some author activity: Mellis, O'Reilly, Melançon + Dennis,

forthcoming author Miranda Mellis has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series via the dusie blog; Nathanael O'Reilly has new work up at axon; Jérôme Melançon has work featured in the Spotlight Series; and Amy Dennis is interviewed in the "12 or 20 questions" series

The Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest: Amy Dennis + Natalie Eilbert, March 25, 2023!

The Factory Reading Series
as part of the thirteenth annual VERSeFest poetry festival presents: 

The Factory Reading Series Lecture Series; two talks/readings by:

Amy Dennis (Northern ON)
+
Natalie Eilbert (Green Bay WI)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, March 25, 2023
1-2pm at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar St. Ottawa (simultaneously streamed online free!
$15 tickets / check link for info on tickets/passes: https://www.verseottawa.ca/en/versefest
as well as for the full schedule of readers and events!
March 18-26, 2023

In addition to publications in England and France, Amy Dennis' poetry has appeared in more than twenty Canadian literary publications, including CV2, Event, Queen's Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. Her poetry has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and a Random House Creative Writing Award. She placed second in the UK’s National Bedford Open Poetry Competition. While completing her Ph.D in literature, she published THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS) with above/ground press. In 2022, Mansfield Press published The Sleep Orchard, Dennis' collection of ekphrastic poems in response to the life and art of Arshile Gorky. Currently, she works as a learning facilitator and professor.
https://www.verseottawa.ca/en/performer/amydennis

Natalie Eilbert [pictured] is the author of three poetry collections, Overland (Copper Canyon Press, forthcoming 5/16/2023), Indictus (Noemi Press 2018), Swan Feast (Bloof Books 2015). A recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts in poetry, a former Jay C. and Ruth Halls Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing, and winner of the George Bogin Memorial Award from Poetry Society of America, Eilbert lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she is a statewide mental health reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
https://www.verseottawa.ca/en/performer/neilbert

both performers also have new work in the new issue of The Peter F Yacht Club, produced specifically for this year’s festival!

some author activity: Barwin, Braune, mclennan, Polyck-O'Neill, Boisvert + Dennis,

Gary Barwin has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Sean Braune, rob mclennan and Julia Polyck-O'Neill; Jon Boisvert is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey, and Amy Dennis had some work up at Stuart Ross' the week shall inherit the verse.

above/ground press in Toronto : this weekend!

You might already know we're at a book fair this weekend, and they were good enough to post a photo to Instagram of two of our titles as part of their publicity! Titles by Hugh Thomas and Amy Dennis (and of course, both are still available). Might we see you Saturday? There might even be a new title or two (that we haven't told you about yet...

"poem" broadside #334: "hymn to a fellow dark daughter" by Amanda Earl

You’re afraid of unsafe

pagan daylight. Listen—

            Amy Dennis,

The Complement and Antagonist of Black

(Or, the Definition of All Visible Wavelengths)

i. lost vodka songs

invisible light, dust mite

imp(s) of the perverse/persevere/severe

we clamour

sin(g) with the boys

beauty: our voracious appetites

ii. music like a hymnographer’s dark daughter

unsung between peaks

of colour

grace notes, French horn

& oboe

for mornings of transgressions

iii. praise in the name of the lark

black feathers

take their pleasure

in the winds of a storm

evidence

of another

fallen angel

                           * italics for the brilliant phrases of Amy Dennis in above.

hymn to a fellow dark daughter
by Amanda Earl
above/ground press broadside #334

Amanda Earl’s first poetry book, Kiki, came out in 2014 with Chaudiere Books. She has three above/ground press chapbooks & this is her third above/ground press broadside. She’s an above/ground press subscriber & as such, had the pleasure of reading & being influenced by Amy Dennis’ chapbook. You should subscribe too.

The Factory Reading Series: Lusk, Dennis + Bradley, May 22, 2015

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

The Factory Reading Series presents:

    Dorothy Trujillo Lusk (Vancouver)
    Amy Dennis (UK)
    + Jamie Bradley (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, May 22, 2015;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Born in Deep River, Ontario and raised in Ottawa, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk [pictured] emigrated to the West Coast of Canada in 1974 and studied printmaking and painting at Camosun College and Vancouver School of Art. She is associated with Red Queen, Kootenay School of Writing and Pacific Institute for Language and Literacy Studies. Her books and chapbooks include Oral Tragedy (Tsunami Editions), Redactive (Talonbooks), Volume Delays (Sprang Texts), Sleek Vinyl Drill (Thuja) and Ogress Oblige (Krupskaya), with forthcoming titles including DECORUM and DAZZLE CAMO.

After receiving her MFA through the University of British Columbia, Amy Dennis continued her studies at Harvard University where she was asked to be a reader for The Harvard Review. In addition to publications in England and France, Amy Dennis' poetry has appeared in more than a dozen Canadian literary publications, such as CV2, Event, Queen's Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. Her poetry has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and a Random House Creative Writing Award. She placed second in the UK’s National Bedford Open Poetry Competition. Most recently, her chapbook THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS) was published by above/ground press in February of 2013. She now lives in the UK where she has recently completed her PhD on ekphrastic poetry.

Jamie Bradley’s poetry and reviews have appeared in journals including Descant, CV2, Rattle, Arc Poetry Magazine and bywords.ca, and in the chapbooks, Compositions (Angel House Press) and Dalhousie Blues (Ex-Hubris Press), as well as an above/ground press broadside. He is a contract professor in English at the University of Ottawa. He is launching his chapbook, Happens Is The Sun (above/ground press, 2015).

some author activity: Hancock, Graham, Ladouceur, Earl, Dennis, Hall + Wilkinson,

Brecken Hancock has a new poem up in the dusie "Tuesday poem" series, as does Lea Graham; Ben Ladouceur reads at The Corner Bookstore in New York City on March 7 as part of the launch of The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013; and Amanda Earl writes glowingly of work by Amy Dennis, Phil Hall and Joshua Marie Wilkinson from the eighth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics, over at her blog.

some author activity: Mangold, Carr, Hall, Dennis, Robertson + O'Connor,

Sarah Mangold has a new poem up in the Tuesday poem series at dusie; Emily Carr wraps up her OSU-Cascades residency with a final blog post, "Back From The Woods!"; Phil Hall has a new poem up on Susan Gillis' Concrete & River blog, as well as a short interview; Amy Dennis has new work in the sixth issue of Amanda Earl's experiment-o; Lisa Robertson responds to Rachel Levitsky's The Story of My Accident Is Ours over at Futurepost; and Wanda O'Connor has a new poem in the The Puritan: Issue XXIII.

some author activity: Bolster, Abel, Dolman, Dennis, hastain, Hall + Wilkinson;

Stephanie Bolster is interviewed by Montreal poet and blogger Susan Gillis; the website CanLit Guides writes on "Visual Poetry and Indigenous-Settler Issues: Shane Rhodes and Jordan Abel"; Anita Dolman reads at The TREE Reading Series, Ottawa, on December 10, 2013 alongside Mike Caesar and Peter Richardson; and above/ground press authors Amy Dennis, j/j hastain, Phil Hall and Joshua Marie Wilkinson each have new work up in the 8th issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.

new from above/ground press: THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS), by Amy Dennis

THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST
OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL
VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS)
Amy Dennis
$4

Rauschenberg – even his blankness 

couldn’t stay sacred; the panels’ ashen trinity

not spoken of in a church although one couldn’t

be more immaculate than those vacuous

canvases.

Chaste spaces invite shadows invite art. Mirrors

of air licked

by many. Frames for chance

theatre. Airports

for dust

                                                           mites.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

In addition to publications in England and France, Amy Dennis’ poetry has appeared in more than a dozen Canadian literary publications, such as CV2, Event, Queen’s Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. Her poetry has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and a Random House Creative Writing Award. She placed second in the UK’s National Bedford Open Poetry Competition. She now lives in the UK where she is completing her PhD.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com