new from above/ground press: A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth: poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general, ed. Dessa Bayrock

A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth
poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general
edied by Dessa Bayrock
$5

with contributions by:

Cameron Anstee
Manahil Bandukwala
Dessa Bayrock
Joshua Chris Bouchard
Liam Burke
Jake Byrne
Conyer Clayton
Ellen Chang-Richardson
AJ Dolman
nina jane drystek
Amanda Earl
Margo LaPierre
rob mclennan
James K. Moran
Emilia Morgan
David O'Meara
Pearl Pirie
and
Monty Reid


There aren’t any proverbs about raccoons that I know of. But there should be. Here’s one, to start: where you see one raccoon, there are five more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are ten more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are surely eighteen more standing behind it.

This volume collects eighteen such raccoons — or, at least, impressions of raccoons. The thing these impressions have in common is the raccoon standing in the light, held endearingly by nineteen other beady eyes wedged into faces still firmly in the shadows. The raccoon standing in the light is, of course, Chris Johnson. (Editor’s Foreword, Dessa Bayrock)

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

Dessa Bayrock lives in Ottawa with two cats, one of whom is very loud and almost always nearby. She ran post ghost press for two years and has published three chapbooks: IS IT ABOUT RUINS AND GHOSTS?, The Trick to Feeling Safe at Home, and Worry & Fuck. She recently completed a doctorate about Canadian literary awards. You can find her, or at least more about her, at dessaybayrock.com, or at @dessayo on Instagram.

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

The Factory Reading Series: Adrienne Adams, Dessa Bayrock + Jason Christie,

The Factory Reading Series Presents:

readings by:

Adrienne Adams (Calgary)

Dessa Bayrock (Ottawa)

+

Jason Christie (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan

Monday, October 9, 2023

Doors 7pm / Reading 730pm

Ten Toes Coffee House and Laundry

837 Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,

Adrienne Adams: artist, poet, writer, curator, herb nerd and gardener living and breathing in Treaty 7 territory, dedicated to creating safer inter-sectional space to honour the feminine. She founded and curated Woolf’s Voices, a reading series and collective (2013-2023) with the mission of creating safer intersectional space. You can view her art and writing in filling Station, Herizons, The Firework New Forum, Freefall, NōD, Antilang, Lida, Corvid Queen (Sword & Kettle Press), Deathcap (Coven editions), Rose Quartz, Politics/letterslive (Car Poems), Polyglot, M(O)thering anthology (Inanna Press), Artizein: Arts & Teaching Journal, Herizons, Art-Care Practices for Restoring the Communal (by B. Bickle & M. Fisher) and others. Her chapbook Red Heads was released by above/ground Press in 2022

She has featured at the Single Onion Reading Series, South Country Fair, The New Beat, The Storytellers (IndieYYC), Expressions Poetry, FlyWheel, U of C Spoken Word, YYCSPEAK, PPF, Ignite Festivals and many others, and co-curated for Single Onion and CiSWF.

Dessa Bayrock lives in Ottawa with two cats, one of whom is very loud and almost always nearby. She ran post ghost press for two years and has published three chapbooks: IS IT ABOUT RUINS AND GHOSTS?, The Trick to Feeling Safe at Home, and Worry & Fuck. She recently completed a doctorate about Canadian literary awards. You can find her, or at least more about her, at dessabayrock.com, or at @dessayo on Instagram.

Jason Christie [pictured] lives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of Canada Post (Invisible), i-ROBOT (Edge/Tesseract), Unknown Actor (Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). His most recent chapbooks are: Glass Language Untitled Exaltation (excerpt) (above / ground) and Heavy Metal Litany (Model press). He is looking for a home for a new manuscript of poetry he wrote with the help of several Python scripts. Most recently, he is trying to get AI to not write poems that rhyme.