some author activity: Barwin, Tierney, Strang, Mc Donnell, Sparrow, Swensen, Johnson + Earl,

Doreen Nicoll interviews Gary Barwin for the Small Change Podcast; Orchid Tierney has new work in petrichor; Catriona Strang has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Conor Mc Donnell, Noah Sparrow, Cole Swensen and Chris Johnson; and Amanda Earl is part of an assemblage of translations of John Keats over at Asymptote, as curated by Johanna Drucker.

some author activity: Clayton, Niespodziany, Sikkema, Earl, Levy + MacEachern,

Conyer Clayton is included in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; Benjamin Niespodziany has two new poems up at HAD; Michael Sikkema has new work up at Antiphony; Amanda Earl has new visual poems up at talking about strawberries all of the time, where John Levy also has new visual collaborations with Shloka Shankar; and Jessi MacEachern has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month.

some author activity: Ross, Nećakov, Earl, Kemp-Gee, Crosby + Marlatt,

Stuart Ross has a new poem up at NewPoetry.ca; Lillian Nećakov has new work up at The Galway Review; Amanda Earl has a piece in the "poetry pause" series, via The League of Canadian Poets; Meghan Kemp-Gee has a poem in Paul Vermeersch’s “In the Third Sleep” series; Gregory Crosby is working an online workshop, "Speaking Through A Mask: Persona & Dramatic Monologue"; and did you see that forthcoming author Daphne Marlatt is receiving an honorary degree through the University of British Columbia this spring?

some author activity: Houbolt, Earl, Campos, Cannon + Niespodziany,

Kyla Houbolt gets a spotlight with some new poems via the SHINE international poetry series; Amanda Earl is interviewed by Kathryn Mockler for Send My Love To Anyone; Earl is also offering poetry mentorships (with scholarships available); Isabel Sobral Campos is running an in-person workshop on Baudelaire, weekly across May, in Somerville MA; Frances Cannon has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Benjamin Niespodziany wrote on Chicago's Test Reading Series for Zona Motel.

new from above/ground press: SOCIALLY AWKWARD GHOST, by Amanda Earl

SOCIALLY AWKWARD GHOST
Amanda Earl
$6

In the cab en route to a place referred to as 
home, I tried to remember what being alive was 
like. I told myself to answer when my husband 
ended a noun verb object structure with an 
uprised tone. To me it sounded like zero zero 
zero up up? I think my response was one 
syllable two syllable two head nods.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Amanda Earl (she/her) writes, edits, reviews, publishes and makes mischief on the unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry. Subscribe to her Substack, Amanda Thru the Looking Glass and buy limited edition gorgeousness from Creatively Yours, her forthcoming year-long whimsical collaborative creation with her husband, Charles Earl. More info: AmandaEarl.com. Instagram: earlamanda.

This is Amanda Earl’s eleventh chapbook with above/ground press, after Eleanor (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), A Book of Saints (2015), Lady Lazarus Redux (2017), The Book of Mark (2018), Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019), Sessions from the DreamHouse Aria (2020), a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) and THE BEFORE, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia (2022). She edited the above/ground press collection the suitcase poem (2025), as well as the first issue of G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] (2018). In 2022, above/ground press produced Report from the Earl Society, Vol. 1, No. 1.

[Amanda Earl launches this title in Ottawa on Friday, alongside Stuart Ross and Liam Burke, as part of the pre-ottawa small press fair reading at Anina's Cafe]

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

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 21: Stuart Ross, Liam Burke + Amanda Earl,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents

The Factory Reading Series
the pre-small press book fair reading

featuring readings by:
Stuart Ross (Cobourg ON)
Liam Burke (Ottawa)
+ 
Amanda Earl (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 21, 2025
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Tom Brown Arena]

Stuart Ross has worked in the small press trenches of Canadian writing for 50 years. His new chapbook, The Thing About the Thing in Exile reprints a dozen poems that appeared in his first publication at age 16, plus a new essay. He has published over 20 books, most recently the poetry collection The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky, the Trillium Book Award–winning memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. He has received the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and the ReLit Award for Short Fiction, as well as the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature. Stuart runs the Feed Dog Book imprint for surrealist poetry at Anvil Press and the 1366 Books imprint for experimental fiction at Guernica Editions, and has been running his own Proper Tales Press since 1979. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Liam Burke (he/him/himbo) lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. He is the winner of the 2023 Diana Brebner Prize, and is most recently the author of status ailment (Anstruther, 2025) and the co-author of Orbital Cultivation with Manahil Bandukwala (Collusion, 2021) and machine dreams with natalie hanna (Collusion, 2021) which was shortlisted for the 2022 bpNichol Chapbook Award. He was shortlisted for the 2022 Austin Clarke Award for a collaborative poem with Manahil Bandukwala.

Amanda Earl [photo credit: Charles Earl] (she/her) writes, edits, reviews, publishes and makes mischief on the unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry. Subscribe to her Substack, Amanda Thru the Looking Glass and buy limited edition gorgeousness from Creatively Yours, her forthcoming year-long whimsical collaborative creation with her husband, Charles Earl. Her latest chapbook, her eleventh with above/ground press, is SOCIALLY AWKWARD GHOST (2025). More info: AmandaEarl.com. Instagram: earlamanda.

new from above/ground press: Verse on the Banks / Poèmes sur le rivage, eds./dir. Véronique Sylvain and/de David O’Meara

Verse on the Banks / Poèmes sur le rivage
eds./dir. Véronique Sylvain 
and/et David O’Meara
$6

including new poems in English (alongside French translation) and new poems in French (alongside English translation) by:

Manahil Bandukwala
Julie Huard
Amanda Earl
Myriam Legault-Beauregard 
David Groulx
Michèle Matteau
Monty Reid
Clémence Roy-Darisse

translations by/traductions de Myriam Legault-Beauregard

Avant-propos, par Véronique Sylvain et David O’Meara
Poète officielle francophone et poète officiel anglophone de la Ville d’Ottawa

Dans le cadre de nos mandats à titre de poètes officiels pour 2024-2026, nous tâchons de mettre en valeur des organismes qui jouent un rôle important pour l’écologie de notre région, notamment en matière de sensibilisation et d’intendance environnementale. Nous célébrons, dans ce recueil, la rivière des Outaouais et son bassin versant, de même que le travail de Garde-rivière des Outaouais (https://garderivieredesoutaouais.ca/), qui joue un rôle essentiel pour préserver nos habitats locaux et la qualité de notre eau. Dans cet esprit, nous avons demandé à huit poètes d’ici d’écrire sur le thème de la rivière, et de nous communiquer leurs pensées, leurs souvenirs et leurs peurs en s’inspirant des environs. Les prochaines pages rassemblent les poèmes qui en découlent. Nous espérons qu’ils sauront vous plaire.

Foreword from Véronique Sylvain and David O’Meara
Poets Laureate, Francophone and Anglophone, The City of Ottawa

As part of our Laureate programs for 2024-26, we endeavour to recognize organizations that play an important role in the education and stewardship of our local ecology and its environment. With this chapbook, we celebrate the Ottawa River and its watershed and the work of the Ottawa Riverkeeper (https://ottawariverkeeper.ca/) in their essential role as supporters of local habitat and water quality. Accordingly, we asked eight local poets to respond to the subject of the river, conveying their thoughts, memories and fears through inspiration in its environs. These poems are the result. We hope you’ll enjoy them.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
produced for the Verse on the Banks / Poèmes sur le rivage event, Wednesday June 18 2025 in Ottawa : tickets available at: https://ottawariverkeeper.ca/theme-event/current-conversations-poetry-by-the-river-june-18th-2025/
June 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Biographies:

Manahil Bandukwala is a writer and visual artist. She is the author of Heliotropia (Brick Books 2024; shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award and the Raymond Souster Award) and MONUMENT (Brick Books 2022; shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award). She has been twice longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and was selected as a Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Star in 2023. See her work at manahilbandukwala.com.

Julie Huard is an author, photographer, filmmaker and traveller. Her seventh book, Paysâmes et miroirs du monde (Éditions David) won the prix “Coup de cœur” awarded by the City of Gatineau in 2016. Over the years, Julie has been invited to many writers’ residencies and literary festivals, including in Haiti, Belgium and Guinea. In her most recent book, a poetic narrative titled Les merveilleuses (Éditions David), she follows the footsteps of her mother, Hélène, while honouring all the mothers in the world. Her passion? To explore the planet, to observe and reflect on human nature, as she pursues her quest for beauty.

Amanda Earl (she/her) writes, edits, reviews and publishes poetry, prose, visual poetry and hybrid work on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca. Her latest work is “desire, a footnote,” a long poem in six chapbooks published by AngelHousePress. More information: AmandaEarl.com. 

Myriam Legault-Beauregard is a translator, a poet and a spoken-word artist. She earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s from the Université du Québec en Outaouais, and she is currently completing her PhD at the University of Ottawa. Her own works and shorter translations have been published in various magazines and journals, and her first poetry collection, Comme un myosotis, was launched in September 2023. Her first book-length translation, De plâtre et de platine (French version of Shashi Bhat’s The Most Precious Substance on Earth), was a finalist to the John-Glassco prize in the fall of 2024. She lives in Gatineau with her partner and their two children.

David Groulx is an award-winning Indigenous author. He has published 11 books of poetry and several of his books have been translated into Cree, French and Ojibwe languages. He won the John Newlove award for poetry in 2019 and was nominated for the Archibald Lampman award in 2015 and 2019. His poetry has appeared in over 200 magazines in 16 countries. He currently lives in Vanier, Ontario.

Born in the Province of Québec, Michèle Matteau has lived in British Columbia and in Nova Scotia, where she worked as a teacher and completed her master’s degree in psychology. She now resides in Ottawa. Since 1987, she has worked as a screenwriter and researcher for different producers, as well as an educator for cultural and/or educational Canadian organizations. She was the director of the “Vertiges” collection at L’Interligne from 2009 to 2013. She now gives literary workshops and accompanies professional writers in their artistic career. An author of novels and short stories, a poet and a playwright, Michèle has won several literary awards, including the Prix littéraire Trillium, twice.

David O’Meara is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently A Pretty Sight and Masses On Radar (Coach House Books, 2013, 2021). His novel, Chandelier, is published by Nightwood Editions (2024). He is the current Poet Laureate (Anglophone) of the City of Ottawa.

Emerging writer, actor and producer Clémence Roy-Darisse was among the cast of 2042 at the National Arts Centre, and of Mamuche, by Théâtre Mauve Sapin. In 2019, she presented “Profil”, a work on the dictatorship of happiness on social media, as well as “Laurence”. Clémence holds a master’s degree in Theatre, in which she focuses on the integration of eco-emotions in theatre. She also aspires to involve the artistic community in the ecological transition, and therefore embodies a new generation of socially committed artists. 

Monty Reid was born in Saskatchewan, worked in Alberta, and has lived beside the Ottawa River for the past 25 years.  His many books include Crawlspace (Anansi), The Luskville Reductions (Brick), and Garden (Chaudiere). His most recent chapbooks are Vertebrata, from Montreal’s Turret House, and the 20th anniversary re-issue of cuba A book, from above/ground press.

Véronique Sylvain lives in Ottawa, where she works in the publishing sector. Her poems appear in several literary journals and collectives. Thanks to her first collection, Premier quart (Prise de parole, 2019), she was rewarded with the Prix de poésie Trillium and the Prix du livre d’Ottawa, in 2020, as well as the prix Champlain and the Prix littéraire émergence AAOF, in 2021. Her most recent collection, En terrain miné, also published by Prise de parole, was launched in September 2024. She will be, until fall 2026, the Francophone Poet Laureate of the City of Ottawa. 

Notices biographiques:

Manahil Bandukwala est écrivaine et artiste en arts visuels. Elle est l’autrice d’Heliotropia (Brick Books, 2024, en lice pour le prix Pat-Lowther et le prix Raymond-Souster), ainsi que de MONUMENT (Brick Books, 2022 ; finaliste au prix Gerald-Lampert). Elle a fait partie, à deux reprises, de la liste préliminaire du CBC Poetry Prize, et a été sélectionnée au programme « Rising Star » du Writer’s Trust of Canada en 2023. Pour découvrir son œuvre : manahilbandukwala.com.

Julie Huard est auteure, photographe, réalisatrice et voyageuse. Son septième ouvrage, Paysâmes et miroirs du monde (David) remportait en 2016 le prix Coup de cœur de la Ville de Gatineau. Au fil du temps, Julie a été conviée à bon nombre de résidences d’auteurs et de festivals littéraires notamment en Haïti, en Belgique et en Guinée. Dans son plus récent ouvrage, Les merveilleuses (David), un récit poétique, elle suit les traces d’Hélène, sa mère, offrant un hommage à toutes les mères du monde. La passion de Julie? Découvrir la planète, observer et réfléchir sur la nature humaine en poursuivant sa quête de beauté.

Amanda Earl (elle) écrit, révise, critique et publie des œuvres de poésie, de prose, des poèmes visuels et des œuvres hybrides sur les terres non cédées des Algonquins Anichinabés. Elle est la directrice de rédaction du site Web Bywords.ca. Sa plus récente création, un long poème publié en six courts recueils, s’intitule « desire, a footnote » et a été publiée chez AngelHousePress. Pour en savoir plus : AmandaEarl.com. 

Myriam Legault-Beauregard est traductrice, poète et slameuse. Titulaire de deux baccalauréats et d’une maîtrise de l’Université du Québec en Outaouais, elle termine actuellement son doctorat à l’Université d’Ottawa. Ses propres créations et certaines de ses traductions ont été publiées dans diverses revues, et son premier recueil de poésie, Comme un myosotis, est paru en septembre 2023. Sa première traduction de roman, De plâtre et de platine (version française de The Most Precious Substance on Earth de Shashi Bhat), a été finaliste aux prix John-Glassco à l'automne 2024. Elle vit à Gatineau avec son conjoint et leurs deux filles.

David Groulx est un auteur autochtone primé. Il a fait paraître 11 recueils de poésie, et plusieurs de ses livres ont été traduits en cri, en français et en ojibwé. Il a remporté le prix de poésie John-Newlove en 2019 et a été finaliste au prix Archibald-Lampman en 2015 et en 2019. Ses poèmes ont été publiés dans plus de 200 revues, dans 16 pays. Il vit actuellement à Vanier, en Ontario.

Née au Québec, Michèle Matteau a vécu en Colombie-Britannique, puis en Nouvelle-Écosse où elle a enseigné et complété une maîtrise en psychologie. Elle réside aujourd’hui à Ottawa. Depuis 1987, elle a travaillé comme scénariste et recherchiste pour différents producteurs, et comme pédagogue pour des institutions culturelles ou éducatives canadiennes. Elle a dirigé la collection « Vertiges » (L’Interligne), de 2009 à 2013. Elle donne aujourd’hui des ateliers littéraires et accompagne des écrivain.e.s professionnel.le.s dans leur cheminement artistique. Autrice de romans et de nouvelles, poète et dramaturge, Michèle a remporté plusieurs prix littéraires dont deux fois le Prix Trillium.

David O’Meara est l’auteur de cinq recueils de poésie, dont les plus récents sont A Pretty Sight et On Radar (Coach House Books, 2013 et 2021). Son roman, intitulé Chandelier, a été publié chez Nightwood Editions en 2024. Il est actuellement le poète officiel anglophone de la Ville d’Ottawa.

Autrice, comédienne et metteure en scène de la relève, Clémence Roy-Darisse a fait partie de la distribution de 2042 au Centre national des Arts et de Mamuche du Théâtre Mauve Sapin. Elle a présenté, en 2019, « Profil », un texte sur la dictature du bonheur sur les réseaux sociaux et « Laurence ». Clémence détient une maîtrise en théâtre, où elle se concentre sur l’intégration des éco-émotions au théâtre. Elle aspire également à impliquer les artistes dans la transition écologique, incarnant ainsi une nouvelle génération d’artistes engagé.e.s.

Monty Reid est né en Saskatchewan, a travaillé en Alberta, et vit non loin de la rivière des Outaouais depuis 25 ans. Parmi les nombreux titres qu’il a fait paraître, mentionnons Crawlspace (House of Anansi), The Luskville Reductions (Brick Books), and Garden (Chaudière Books). Ses plus récentes publications sont deux courts recueils : Vertebrata, paru chez Turret House Press, à Montréal, et une réédition 20e anniversaire de cuba A book, parue chez above/ground press.

Véronique Sylvain habite à Ottawa, où elle travaille dans le milieu de l’édition. Ses poèmes ont paru dans plusieurs revues de création littéraire, ainsi que des collectifs. Son premier recueil, Premier quart (Prise de parole, 2019), lui a permis de remporter le Prix de poésie Trillium, le Prix du livre d’Ottawa, en 2020, le prix Champlain et le Prix littéraire émergence AAOF 2021. Son plus récent recueil de poésie, En terrain miné, est paru en septembre 2024 chez Prise de parole. Elle occupera, jusqu’à l’automne 2026, le poste de poète officielle francophone de la Ville d’Ottawa.

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

some author activity: Heroux, Jenks, Earl, Siklosi, Barwin, Collis, Robinson + Niespodziany,

Jason Heroux has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does forthcoming author Tom Jenks, and Amanda Earl; Amanda Earl also has a new essay up a The Typescript; Kate Siklosi is #3 in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; Gary Barwin has started a substack; Stephen Collis is interviewed via the SFU Department of English website; Elizabeth Robinson has a poem up at Poetry Daily; and Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month.

Jay Miller reviews the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl (2025)

Montreal poet, translator and reviewer Jay Miller was good enough to provide the first review of the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl (2025) over at Bibelotages. Thanks so much! You can read Miller's original post here. As Miller writes:

The Baggage Handlers, The Suitcase Poem

This is something only Canadian small press poetry could produce. The baggage handlers.

The Baggage Handlers is a shorthand for: Marie-Andrée Auclair, Gregory Betts, Jeff Blackman, Ellen Chang-Richardson, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Doris Fiszer, Gwendolyn Guth, Jenna Jarvis, Chris "Stop" Johnson, Tanis MacDonald, Roz Toner, MW (Matthew Walsh).

This is an eight-page poem without a title, published by rob mclennan's above/ground press in 2025 and compiled by Amanda Earl.

What is this document and what is the nature and meaning of it?

George Steiner mentioned something similar Octavio Paz collaborated on 50 years ago with each collaborator producing something in their own language and appending it on to the original before passing it on. Steiner mentioned it in After Babel but I can't be arsed quite frankly. If you've read it, you already know exactly what I mean.

The Suitcase Poem reminds me of that.

There is something to be said about the uptick of writing groups, but a handful of these folks have been at it for quite a while and clearly it works for them so game on. Letter Killers Club.

How does the poem open?

    a suitcase [...]

I'm gonna skip ahead from here, because the poem doesn't pick up until the second page over, whereas the first feels very much like finding footing:

    stellar interstices, everything
    packed in, or un-, elbow of hinge
    distraction

    the cot/caught merger like traffic, the measured incursion

This is where a software development metaphor would come in so handy, because this is the type of verse that is so close to the metal it becomes abstract on a surface level but delightfully functional on a close-to-the-metal level when it comes to analyzing the prosody, meaning, metaphor, scansion and poetics.

What did you expect from a collaborative effort of over a dozen well-versed poets?

This is poetry for the poetry-maker. I don't even know if a hobbyist printer would appreciate this as much as a publisher such as rob mclennan. We may never have another one of him in the future.

This is something only Canadian small press poetry could produce. The baggage handlers.

The collaboration effort becomes apparent in cento-like instances such as:

    earlier today, when dad finally won
    their little game of telephone tag/hide/seek
    he told her that he'd heard it might rain
    maybe early next week
    maybe the one after

Honestly, I'm aware I'm cherry-picking excerpts, but what does this collab poem not say?

The same page ends, after an alternately-aligned bit of text that signals a counter-narrative running throughout the same length of the poem left-aligned:

    dad, a retired travelling salesman
    run as ragged at the edges
    as the empty garment bag
    at the back of the closet
    still yearns for the breeze
    and the emptiness of the road
    and waits for the day he can make off
    with the snugly packed suitcase
    he still keeps tucked under the bed

Obviously, I am glad Canadian poets are working on these collaborative efforts. It speaks to a certain level of cohesiveness, closeness and camaraderie. But doesn't reading this make you want to participate and feel bad for missing out on being invited? Amanda Earl refers to this phenomenon as JOMO: the joy of missing out.

    When we talk about suitcases, we want them tough
    and serenely riding the conveyor belt
    toward us in the airport of our choice

Amanda Earl writes the afterword:

    I invited poets I know, first in Ottawa and then further afield, to take part in a collaborative poem about a suitcase to see what its contents might be and where we might go.

Honestly, this is ephemera worth holding on to. A poem that directly challenges the concept of object, of poiesis, of what it means to be a Canadian poet? Immaculate.

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #35 : 2025 VERSeFest Special

The Peter F Yacht Club #35
2025 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 2025 participants, including Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, Susan J. Atkinson, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, Michelle Desbarats, Em Dial, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Cara Goodwin, Phil Hall, Jessica Hiemstra, Rebecca Kempe, Laurie Koensgen, Margo LaPierre, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, Pamela Mosher, Salem Paige, Terese Mason Pierre, Pearl Pirie, Monty Reid, stephanie roberts + Grant Wilkins;

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[a small stack of copies will be distributed free as part of the fifteenth annual VERSeFest, March 25-29, 2025]
[see the prior issue here; see last year's VERSeFest issue here]

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

some author activity: Birchard, Earl, Norris, Armantrout + Pittella,

Guy Birchard's work is discussed by Yukon poet Dawn Macdonald, over at her recently-launched substack, where she also discussed Amanda Earl's work and Ken Norris' work; the full text of "Poetry Meets Physics: Poet Rae Armantrout Reading and in Conversation with Physicist Ben Buchler. Street Theatre, Canberra, Thursday 19 September 2024" is online as a pdf; the first four poems from Pittella's above/ground press chapbook have been translated into Italian by Gianluca Rizzo and published online at rossocorpolingua: and Pittella also has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series.

some author activity: Boyle, Robinson, Dyckman, Earl + Deutch,

Frances Boyle is interviewed by Cara Waterfall for her Archipel; Elizabeth Robinson and Susanne Dyckman are zoom-interviewed on collaborative ekphrasis; Amanda Earl writes a guest post for Nikki Dudley's blog; Amanda Deutch has won the Ottoline Prize from Fence Books, which means her debut full-length will be appearing within the year (and part of the manuscript includes elements of her second above/ground press chapbook; and I've started posting occasionally to the Peripety and/or Tronies blog, run by Olivia Cronk, where I will be starting a very occasional "Canadian Poets Series" come April 1st.

new from above/ground press: the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl

the suitcase poem
Marie-Andrée Auclair * Gregory Betts * Jeff Blackman * Amanda Earl * Ellen Chang-Richardson * AJ Dolman * Doris Fiszer * Gwendolyn Guth * Jenna Jarvis * Chris Johnson * Tanis MacDonald * Roz Toner * MW
$5

Afterword
Since hearing about Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction on David Naimon’s Between the Covers podcast as part of the show’s “Crafting with Ursula” series, I have contemplated its potential for poem-making. The basic idea is that while stories in Western narrative are usually told from the point of view of a hero, centering conflict and violence, a lot goes missing in such a telling. Le Guin images stories as holding living beings, as a way to nurture and gather. I invited poets I know, first in Ottawa and then further afield, to take part in a collaborative poem about a suitcase to see what its contents might be and where we might go. I shared a Google document and invited people to add lines and words to the text. No one individual is the centre of this poem, the author of the story. In fact, there are many suitcases here, many containers. I love being part of this thriving and creative literary community. I thank all the contributors for taking this journey with me. Gratitude, as always, to rob mclennan for agreeing to publish the poem as an above/ground press chapbook.
~ Amanda Earl

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

In Lieu of Biographies, Suitcases

Before Marie-Andrée Auclair packs their suitcase, they ask: Who will we be there, could we be a better version of us? Are we ready for all kinds of weather? Readiness takes up space.  But there is always room to bring back intangibles. It was years before Gregory Betts owned a suitcase with wheels, great lugs of things heavy with resistance to travel. The sheer weight of them was the inertia against which all destinations, Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Halifax, and all points in between, were measured. Was the sweat worth the burden? With elbows firmly locked against hips, and a damp brow, this was how he once set out into the world. Jeff Blackman's first suitcase had green stripes and two metal latches. He filled it with toys to take to his grandparents' house on the Mountain. Ellen Chang-Richardson found their favourite suitcase buried in a vintage shop in Covent Garden, London, England. They toted it around the world for years until its untimely demise. AJ Dolman's suitcase is currently filling with other people's memories as they move family members into care: a Delft candy dish, red leather pocket book of playing cards, Russian tea box, distinct treasures aching for new meaning, the outsized absence of everything declined. Amanda Earl used her first suitcase to run away from home. She packed dolls & dinky toys & hid w/ tiger lilies on the outside of the wrought iron & stone fence that divided the red brick house from Brock Road in Wilfrid, Ontario.  Doris Fiszer frequently dreams of an oversized suitcase that she is hurriedly packing with lint brushes, flip-flops, cooking utensils and purple hoodies. In these nocturnal adventures, she usually travels to bustling cities with her departed. Gwendolyn Guth's retro suitcase contains grains of sand from a former life. The grains remind her of an unimaginable shade of turquoise. They summon and they abandon. Snow continues to fall in rural Quebec and all is well. Jenna Jarvis has a habit of shoving her worldly possessions into a suitcase or two. Chris Johnson's favourite suitcase was bought at Goodwill, and was irreparably damaged by WestJet in 2012. Chris got $150 to purchase a replacement suitcase. Tanis MacDonald's suitcase is packed full of holes. Every time she travels, she brings back a little more nothing. Roz Toner stores all of their zines in a monogrammed suitcase. To be clear, they haven't a clue who A.E.M. is or was. MW had a blue suitcase that housed a unicorn that loved the dark and loved glow sticks. You could see the shine from the glow sticks even when the suitcase was completely shut like a mouth with nothing to say.

Amanda Earl is the author of ten chapbooks with above/ground press: Eleanor (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), A Book of Saints (2015), Lady Lazarus Redux (2017), The Book of Mark (2018), Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019), Sessions from the DreamHouse Aria (2020), a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) and THE BEFORE, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia (2022). She edited the first issue of G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] (2018), and above/ground press produced Report from the Earl Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 as a festschrift on her ongoing work in 2022.

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

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #34 : 2024 Holiday Special,

The Peter F Yacht Club #34
2024 Holiday 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 and irregulars, including Frances Boyle, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Jason Christie, David Currie, Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, Laura Farina, ryan fitzpatrick, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, James K. Moran, Pearl Pirie, Colin Quin, Monty Reid, Joan Rivard, Stuart Ross and Grant Wilkins!

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 27, 2024 ; as the final above/ground press item of 2024!
[launching tonight at our annual holiday reading/regatta! you should come out!]
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

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: Rexilius, Mody, Earl, mclennan, Logan + Dewinetz,

Andrea Rexilius is interviewed, alongside Heather Garbo, for Westword; Monica Mody is discussed in an article by Yashaswini Krishna, "Poetry's role and the financial struggles of poets today," at NewsTrail; Amanda Earl has a visual poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; rob mclennan has an excerpt of the work-in-progress, "the green notebook," up at Annulet, and is interviewed by Ivy Grimes for Writing Thoughts; Nate Logan has a new poem up at LEAVINGS and then another new poem up at LEAVINGS and also a poem at The Tiny; and did you know that Jason Dewinetz received a "Distinguished Alumni Award" from the University of Victoria a few years back?

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: 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!).

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: A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth: poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general, ed. Dessa Bayrock

A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth
poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general
edied by Dessa Bayrock
$5

with contributions by:

Cameron Anstee
Manahil Bandukwala
Dessa Bayrock
Joshua Chris Bouchard
Liam Burke
Jake Byrne
Conyer Clayton
Ellen Chang-Richardson
AJ Dolman
nina jane drystek
Amanda Earl
Margo LaPierre
rob mclennan
James K. Moran
Emilia Morgan
David O'Meara
Pearl Pirie
and
Monty Reid


There aren’t any proverbs about raccoons that I know of. But there should be. Here’s one, to start: where you see one raccoon, there are five more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are ten more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are surely eighteen more standing behind it.

This volume collects eighteen such raccoons — or, at least, impressions of raccoons. The thing these impressions have in common is the raccoon standing in the light, held endearingly by nineteen other beady eyes wedged into faces still firmly in the shadows. The raccoon standing in the light is, of course, Chris Johnson. (Editor’s Foreword, Dessa Bayrock)

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

Dessa Bayrock lives in Ottawa with two cats, one of whom is very loud and almost always nearby. She ran post ghost press for two years and has published three chapbooks: IS IT ABOUT RUINS AND GHOSTS?, The Trick to Feeling Safe at Home, and Worry & Fuck. She recently completed a doctorate about Canadian literary awards. You can find her, or at least more about her, at dessaybayrock.com, or at @dessayo on Instagram.

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