new from above/ground press: Process, by Julia Polyck-O’Neill

Process
Julia Polyck-O’Neill
$5

Lisa, Lisa
 
velvet
ribbons      
& tender buttonhole

de-influence
me sip
air

powder’s gentlest
breaths its rare
sapidity

surface the
idle she-
capital

the pungency
of new
bloom

the
rose
bud

dew
& warm
air

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

Julia Polyck-O’Neill (they/she) is an artist, curator, critic, poet, and writer. They are currently the Michael Ridley Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Guelph and a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University’s Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. Starting in July 2024, they will be an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her research explores feminist, digital approaches to interdisciplinary artists’ archives and intersections between archives and creative praxis. Her publications appear in Amodern, Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (The Journal for Aesthetics and General Art History), English Studies in Canada, BC Studies, Canadian Literature, and other places.

This is Polyck-O’Neill’s fourth above/ground press title, after femme (2016), Everything will be taken away (2018) and poem | image | self (2019).

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: Heroux, Houbolt, Banks, Flemmer, Armantrout, Campos + Nilson,

Jason Heroux has some poems up at anti-heroin chic; Kyla Houbolt has a new poem up for National Poetry Month at the Chaudiere Books blog, as does forthcoming author Chris Banks and Kyle Flemmer; Rae Armantrout has a poem up in The New Yorker; Isabel Sobral Campos has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series, and do you know what Geoffrey Nilson has been up to?

new from above/ground press: DAWN’S FOOL, by Kyla Houbolt

DAWN’S FOOL
Kyla Houbolt
$5
 

Dawn’s Fool

In the dawn window
above the night candle
I lift a curtain
to see silhouettes'
slow shift to color
and transparent utility.

Soon day reveals
its sacred flaws
but now sleep's
fugitive magic gentles
what remains shadowed

and there is the dove
who science knows
as a most foolish bird,
gilded now
with a moment's blush
of her ancient roles:
peace bringer, signal
of God's mercy.

I watch her trying
once again to build
a nest where a nest
won't hold
the way she does each year
exactly as I do here.

She will lay
her eggs and some
will hatch to become
more foolish birds
bringing the message of hope
deferred and peace
yet to come.

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

cover photo: David Fedor-Cunningham

Kyla Houbolt writes poems and occasional reviews, and takes care of two goats. https://kylahoubolt.us/

Dawn’s Fool was originally published by Ice Floe Press, in 2020.

This is Houbolt’s second above/ground press title, after But Then I Thought (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

some author activity: Solomon, Berlatsky, Rogal, carisse, Baus + Dreiblatt,

Misha Solomon wrote on the late Ian Stephens for The Fiddlehead; Noah Berlatsky is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Stan Rogal and russell carisse also have poems; and the video from Eric Baus and Ian Dreiblatt's zoom-reading in Jack Krick's Hugely Popular series is now online.

some author activity: Kemp-Gee, Mody, Beaulieu, O'Reilly, Scroggins, van Vliet + Berlatsky,

Meghan Kemp-Gee has a new poem in Southeast Review; Monica Mody has new work in the Spotlight series; Derek Beaulieu has new work at petrichor; Nathanael O'Reilly is interviewed over at The Wild Umbrella; Mark Scroggins is interviewed at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Robert van Vliet also has poems; and Noah Berlatsky has a new poem at dadakuku.

new from above/ground press: Gnomics, by Dale Tracy

Gnomics
Dale Tracy
$5

Ars Poetica

You must eat your midnight and roses
or there’ll be no pounder of spices.

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

Dale Tracy is the author of Derelict Bicycles (Anvil Press, 2022), her first full-length poetry collection. She also wrote the chapbooks Lines That Open (Surrey Art Gallery, 2023), The Mystery of Ornament (above/ground press, 2020), and Celebration Machine (Proper Tales Press, 2018) and the academic monograph With the Witnesses: Poetry, Compassion, and Claimed Experience (McGill-Queen’s, 2017). She is a faculty member in the English Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

This is Tracy’s second above/ground press title, after The Mystery of Ornament (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: Mc Donnell, Caporaso, Levy, Deutch, Unrau, Logan + Pirie,

Conor Mc Donnell has a new essay up at Chris Banks' new online journal, The Woodlot; Angela Caporaso and forthcoming author John Levy both have poems in the new issue of talking about strawberries all of the time; Amanda Deutch has new work at Warmly Zine; and Melanie Dennis Unrau, Nate Logan and Pearl Pirie each have new poems up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month!

some author activity: Davis, Robinson, Eleftherion, Mohammadi, Earl + Boyle,

Jordan Davis has a new poem up at the arts fuse; Kevin Heslop interviews Ben Robinson over at The Miramichi Reader; Melissa Eleftherion has new work up at Barren Magazine; both Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi and Amanda Earl have new work in the ex-puritan; and Frances Boyle has a poem in the new issue of consilience.

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

new from above/ground press: Some Failed Eternity, by Pete Smith

Some Failed Eternity
Pete Smith
$5

PREROGATIVE

We gather under the banner of plurality & wait for
trickle down—as if we was a pyramid, I a dividend

As residual tickles pleasure down our collective
past is, we declare, an open & shut mummy

If it’s all the same to you, with your penchant
for song, we’ll take the descant & run

Kingdom come reigning down over Boswell Field—
one end of the panto horse unzipped a wicked grin

A ghazal does not give room for us to stamp
our authority, lick our prerogative, frank our maleness

We lack lustre but make up for it with
shine—always the reflection never the source

Vertigo, he said, is the only way to go. Vortex,
she said, we have the horizontal & we’re holding

One gender, solo, created an onanian agenda
kept the minutes for years but slid into as usual

We lather under the banality of plura—there’s
safety in numbers, but First Kings is torture

As one who has sired but never harboured, seeded
but not enfleshed, I’ll assume the position. Outside

At the tap-tree of osmosis we hold our breath
to be self-evident, enough for one constitution

A host of feathers in a down of Pentecost
flaming imposters burn us at every turn

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

Pete Smith lives on the unceded land of Tk’emlups te Secwepémc. He has published poems, reviews and essays in the likes of jacket (1st series), Crayon, Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, Alterran Poetry Assemblage, the Fortnightly Review, Capilano Review, et al and the book Bindings with Discords, 2015, from Shearsman which collects six long sequences. He was short-listed for the Montreal International Poetry Prize, 2015, Malahat Review’s Open Seasons Award, 2017 & Arc Poem of the Year, 2023. Recent ventures into translation, from Osip Mandelstam’s poems from the winter of 1933-4, are in Snow lit rev #s 9 &10. He has three previous above/ground chapbooks & works in Touch the Donkey, periodicities & G U  E S T #23. Much gratitude to rob mclennan.

This is Pete Smith’s fourth chapbook with above/ground press, after Strum of Unseen (2008), A New Love/An Aching Stone (2016) and S i n g ... d e s p i t e (2019).

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: In The Margins. . . . . .of french translations found and remixed by russell carisse, by russell carisse

In The Margins. . . . . .of french translations found and remixed by russell carisse
russell carisse
$5

draws me toward the
“ego”
  away

without a sign
a crying out

* * *

I expel myself
motion
perhaps
it is thus
an other
which “I”
of sobs, of vomit
the
tears and
perspire
makes me balk at
father who
desires
I expel
who am only
myself

but one that
turns me inside
that “I” am
my own death

* * *

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

russell carisse is currently living on unceded Wolastoqiyik and Mig’maw territory in New Brunswick. Here they have resettled from Tkaronto into an off-grid trailer in the woods, with their family of people and animals, to grow food and practice other forms of underconsumption. russell is the author of chapbooks, BRICKWORKS (Frog Hollow Press 2021), and English Garden Bondage (above/ground press 2022). Their work can be found online and in print.

This is carisse’s second above/ground press title, after English Garden Bondage (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

some author activity: Brenner, Baus, mclennan, Kaminski + Burnham,

Summer Brenner has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; some of Eric Baus' poems were translated into Czech; rob mclennan is featured via Instagram on Stephanie Austin's mugshot writers; Megan Kaminski features at Etcetera; and Clint Burnham is interviewed in the '12 or 20 questions' series.

some author activity: Babineau, Earl, fitzpatrick, Konchan, Carr, Perry, Blunt Research Group + mclennan,

Kemeny Babineau writes about the late Asphodel Books in Cleveland over at Medium; Amanda Earl, ryan fitzpatrick, Virginia Konchan, Emily Carr, Paul Perry and Blunt Research Group, among many others, have work in the winter volume of Action, Spectacle, an issue guest-edited by more than a dozen contemporary poets and editors, including rob mclennan.

new from above/ground press: BUSY SECRET, by Micah Ballard

BUSY SECRET
Micah Ballard
$5

FRANCIS FARMER

Embroidering
pranks delicate helix hand
please forgive my radiance
of new and ferocious types
this is your tomb too
the remote control is for everyone
in the sky there’s no competition
cigarettes smoke themselves
all the clouds could care less
banter is only banter
it polishes its own secrets
when the heavenly demons
come back where will you be?
Please keep next to me

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

Cover image/design: Colter Jacobsen

Micah Ballard is the author of over a dozen books of poetry including Waifs and Strays (City Lights Books), Afterlives (Bootstrap Press), The Michaux Notebook (FMSBW), Krewes (Bootstrap Press), Selected Prose, 2008-19 (Blue Press), Evangeline Downs (Ugly Duckling Presse), Daily Vigs (Bird & Beckett Books), Vesper Chimes (Gas Meter), Muddy Waters (State Champs), and Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners (Bootstrap Press). He lives in San Francisco with poet Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, their daughter Lorca, and co-edits Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions.

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: The Old Man: new stories, by Clint Burnham

The Old Man: new stories
Clint Burnham
$5
 

1. How was the conference, I asked him by text. It was 5 in the morning my time, an hour later where he was. Pretty good. Some interesting stuff. Some eye roll stuff. The usual.

2. Her friend sent her some photographs of ikebana she had done. Their stark minimalism made her think of death - her mother had just died, it was on her mind I suppose. She looked it up and sure enough, under “ikebana” she read “A flower arrangement made to mark a death is typically constructed of white flowers, with some dead leaves and branches, arranged to express peace.” In her mind she dropped out the “is,” and thought ikebana was just about death, not one of the options.

3. She mourned her mother who had died two months earlier, a mother who moved out when she was 8 years old, and now they - she and her sister - had to, had to sort all of her stuff, she’s given them nothing but bothering in life - okay, she gave birth to us but that was a bit of a settler’s gift, she thought, a smallpox blanket. She had given them nothing in life. And now they, her sister and she, had to sort their mother’s shit. Including some actual shit, because towards the end of her life she was using Depends and there were a few in the garbage can in her room. It was a white plastic bucket made to resemble an aluminum can, with chrome clamps on either side to keep the lid on tight so smells wouldn’t leak out.

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

Clint Burnham teaches in Burnaby and lives in Vancouver. He was born in Comox, British Columbia, which is on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks (Sahtloot) First Nation, centred historically on kwaniwsam.

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: carisse, Armantrout, Scroggins, Logan + Reid,

russell carisse has a new poem up at dadakuku; Rae Armantrout has a poem up in The New Yorker; Mark Scroggins' work gets some good critical attention by James Berger over at Jacket2; Nate Logan is featured over at Leavings; and Monty Reid is interviewed by Pinhole Poetry, which also includes a new poem.

new from above/ground press: Wars, by Angela Caporaso

Wars
Angela Caporaso
$5

Note:
These visual poems were inspired by some short poems by Wystan Hugh Auden.

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

Angela Caporaso was born in 1962 and she is a visual artist from Caserta (Italy). She has begun to take an interest in figurative arts since the eighties, exhibiting repeatedly both in Italy and abroad. Many of her works are part of public and private collection adding numerous publications to her credit. Angela Caporaso is focusing on visual poetry and artists books, working with collages, trash-art and, more recently, digital formats. http://www.angelacaporaso.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: Fifty-Two Lines About Henry, by Cary Fagan

Fifty-Two Lines About Henry
Cary Fagan
$5

He felt vaguely guilty that blue was no longer his favourite colour.




He should never have bragged about loving the scariest horror movies but now there was nothing he could do about it.




Yes, he would write a sequel to Crime and Punishment.




Hello? He said, hello, hello, hello, hello?

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

Cary Fagan’s first chapbook was published in an edition of six copies, all typed by him. Some forty years later he is a co-editor of the chapbook house, espresso. He also publishes books for adults and kids, most recently The Animals (Book*Hug). He lives in Toronto.

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: The Pig’s Valise, by BLUNT RESEARCH GROUP

The Pig’s Valise
BLUNT RESEARCH GROUP
$5

                                       Facing home
                                                      on and off
                                snatching a little rest
                                      before the owner gets back
                                      we see the other creatures
                   pigs and goats
                          do any of us really think
                          we’ll be turned back into sailors?

           The animal forehead
                     draped with coins
                     untrue that we know

                                          no need to know

                                                  NEVER BE THE SAILOR.

              Had something been forgotten
                                                an adjustment a turn
                                           a final step?

                               Wires crackle
                                       discharged on a word
                                    wrongly subsisting
                               the beautiful parts of the dance                 
                                                             signaled from below

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

BLUNT RESEARCH GROUP (BRG) is an anonymous collective of poets, artists, and scholars from diverse backgrounds. Its poems and essays have been published in journals such as Chicago Review, Gulf Coast, and Fence, and in books and pamphlets from Noemi Press (Lost Privilege Company, 2016) and in the Poetry Series of Wesleyan University Press (The Work-Shy, 2016, 2018)--a volume selected by Stephanie Burt in the Yale Review as one of the “Best First Books of Poetry” of 2016. Writing by BRG has also been adapted for theater production by Asher Hartman and incorporated into “States of Incarceration,” a show which traveled to museums in seventeen states in the U.S. between 2016 and 2019. Mike Davis has described the poetry of The Work-Shy as “an archaeology of humanity that should haunt us forever.”

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