report: the above/ground press 33rd anniversary reading/launch/party!

Happy anniversary! The thirty-third anniversary reading/launch/party occurred over the weekend at Anina’s Café in Vanier (a space of which I am becoming increasingly fond). Thirty-three years! And nearly fifteen hundred publications-to-date, by the by [don't forget the current anniversary sale, happening for but a few more days]. Do you recall my report from last year's event? Or the year prior? With readings and launches of new above/ground press titles by Stephanie Bolster (Montreal), Mark Goldstein (Toronto), Cara Goodwin (Ottawa), Sonja Greckol (Toronto), Harold Hoefle (Ottawa), James Spyker (Toronto) and Grant Wilkins (Ottawa). The crowd for this event was impressive (with some notable absences, due to travel etc), with the occasional above/ground press author and editor sprinkled throughout, including Cameron Anstee, Frances Boyle, Ottawa's current English-language poet laureate, David O'Meara, and Tamara Fairchild (above/ground press produced a chapbook of hers back in 1997, don't forget), as well as artist and photographer Paul Elter, Ottawa writer Matthew Firth and visual artist Daniel Sharp, among others.

Armed with broken foot and accompanying boot, Montreal-based poet and editor Stephanie Bolster opened by launching the recent twentieth anniversary edition of her above/ground press title, BIODÔME, a title originally produced through the press way back in 2006. This new edition was actually prompted by Montreal poet Misha Solomon, who had worked his own chapbook-length response to Bolster's work, and his chapbook-response was produced simultaneously to Bolster's new edition, which also holds an introduction by Solomon [see his introduction to such here; see Bolster's afterword to the collection here]. In case you don't recall, above/ground press actually produced Bolster's solo debut, the chapbook Three Bloody Words, back in 1996, and it was rather terrifying to realize that it has now been ten years since we produced the twentieth anniversary edition of that particular title. 

The second reader was Ottawa-based poet Cara Goodwin, a poet barely a year or so older than the press itself, which does tend to make one feel ancient. After Bolster's reading, it was very exciting to counterpoint such an established writer against a chapbook debut, as Goodwin was launching her new chapbook, Map of What Was Taken, a title that had been in the works for some time. Clearly, Goodwin is a poet worth paying attention to.

The third reader was Toronto poet, editor and publisher Mark Goldstein, launching his own above/ground press debut, The Common Dark, a chapbook-length section of a poetry title he has forthcoming soon (hopefully later this year). How many years have I been soliciting Goldstein for a manuscript? Oh, too many to count (but the wait was completely worth it). I look forward to seeing how this particular title fits into the larger context of something book-length.

The next reader was Toronto poet and translator Sonja Greckol, who landed in town to launch a slightly older title, Dark Matter —Sonja Greckol translation, Materia Oscura—Rocío Céron, Dark Matter – Diverted—Sonja Greckol etranstranslation (2025), that appeared just around Christmas of last year [see the essay she wrote on translating such here] (a title that is soon to appear in a second printing). Part of what became remarkable about this event was that Greckol requested a Spanish speaker from the audience to read Céron's original text, and Goodwin's friend, Dan Josh, someone who claimed to have "no prior relationship to poetry," but read brilliantly! A remarkable blend of voices and considerations.

It was very good to hear Harold Hoefle, a (formerly Montreal-based) poet who recently retired from teaching at John Abbott College, especially given his recent relocation to Ottawa. Having a new chapbook, Leaning In, and him part of this launch felt a nice way to be able to welcome him to town, especially given the number of years he's been travelling in for the sake of multiple literary events, as well as social interactions with Ottawa writers (there's a poem in this new collection for the late Ottawa poet Michael Dennis, for example). Apparently Matthew Firth, back when he was a chapbook publisher, produced Hoefle's chapbook debut some twenty-plus years ago, which I didn't know. 

Toronto-based writer James Spyker and his work aren't the same locally-known quantity as they had been, back in the day, when he and I were part of running Ottawa's The TREE Reading Series in the mid-1990s (Spyker is also co-founder of the ottawa small press book fair, an event he recently started attending once more, as exhibitor). Given how long I've known him (I can't recall if we met five minutes prior to or following the creation of above/ground, which was less than a year prior to me joining TREE as one of the organizers/curators, back in June 1994), it was a bit surprising it took this long for his own above/ground press debut to appear, Bedtime stories for my imaginary friends, the thirty-fifth title produced as part of the press' ongoing prose/naut imprint. He purposefully read a single, slightly surreal prose-piece that hinted as an introduction for the final reader of the evening, Grant Wilkins. 

Ottawa writer, papermaker and quiet builder of complex sounds, shapes and phrases, Grant Wilkins launched what is his sixth above/ground press title produced over the past few years, provocations. Wilkins is another I've actually known since the earlier part of the 1990s, circa 1994, but has only moved into publishing his explorations through sound and text over the past few years, prompted in part through his participation in jwcurry's infamous Messagio Galore sound poetry choir. Wilkins' work [see a recent artist statement he wrote, here] blends the influence of the late American poet Jackson Mac Low with an engagement with sound, chance and play, merging texts and ideas with an unmatched ease and attention to detail.

Thanks so much to everyone to participated! And to Anina's for hosting us! There are already plans afoot, by the way, for some fall surprises (oh, and the 2027 subscriptions will be announcing soon, also; the same rates as this past year, methinks).