some author activity: Berlatsky, Downs, Henning, Kemp-Gee, Miller + Barwin,

forthcoming author Noah Berlatsky has some nice things to say about above/ground press; Buck Downs has a poem in The New York Times Magazine, as selected by Anne Boyer; Barbara Henning has new poems up at Mom Egg Review; Meghan Kemp-Gee's ONE MORE YEAR: The Ultimate Graphic Novel kickstarter is now live; David Miller is interviewed at ArtWay; and Gary Barwin won an award!

new from above/ground press: AN ENVELOPE FOR SILENCE: Some Short Fiction 1977-1989, by David Miller

AN ENVELOPE FOR SILENCE: Some Short Fiction 1977-1989
David Miller
$5

My sister and I were amongst several children invited by the older girls who lived in the house opposite ours to come by for a puppet show one afternoon. I think I was more impressed by coming inside this otherwise unavailable domain itself than by the shadow-world created by the girls' puppetry; those girls would not ordinarily have spoken to us at all: and this was thorough-going: we were invited, at the end of the little show, to come for another performance if and when we could bring entrance-money. We never saw that interior again.

Twenty-one years of age, walking by water's side; river flowing, dirty, past industrial slums, grimy walls of factories; debris and mud everywhere. I had just been to an interview for a job I didn't want, and despite all my attempts at not getting accepted, it looked like I had been anyway: what a disappointment. Actually, I wasn't just disappointed, I felt sick. Some gulls flew over; and I thought of the young woman at the labour exchange who had sent me to the interview. Her face came into focus: an attractive woman; stylish; probably a nice person. Maybe she'd go far in her job. I was going to leave the country.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2022
as the seventeenth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

David Miller was born in Melbourne, Australia, but has lived in the UK for many years. His recent publications include Black, Grey and White: A Book of Visual Sonnets (Veer Books, 2011), Reassembling Still: Collected Poems (Shearsman, 2014), Spiritual Letters (Contraband Books, 2017), Towards a Menagerie (Chax Press, 2019), Matrix I & II (Guillemot Press, 2020), Vitruvian Shadows  (The Red Ceilings Press, 2020) and Some Other Days and Nights (above/ground press, 2021). He has compiled British Poetry Magazines 1914-2000: A History and Bibliography of ‘Little Magazines’ (with Richard Price, The British Library / Oak Knoll Press, 2006) and edited The Lariat and Other Writings by Jaime de Angulo (Counterpoint, 2009) and The Alchemist’s Mind: a book of narrative prose by poets (Reality Street, 2012). He is also a musician and a member of the Frog Peak Music collective.

This is Miller’s second above/ground press title, after SOME OTHER DAYS AND NIGHTS (2021).

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

new from above/ground press: SOME OTHER DAYS AND NIGHTS, by David Miller

SOME OTHER DAYS AND NIGHTS
David Miller
$5

A Life of Prayer

    A spiritual leader, a prophet, arose amongst us. He foretold a terrible purge: a divine scourge, no less, which threatened a horrible death to numerous of us.
    To some – and I add, without bragging, that I was one – he also said darkly that the purge didn’t merely relate to the future, but that it had been going on in secret for quite some time.
    We were enjoined to purify ourselves: to renounce sex as harmful – deadly, even – to the body and the spirit. In order to achieve this, we had to separate ourselves from any females. To this end, he exhorted us to seclude ourselves and pray for deliverance.
    To the consternation of many, his message seemed aimed almost exclusively – if not, indeed, exclusively – at the male of the species.
    When pressed, he did, however, say that females should also seclude themselves, avoiding sexual intercourse, and pray.
    There were other objections, of course: most especially, that our species would die out. He responded that it was the only way to avoid the scourge, and that it was far preferable a fate. Many of us believed him; but not all did.
    We male followers found some old ruins and set up there: a place of refuge, where we could feel safe. A monastery, one of our more educated brethren calls it. I have my own small chamber: it’s home now.
    Hunting during the day – for we have not been instructed to become vegetarians – we spend the evenings at our devotions.
    Folding my front legs and allowing my antennae to twitch with anticipation, I repeat over and over the sacred words: ‘I’m green, I pray, I live’.
    Saved, I say to myself; saved.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover artwork: “untitled” © the author

David Miller’s recent publications include Reassembling Still: Collected Poems (Shearsman, 2014), Spiritual Letters (Contraband Books, 2017), Towards a Menagerie (Chax Press, 2019) and Matrix I & II (Guillemot Press, 2020). He edited The Alchemist’s Mind: a book of narrative prose by poets (Reality Street, 2012). Originally from Australia, he currently lives in London and Bridport, Dorset.

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