some author activity: mclennan, MacEachern, Burgoyne, Macdonald + the ottawa small press book fair,

rob mclennan has a new poem up at Shadows and Sax; catch Jessi MacEachern and Sarah Burgoyne in conversation via Canthius; Dawn Macdonald has a new essay up at The Wood-Lot; and today is the ottawa small press book fair!

some author activity: Wells, Myles, Barwin, Sawyer, Solomon + Macdonald,

forthcoming author Christina Wells has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Eileen Myles has a new poem up at Discordia Review; a new interview with Gary Barwin is now up at the above/ground press substack; the late Larry Sawyer has a poem up at Poets.org; Misha Solomon has a wee essay, "Finding the Form," in The New Quarterly; and Dawn Macdonald has new work in -ette, as well as in the first issue of Journal of Experimental Practice.

new from above/ground press: Weeds of Canada, by Dawn Macdonald

Weeds of Canada
Dawn Macdonald
$6

Horsetail Family

down she dug damp-hollow, found
underground terminal cones, frowned, sad.
for this may cause a sand-like deficiency
of animals, she said. I’ve read
that a veterinarian could tell. whatsoever
you’ll use for the scouring shall
well sink hollow, drain, black teeth out
the spore-case. take the stairs
at every chance. name
rootstock, flush
water-table, pass
from this table, salt, to be excused,
whorl, sheath, grace.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Dawn Macdonald lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she grew up without electricity or running water. Her poetry collection Northerny (University of Alberta Press) won the 2025 Canadian First Book Prize and was longlisted for the Nelson Ball prize.

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

Groundwork: The best of the third decade of above/ground press: 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023) gets a mention at LitHub!

Happy Canada Day! Yukon poet Dawn Macdonald was good enough to mention Groundwork: The best of the third decade of above/ground press: 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023) as part of the round-up "10 Canadian poetry books to expand your mind" over at LitHub! Thanks so much! You can see the original post here. And have you been seeing the reviews she's been doing via her substack? Legendary! As Macdonald writes:

Chapbooks are a vital layer of the poetry ecosystem, where fresh ideas percolate and germinate. The legendary above/ground press has produced hundreds over the past 30-some years, operating out of a basement in Ottawa.

some author activity: Manery, Markotić, Doller, Straumsvåg, Heroux, Fagan, Barwin, Reid + Solomon,

forthcoming author Sandra Doller is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Dag T. Straumsvåg and Jason Heroux's collaborative chapbook gets a nice mention by Cary Fagan over at his review blog; Gary Barwin has an archived poem up at The Walrus; Monty Reid is reviewed by Dawn Macdonald; and Misha Solomon has new work up in the Spotlight series.

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.