new from above/ground press: shore thing, by J.R. Carpenter

shore thing
J. R. Carpenter
$6

knee pads. 
joint aches.

glove hands.
wave wakes.

palm reads. 
sharp grit. 

boot slides.
slime slick. 

wind bone.
cold keen. 

caught prone.
torch beam.

dull gleam. 
of marble.

the sheen.
of cut.

stone dressed. 
for something.

grander.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2026
produced in part for activity at Banff Centre, May 11-18, 
2026, as part of the 50th anniversary of the University of 
Alberta Writer-in-Residence program
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

J. R. Carpenter is a queer artist, writer, researcher, fossil hunter, PLA licensed mudlark, and Lecturer in Creative Practice in the School of English at University of Leeds, UK. The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the judges of the Forward Prizes 2018. A General History of the Air was published by above/ground in 2020. This is a Picture of Wind was listed in The Guardian’s best poetry books of 2020 and featured in the Digital Storytelling exhibition at the British Library 2023. Measures of Weather was a poetry book of the month in The Observer and a finalist for the Laurel Prize 2025. p a u s e. was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2026. For more information, visit: luckysoap.com

This is Carpenter’s second chapbook with above/ground press, after A General History of the Air (2020).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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