some author activity: Graham, Hogg, Blouin, Carr, Henning + Niespodziany,

Lea Graham has a poem for Bob Hogg up at The Typescript, as does Michael Blouin; Julie Carr has new work in the first issue of atsmospheric quarterly; Barbara Henning now has an author page at Poets.org; and Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up at JMWW.

Jérôme Melançon reviews Lori Anderson Moseman's OKAY? (2022) and too many words (2022) at The Ampersand Review

I'm not sure how I missed posting this, but our pal (and above/ground press author) Jérôme Melançon, poet, translator and critic, provided first reviews for two different Lori Anderson Moseman above/ground press titles--OKAY? (2022) and too many words (2022)--over at The Ampersand Review. Thanks so much! You should go here to see the whole review. Why didn't I post this earlier?

new from above/ground press: The Green Rose, by Phil Hall and Steven Ross Smith

The Green Rose
in collaboration
Steven Ross Smith
Phil Hall
$6

Morning performance poem
rattles & whistles & gaaaks

great-tailed grackle verse
howler monkeys & Frank Sinatra

the bird that isn’t there
has a name

the swinging howler chorus
is missing here this week

to be frank
a lesson in the line

collapsing form as foam
leaves a crockery bit

of green rose
then takes it back out

then in as noise
all day no one

watching or listening
the horizon erased by rain

never makes landfall
what lifts is dirty & pushes

what collapses
is clear & pulls free

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Phil Hall has a new book out this spring: Vallejo’s Marrow (Beautiful Outlaw, 2024). Other recent books are: The Ash Bell (Beautiful Outlaw, 2022); Toward a Blacker Ardour (Beautiful Outlaw, 2021); and Niagara & Government (Pedlar, 2020).

Steven Ross Smith loves music, practices yoga, and is fascinated by moss. Disparate threads weave through his seven-book poetic series fluttertongue. A new book is Glimmer: Short Fictions (Radiant Press, 2022). He writes in Victoria, BC.

This is Phil Hall’s fifth above/ground press chapbook (not including the secret chapbook), after Verulam (2009) and A Wolf Lake Chorus (2021), and the collaborations Shikibu Shuffle (with Andrew Burke; 2012) and Alternative Girders (with Stuart Kinmond; 2018). The festschrift Report from the [Phil] Hall Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 appeared in 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

Jaclyn Desforges reviews nina jane drystek's Missing Matrilineal (2023) and Sophia Magliocca's Girl Gives Long-Fingered Self-Portrait (2023) in Hamilton Review of Books

Hamilton writer Jaclyn Desforges offers first reviews for nina jane drystek's Missing Matrilineal (2023) and Sophia Magliocca's Girl Gives Long-Fingered Self-Portrait (2023) as part of a three-title review (alongside Ben Robinson's The Book of Benjamin), "The Presence of Absence," over at Hamilton Review of Books. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here, or excerpted below. As Desforges writes:

When I chose the collections to juxtapose for this review, I absolutely did not look for connections in advance. I chose two chapbooks that appealed to me: Missing Matrilineal by nina jane drystek and Girl Gives Long-Fingered Self Portrait by Sophia Magliocca, both published in 2023 by above/ground press. But I was immediately struck by the pervasive feeling of absence in drystek’s collection: The first poem, “i haven’t found the ladle yet,” begins with the image of an empty bowl. drystek creates a portrait of memory, loss and grief by focusing on what remains after a beloved person’s death: “the row of cedars he planted,” she writes. “the quilts she sewed.” drystek’s poems are spacious and vivid, dancing between English, Polish and French. We see wallpaper curls and cupboard-aged whiskey, imagine borscht on our tongues.

In the final and longest poem, “my second sister makes her apparition,” the speaker addresses her sister Isabelle who, as we learn later in the acknowledgements, “lived for the briefest of moments.” Still reeling from The Book of Benjamin, I was struck by the lines “a girl unborn / est une femme fantôme,” “surely there is dust that remembers,” “a body that wasn’t,” and “name that is.” This collection is intimate and tender – full of grief and bittersweetness. It’s about death, which is another way of saying it’s about love.  

While drystek’s chapbook is a collage of objects left behind, Magliocca’s is, as the title indicates, a self-portrait. In the first movement of the collection, the speaker lists details about herself – “I’m a fast talker slow walker average daughter,” Magliocca writes. “I’m a good swimmer for three strokes.” The first poem, “Note,” is made up of a single stanza, but as Magliocca goes on, the poems begin to break apart – the next three contain four quatrains, and as the speaker goes on, revealing increasingly vulnerable details, Magliocca adds white space and staggered line breaks. “I spend my evenings in the bathroom / staring at that face / stretched across the chrome drain,” she writes. By page 11 of the chapbook, the repeated word “memories” snakes across the page, and on page 17, the second movement of the collection begins with what the speaker is afraid to carry: “big boxes up / narrow staircases / rusty knives on flat trays.” Then, after a long gap, the word babies appears neatly in the centre of the page. The final poem begins, “I know nine months is 274 days.” It appears on the page like a series of waves, or the curves of a body, and goes on to explore the complex feelings surrounding the speaker’s abortion. “I know your would-be birthday,” Magliocca writes. “fire sign like your father / imagine soft curls / auburn.” And there again, the immovable presence of absence – that blank space of might-have-been.

some author activity: Mohammadi, Robinson, carisse, Campanello + Williams,

Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi is interviewed with Klara du Plessis in the latest issue of The Temz Review, where Ben Robinson is also interviewed, and russell carisse also has new work; Kimberly Campanello and Wayne A. Gilbert's 2023 conversation "Moving Nowhere Here" is up on YouTube; and Evan Williams has some new work up at Tyger Quarterly.

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #33 : 2024 VERSeFest Special,

The Peter F Yacht Club #33
2024 VERSeFest Special
lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan,
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2024 participants, including Jennifer Baker, Manahil Bandukwala, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, nina jane drystek, Klara du Plessis, Amanda Earl, Anita Lahey, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, James Moran, Pearl Pirie, Jaclyn Piudik, Monty Reid, Sandra Ridley, Marjorie Silverman, Madeleine Stratford, D.S. Stymeist, Derek Webster and Grant Wilkins,

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[a small stack of copies will be distributed free as part of the fourteenth annual VERSeFest, March 21-24, 2023]

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: abject sutures, by Melissa Eleftherion

abject sutures
melissa eleftherion
$5

SHELL

six little explosions
“under a glass bell”
how we’re taught
to contain
the abject
little burst sutures
in ammonite

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. They are the author of the full-length poetry collections, field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), as well as twelve chapbooks including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022).  Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Sixth Finch, Entropy, & Barren Magazine. Melissa now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Ukiah. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

This is Eleftherion’s third chapbook with above/ground press, after little ditch (2018) and trauma suture (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: Earl, Abel, mclennan, Brockwell + Armantrout,

Amanda Earl has an essay on michèle provost over at many gendered mothers; Jordan Abel has a new essay up at the Yale University Press website; Stephen Brockwell interviews rob mclennan via podcast as part of Writers Festival Radio; and Rae Armantrout (among others) shares a reminiscence as part of "Remembering Lyn Hejinian" at The Paris Review.

VERSeFest 2024: Reid, drystek, Earl, Dolman, Turnbull, Christie + Mohammadi,

above/ground press authors Monty Reid, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, AJ Dolman, Chris Turnbull, Jason Christie and Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi, among plenty of others, read next week in Ottawa as part of VERSeFest 2024 (March 21-24)! Might we see you there? And in case you weren't aware, there have been an array of interviews with a number of authors reading at this year's festival posted over at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, including an interview with AJ Dolman by Amanda Earl and Sandra Ridley by Margo LaPierre, and interviews with Khashayar Mohammadi and Jason Christie by myself (interviews with Chris Turnbull, Laila Malik + Klara du Plessis to post over the next few days!).

new from above/ground press: From Desire Without Expectation, by Jacob Wren

From Desire Without Expectation
Jacob Wren
$5

Writing comes easily to me, while I find most other things in life exceedingly difficult. This is often a problem with writers. The truth of what they write is deeply shaded by a writerly distance from life which is also often connected to various forms of loneliness. Writers are often not the best people when it comes to understanding either community or solidarity. Maybe I should only speak for myself. Certain kinds of religious conversions bring one directly into community with others who are similarly converted. As you might have already guessed, I lean rather heavily into not wanting to be part of any club that might have me as a member. Religion has always been one of the places people look to for community. As has often been noted, in our current world, community can be rather hard to come by and even harder to maintain. One of the many reasons religion hasn’t disappeared, as was not so long ago predicted, is it allows its adherents to mainline a sense of community. This is the reason I find easiest to understand.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
as the twenty-fourth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Jacob Wren makes literature, collaborative performances and exhibitions. His books include: Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor, Authenticity is a Feeling and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim. As artistic codirector of Montreal-based interdisciplinary group PME-ART he has co-created performances such as: Individualism Was A Mistake, The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information, Every Song I’ve Ever Written and Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la répétition. Most recently PME-ART presented the online conference Vulnerable Paradoxes and the related free PDF publication In response to Vulnerable Paradoxes. International collaborations include: a stage adaptation of the Wolfgang Koeppen novel Der Tod in Rom (Sophiensaele, Berlin), An Anthology of Optimism (co-created with Pieter De Buysser/Campo, Ghent) and No Double Life For The Wicked (co-created with Tori Kudo/The Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan.) His internet presence is often defined by a fondness for quotations.

This is Jacob Wren’s second chapbook with above/ground press, following Tributes To The Subtlety Of Matter (1996).

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: HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY, by Katie Ebbitt

HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY
Katie Ebbitt
$5

to start
here is

invisible
changeable
borders

a threshold            
the vessel         
the stomach

see     
what you             
come out of
came out with

now                 
bloodied
by consummation

to walk
public
ground

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Katie Ebbitt is a poet/psycho-behavioralist living in NYC. She is the author of the chapbooks ANOTHER LIFE (Counterpath, 2016), Para Ana (Inpatient, 2019), and Air Sign (Creative Writing Department, 2024). Fecund, her first full-length book, will be released by Keith LLC.  

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 : tenth anniversary sale,

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal]: anyone who subscribes (or resubscribes) anytime between now and the end of April 2024 has the bonus option of three (3) items: three Touch the Donkey back issues of your choice, OR three above/ground press (2023 or 2024) titles of your choice (while supplies last) OR any combination thereof.

OR: copies of ten (10) different back issues for $50 / copies of five (5) different back issues for $25 / copies of twenty different back issues for $100 / while supplies last on individual issues, naturally / add $5 for US orders ; add $10 for international orders,

Issue #41 of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] (a slightly larger issue than usual) lands on April 15, 2024: with new work by Julie Carr, rob mclennan, Pattie McCarthy, ryan fitzpatrick, Conyer Clayton, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Amanda Earl, Gil McElroy and John Barlow.

2023-2024 above/ground press titles include chapbooks by: Sacha Archer, Dale Tracy, Melissa Eleftherion, Kyle Flemmer, Saba Pakdel, Katie Ebbitt, Amanda Deutch, Phil Hall + Steven Ross Smith, Peter Myers, Terri Witek, Pete Smith, russell carisse, Micah Ballard, Clint Burnham, Angela Caporaso, Cary Fagan, Blunt Research Group, Gary Barwin, Lydia Unsworth, Kyla Houbolt, Zane Koss, Ben Robinson, Colin Dardis, Aaron Tucker, Adriana Oniță, Julie Carr + rob mclennan, Stephen Collis, Rae Armantrout, Jason Christie, Nikki Reimer, Noah Berlatsky, Miranda Mellis, MLA Chernoff, Marita Dachsel, Report from the fitzpatrick Society, Kevin Stebner, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Gil McElroy, Robert van Vliet, Stephen Cain, Geoffrey Olsen, Heather Cadsby, Evan Williams, Grant Wilkins, nina jane drystek, Sophia Magliocca, Jennifer Baker, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, Jérôme Melançon, Monty Reid, Jamie Hilder, George Bowering + Artie Gold, Ryan Stearne, Brad Vogler, Andrew Gorin, Report from the Pirie Society, Julia Drescher, Ken Norris, Joseph Donato, Samuel Ace, Stuart Ross, Leesa Dean, Report from the Reimer Society, Jessi MacEachern, G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #26, Jordan Davis, The Peter F Yacht Club #32 : 2023 VERSeFest Special, Report from the Smith Society, Nick Chhoeun, Ben Jahn, William Vallières, Report from the Iijima Society, Derek Beaulieu, Isabel Sobral Campos, Mark Scroggins, Laura Walker, Report from the Trivedi Society, Nathanael O'Reilly, Lindsey Webb, Jason Heroux and Barbara Henning.

Touch the Donkey: 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: Konchan, Witek, van Vliet, Drescher, Oniță + Armantrout,

Virginia Konchan has a poem up at Sixth Finch; forthcoming author Terri Witek is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Robert van Vliet has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; the video of an October 2023 reading at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University by Julia Drescher and C. J. Martin is now online as part of the Poetry Center Digital Archive; Adriana Oniță has work in the Spotlight series; and Rae Armantrout has four new poems up at Plume.

new from above/ground press: new york ironweed, by Amanda Deutch

new york ironweed
Amanda Deutch
$5

seaside goldenrod


salty witch

which witch is witch?

all of them!

everyone is a little

afraid

please tickle them

I am
becoming
a very large woman

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover image by Amanda Deutch / cyanotype on fabric, 2023
digital composition by Charles Denson

Amanda Deutch is a poet born and raised in New York City. She is the author of several chapbooks including Bodega Night Pigeon Riot (above/ground press, 2020), and Surf Avenue & 29th Street, Coney Island (Least Weasel Press, 2018). Deutch’s poetry has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Oversound, The Rumpus, Cimarron Review and in many other journals and magazines. An artist book collaboration with Sarah Nicholls, wild anemone, is forthcoming in 2024. She lives in Brooklyn where she is the founder of Parachute Literary Arts.

This is Deutch's second above/ground press title, after bodega night pigeon riot (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

new from above/ground press: Alternate histories, by Kyle Flemmer

Alternate histories
Kyle Flemmer
$5

Microlith >> Total war

/


Microlith
Weapon
Total war

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kyle Flemmer is a writer, publisher, and digital media artist from Calgary in Treaty 7 territory. He founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Co. in 2014 and his first book, Barcode Poetry, was published in 2021. Kyle's first trade book of poetry, Supergiants, is forthcoming from Wolsak & Wynn in 2025. His most recent chapbooks include WikiPoems from 845 Press and Gourmand from Paper View Books.

This is Flemmer’s third chapbook with above/ground press, after ASTRAL PROJECTION (2017) and Coronagraphic (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