celebrating THIRTY-TWO YEARS of continuous activity
(and nearly fourteen hundred publications), Ottawa publisher above/ground press
presents:readings and chapbook launches by:
Jason Christie (Ottawa), Monty Reid (Ottawa), Beatriz
Hausner (Toronto), Ellen Chang-Richardson (Ottawa), Lina Ramona Vitkauskas
(Toronto) + Mandy Sandhu (Toronto);
lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher
rob mclennan
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 at RedBird
7pm door/7:30pm reading
$18 ; includes copies of three recent above/ground
press titles ; Tickets available via RedBird, or at the door; [see the report here from last year’s event]
author/performer biographies:
Monty
Reid was born in Saskatchewan, and currently lives in
Ottawa.
He is the author of the full-length collection Karst
Means Stone (NeWest Press, 1979), The Life of Ryley (Thistledown
Press, 1981), The Dream of Snowy Owls (Longspoon Press, 1983), The
Alternate Guide (Red Deer College Press, 1985), These Lawns (Red
Deer College Press, 1990), Dog Sleeps: Irritated Texts (NeWest Press,
1993), Crawlspace: New and Selected Poems (House of Anansi Press, 1993),
Flat Side (Red Deer College Press, 1998), Disappointment Island
(Chaudiere Books, 2006), Luskville Reductions (Brick Books, 2008), Garden
(Chaudiere Books, 2014) and Meditatio Placentae (Brick Books, 2016),
as well as a mound of chapbooks. The former Managing Editor of Arc Poetry
Magazine, he was the Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International
Poetry Festival for more than a decade.
Reid is the author of seven titles through
above/ground press: Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe
(2000), cuba A book (2005), In the Garden (sept series) (2011), Moan
Coach (2013), seam (2018), Where there’s smoke (2023) and cuba A book: twentieth anniversary edition (2025), which he will be launching
as part of this event. above/ground press produced Report
from the Reid Society Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022).
Jason Christie lives and writes in Ottawa with his wife
and two children and no pets. His published books include Canada Post
(Invisible), i-Robot (EDGE/Tesseract), Unknown Author
(Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). He’s wrapping up a new
collection that he wrote with/against/for AI.
Christie
is the author of nine chapbooks with
above/ground press: 8th Ave 15th St NW. (2004), Government
(2013), Cursed Objects (2014), The Charm (2015), random_lines
= random.choice (2017), glass language (excerpt) (2018), Bridge
and Burn (2021) and glass / language / untitled / exaltation (2023;
second printing, 2023), which won the bpNichol Chapbook Award, as well as PSA (2025), which
he will be launching as part of this event.
Beatriz Hausner has published several poetry collections,
including The Wardrobe Mistress (2003), Sew Him Up (2010), Enter
the Raccoon (2012), Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (2020) and She
Who Lies Above (2023), as well as many limited edition chapbooks. Her books
have been published internationally and translated into several languages,
including her native Spanish, French, and most recently Greek. Hausner writes
extensively about surrealism and her translations of Spanish American
surrealist poets have exerted an important influence on her own writing.
Hausner has edited journals and magazines, including Open Letter, ellipse,
Exile Quarterly, as well as many of the books published during her
tenure as a publisher of Quattro Books. She is the editor of Someone Editions,
and its current project French Letter Society. Beatriz Hausner was
President of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada and Chair of the
Public Lending Right Commission. She lives in Toronto where she publishes The
Philosophical Egg, an organ or living surrealism. Currently, with Russell
Smith, she curates and runs the lecture series Soluble Fish. She will
be launching her above/ground press debut chapbook, The Oh Oh (2025).
Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning
poet, multi-genre writer, judicial assistant, and editor of Taiwanese and
Chinese Cambodian descent. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen’s writing is
informed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with humanity’s
impact on Earth, and their experience moving through various societies as a
femme-presenting genderqueer. The author/co-author of six other poetry
chapbooks, Ellen’s multi-genre writing has appeared in Augur, Anti-Heroin
Chic, The Ex-Puritan, The Fiddlehead, Grain, Plenitude,
Watch Your Head, and more. Their debut collection, Blood Belies
(Wolsak & Wynn, 2024), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial
Award. They are a co-founder of Riverbed Reading Series, an editor for Room and
long con magazine, and a member of the poetry collective VII. Find out more at www.ehjchang.com. They will be launching
their above/ground press debut, The Moleskin Coat (2025).
Lina Ramona Vitkauskas is
a Canadian-American-Lithuanian formerly from Chicago, living in Toronto. She is
an award-winning, published poet & video poet. She was a 2020 recipient of
a PEN America grant for her development of an experimental poetry collection
that adapted poems from Vsevolod Nekrasov and Bill Knott. She was also the
voice of George Maciunas’ mother in the documentary, GEORGE (directed by
Jeffrey Perkins) screened at MoMA and in Vilnius. Her work has been most
recently featured in/at: Film Video Poetry Society (Los Angeles); Octopus Film
Festival (Gdansk, Poland); John Gagné Contemporary Gallery (Toronto):
Post-Future Era with Kunel Gaur, Justin Neely, and Confusions (Ben Turner);
Poetic Phonotheque (Denmark); MOCA Toronto (public installation); SIFF
(Moldova); Newlyn Film Festival (UK); Festival Fotogenia (Mexico); Midwest
Poetry Fest (US); Vienna Video Poetry Festival (Austria); and the International
Migration & Environmental Film Festival (Canada). Her website is
linaramona.com. She will be launching her above/ground press debut, The
Deaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding (2025).
Mandy Sandhu is a poet based in
Oakville, Ontario. Her work, often in sonnet form, blends vivid imagery with
sharp observation, drawing inspiration from writers like Sylvia Plath, the
Beats, Dale Smith and Ted Berrigan.
Mandy works at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Disability Office.
She will be launching her chapbook debut, The Temporary Space of a
Placenta (2025).
for media inquires, as ever, send a note to rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com,
