some author activity: Archer, mclennan, Caporaso, Pirie, Niespodziany, Straumsvåg + Ross,

Sacha Archer has posted a new concrete (poetry/fiction) audiobook to bandcamp; rob mclennan's fourteenth annual 'best of' Canadian poetry titles has landed via dusie, and has a new section of "the green notebook" posted at The Typescript; Angela Caporaso's above/ground press title has landed on the Asemic Front 2 Top Ten Vispo Faves of 2024 list; Pearl Pirie offers her "Self-audit and Best of" list of 2024; Benjamin Niespodziany has three new poems up at The Pi Review; Dag T. Straumsvåg has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and a video of Stuart Ross reading at Carthage College as part of their Visiting Writers Series, Kenosha WI, October 8, 2024 is now online.

some author activity: mclennan, Robertson, Caporaso, Jirgens, van Vliet, Armantrout + Robinson,

rob mclennan has a new poem up at Amsterdam Review, and is interviewed by Stan Rogal for periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics; Lisa Robertson is Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet for 2024-25 and is giving the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet lecture on October 24 from 7 to 8:30 pm on the Nanaimo campus; Angela Caporaso is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Karl Jirgens also has poems, and Robert van Vliet is also interviewed; Rae Armantrout has a poem up at the Poetry Foundation; and Elizabeth Robinson has new work up at Big Other.

De Villo Sloan reviews Angela Caporaso's Wars (2024) at Asemic Front 2

Visual poet De Villo Sloan was good enough to provide the first review for Angela Caporaso's Wars (2024) over at Asemic Front 2. Thanks so much! You can read the original post here (with a bunch of accompanying visuals, also).

Visual artist Angela Caporaso (Caserta, Italy) has been exploring visual poetry. rob mclennan’s above/ground press in Ottawa, Canada, has given us a chapbook of this recent work.

I am set at ease when exploring Wars by the no-frills approach of above/ground press that highlights the work and makes a soft allusion to the gritty, underground visual poetry that took shape in the formerly industrial Great Lakes cities of the USA and Canada.

Caporaso’s emphasis on language materiality, dimensionality and cut-up makes her text an ideal match for mclennan’s editorial eye.  

In Wars, Caporaso tells us the visual poems in the edition are inspired by "some short poems by Wystan Hugh Auden." Contemporary visual poets seem to enjoy anchoring their new work to older literary tradition.

The repetition of cut-up/concrete forms, shifting in constructs of opposing dark and light, suggests to me various configurations of battling armies, military maps. I find myself considering the phenomenon of binary opposition in nature and the human compulsion to warfare. Wars can be read as a visual-linguistic anti-war sequence. The book has much more to offer as well.

Recently John Richard McConnochie, the Australian visual poet and asemic writer, well-known for his diligent admin work at the great Facebook Post-literate group, has been using the term "neo-glyphic" to identify certain asemic forms that he is observing. This brings me to explain why I chose to place my review of Angela's book on Asemic Front2.

Aspects of asemic writing are merging with the new concrete (or neo-concrete). In Angela Caporaso's War is a series of evolving neo-glyphs that move from binary oppositional structures to pieces that are far more non-binary.

Congratulation to Angela Caporaso and to rob mclennan for his keen editorial eye recognizing this great book.

some author activity: Mc Donnell, Caporaso, Levy, Deutch, Unrau, Logan + Pirie,

Conor Mc Donnell has a new essay up at Chris Banks' new online journal, The Woodlot; Angela Caporaso and forthcoming author John Levy both have poems in the new issue of talking about strawberries all of the time; Amanda Deutch has new work at Warmly Zine; and Melanie Dennis Unrau, Nate Logan and Pearl Pirie each have new poems up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month!

new from above/ground press: Wars, by Angela Caporaso

Wars
Angela Caporaso
$5

Note:
These visual poems were inspired by some short poems by Wystan Hugh Auden.

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

Angela Caporaso was born in 1962 and she is a visual artist from Caserta (Italy). She has begun to take an interest in figurative arts since the eighties, exhibiting repeatedly both in Italy and abroad. Many of her works are part of public and private collection adding numerous publications to her credit. Angela Caporaso is focusing on visual poetry and artists books, working with collages, trash-art and, more recently, digital formats. http://www.angelacaporaso.com/

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