Robinson
$5

Between the Lakes Treaty – 1784 – revised 1792



– to ensure its boundary line was more



accurately laid down – nearest corner of the tract to



Hamilton – the creek that flows from a

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

“Between the Lakes” owes research debts to Darin Wybenga of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Saman Goudarzi.

The italicized sections quote from the text of the Between the Lakes Treaty [1792] which can be viewed via the QR code.

Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. His first book, The Book of Benjamin, an essay on naming, birth and grief was published by Palimpsest Press in the fall of 2023. He has only ever lived in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. You can find him online at benrobinson.work.

This is Robinson’s third above/ground press title, after Talking Gibberish to Strangers (2019) and Dept. of Continuous Improvement (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: Reimer, Mody, Armantrout, Niespodziany + periodicities,

Nikki Reimer is interviewed by Ariel Gordon in Prairie Books Now; Monica Mody is welcomed to town in an article celebrating Diwali by Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, in the Santa Barbara Independent; Rae Armantrout is featured over at Only Poems with poems and even an interview; Benjamin Niespodziany has new work at gone lawn; and you saw that periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics is now at Blsky, yes?

new from above/ground press: with the lakes, by Colin Dardis

with the lakes
Colin Dardis
$5

Shipwrecked


i.
Aweigh of junk piles,
untold centuries
teased from their rust,
resurfacing; a gravity
towards the shoreline.

ii.
Disturbance amidst rocks:
seabed whispering
as currents play their hands,
lifting pennies from eyes,
a cure for blindness.

iii.
Without light
and too much weight,
hull and reef conjoined.
The lighthouse blinks
in disbelief.

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

Cover image: extract from And Man appeared; questioning the earth from which he emerged and which attracts him, he made his way toward sombre brightness by Odilon Redon, 1883

Colin Dardis is a neurodivergent writer, editor and sound artist from Northern Ireland. His most recent book is Apocrypha: Collected Early Poems (Cyberwit, 2022). His work, largely influenced by his experiences with depression and Asperger's, has been published widely throughout Ireland, the UK and USA. Previous collections include All This Light In Which To See The Dead: Pandemic Journals 2020-21 (Rancid Idols Productions, 2022), Endless Flower (Rancid Idols Productions, 2021), The Dogs of Humanity (Fly on the Wall Press, 2019), and the x of y (Eyewear, 2018). The latest release from his DARDIS sound project is Funerealism (Inner Demons Records, 2022).

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