some author activity: Radmore, Eleftherion, Niespodziany, Ross, mclennan + Armantrout,

Claudia Coutu Radmore has two new poems up at The Pi Review; Melissa Eleftherion has a new poem up at The Citron Review, and a further poem up at Verse Daily; Benjamin Niespodziany has begun a substack to post weekly poems and prompts every Sunday ; Stuart Ross has posted his annual poem for New Year's; a further section of rob mclennan's work-in-progress "the green notebook" is online at Community Mausoleum, and he has posted a couple of videos reading short stories via substack; and Rae Armantrout has two new poems and commentary up at Plume.

some author activity: Pirie, Moseman, Dolman, Earl, Radmore, mclennan, Boyle + Mody,

Pearl Pirie has been posting a slew of interviews lately, including Lori Anderson Moseman, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Claudia Coutu Radmore and rob mclennan; Frances Boyle has a new poem up at Rust & Moth, and another at After poetry; and did you know that Monica Mody has an email newsletter of personal and creative updates worth following?

some author activity: Johnson, Paty, Radmore, O'Reilly, Norris + Gold,

Chris Johnson has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; Allyson Paty is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Claudia Coutu Radmore has a new essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter, as well as an obituary for Ottawa poet Lesley Strutt; Nathanael O'Reilly is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; and Ken Norris and the late Artie Gold etcetera have work in the newly-revamped mouse eggs.

some author activity: Koss, Sikkema, Spinosa, Radmore + Baus,

Zane Koss is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Michael Sikkema has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Dani Spinosa is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; Claudia Coutu Radmore is interviewed via Chaudiere Books; and Eric Baus has a new essay in the Talking Poetics series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #27; VERSeFest special!

The Peter F Yacht Club #27
VERSeFest 2019 special
edited by rob mclennan
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2019 participants, including Manahil Bandukwala, Frances Boyle, Klara du Plessis, Amanda Earl, Avonlea Fotheringham, Lea Graham, natalie hanna, Richard Harrison, Harold Hoefle, Bob Hogg, Gil McElroy, rob mclennan, David O’Meara, Roland Prevost, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Armand Garnet Ruffo and Renée Sarojini Saklikar

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[a small stack of copies will be distributed free as part of the eighth annual VERSeFest, March 26-31, 2019]

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: camera obscura, by Claudia Coutu Radmore

camera obscura
Claudia Coutu Radmore
$5

chilled molecules their storage skills

what the body feels being every bit as significant as what the mind thinks and inextricably intertwined nevertheless since time is an illusion and lunch time doubly so when you start by saying it was the day my grandmother exploded it’s not beyond belief that the milky way harbours celestial objects that accelerate particles of at least a million billion electron volts and though predictably some may be jumping over the moon other cows are natural pessimists just check the baboon spider atlas it’s effortless thinking; what the body feels every bit as significant savour the leafy shade of life boulevard take time to watch mind surfers floating carelessly along two feet above the waves register the possibility of exploding air forming seas on alien planets oh that it may rain diamonds but be aware that with some six  to nine metres of displacement the San Andreas fault is long overdue for a huge quake still when you know chilled molecules can store your whole life’s experience in a half inch cube and the effect that quantum computers have on the blockchain of cryptocurrencies do you need to prove who you are the air between us poignantly turbid as we create each other through relationships what the body feels so significant and inextricably intertwined with what the mind thinks like what are birds for what is flying for what is lying for what is dying for still those skilled storage  bits the door inside the heart of gold thanks you for  making a  simple  door very happy

 
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Claudia Coutu Radmore’s a moment or two/ without remembering and Your Hands Discover Me/ Tes mains me découvrent, were followed by Accidentals, which won Canada’s bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2011.  Often working in Japanese forms, the business of isness, a haiku collection, and fish spine picked clean, a tanka collection, were published by Ottawa’s  Éditions des petits nuages in March, 2018. Her work has been published often in Canadian poetry journals. The chapbook, On Fogo was published by Alfred Gustav Press, Vancouver, summer 2018. She is the President of Haiku Canada. See her recent my (small press) writing day entry here.

[Claudia Coutu Radmore launches camera obscura in Ottawa as part of the short forms showcase at this year's VERSeFest, alongside Cameron Anstee, Mike Montreuil and Lenard Moore on March 31, 2019]

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Schmaltz, Pirie, Hajnoczky, Radmore + Waldrop,

Eric Schmaltz is posting a series of 'commentaries' over at Jacket2; Pearl Pirie has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Helen Hajnoczky, Claudia Coutu Radmore has a poem in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; and Rosmarie Waldrop has a poem up at Poets.org.

VERSeFest 2019: Anstee, Hogg, Radmore + Saklikar (and The Peter F. Yacht Club! (and The Factory Reading Series!

above/ground press authors Cameron Anstee, Bob Hogg, Claudia Coutu Radmore and Renée Sarojini Saklikar (as well as a whole slew of other writers) participate in VERSeFest, Ottawa's annual poetry festival, which runs from March 26-31, 2019. Check out the whole schedule here. And don't forget that The Factory Reading Series hosts its annual lecture as part of such (featuring talks by Klara du Plessis and Sennah Yee), and a new issue of The Peter F. Yacht Club will also land that week!

ottawater: 15.0 : Barton, Clarke, Dolman, Earl, Graf, Massey, Pirie, Radmore + Reid

A variety of above/ground press authors (as well as plenty of other former and current Ottawa-area poets) have new work in the fifteenth issue of the online Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater, which is now available online.

Edited/published by rob mclennan, you can see new poems at www.ottawater.com by John Barton, George Elliott Clarke, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Adele Graf, Karen Massey, Pearl Pirie, Claudia Coutu Radmore and Monty Reid, among others. 

If you can, why not go to tomorrow night's launch? 7:30pm at the Carleton Tavern, Parkdale Market, Ottawa. Lovingly hosted by editor/publisher rob mclennan.

some author activity: dueck, hastain, mclennan, Radmore + Manery,

nathan dueck has some new work in where is the river; j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have some collaborative work online via The Operating System; rob mclennan and forthcoming author Claudia Coutu Radmore participate in Vallum magazine's 2018 year in review; and Rob Manery is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

the bpNichol chapbook award; call for entries,

Announcing a New Administrative Body for the bpNichol Chapbook Award

In the spirit of the original Phoenix Chapbook Award, which was adjudicated for its first two years by Frank Davey and bpNichol, and continued as the bpNichol Chapbook Award for 23 years by Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. With the demise of Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the Meet the Presses collective is pleased to assume management of the award. Meet the Presses is a Toronto-based collective devoted to promoting micro, small and independent literary presses. This collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses event begun in Toronto in the mid-1980s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross. Members of Meet the Presses have organized a variety of curated public events, and all the events focus on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – consists of members Gary Barwin, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Paul Dutton, Maria Erskine, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, and Stuart Ross.

Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award.

Call for submissions 2012 bpNichol Chapbook Award
A $2000 prize will be awarded for the poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of a chapbook of poetry in English published in Canada in 2011.

Chapbooks should be no less than 10 pages and no more than 48 pages.

Submissions should include a brief C.V. of the author, plus address, telephone number, and email address. Send to:

Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award
PO Box 26, Station P, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2S6

The closing date for submissions to the 2012 competition is May 31, 2012.

Please email Meet The Presses for more information: meetthepresses@gmail.com.
A link to previous winners and further information here.