Black Lives Matter : chapbook giveaway,

I thought it would be interesting to select a handful of titles from the above/ground press backlist for a Black Lives Matter chapbook giveaway, as a way to use our resources to provide our support in tangible ways (we have also donated monies, as we’ve been able), and to help further amplify the work of some writers of colour the press has produced over the years. So, read up on resources to donate to in the link: https://linktr.ee/NationalResourcesList (thanks to Khashayar Mohammadi for providing the original link); and, after donating (no proof required) $5 or more, I’ll send you a chapbook of your choice from the list below; if you donate $25 or more, I’ll send you a handful of titles, if you wish.

Poetry chapbook give-away titles in this give-away include: Solitude is an Acrobatic Act (2020) by Khashayar Mohammadi; Furigraphic Horizons (2019) by Hawad, translated from the French by Jake Syersak; from The Book of Bramah (2019) by Renée Sarojini Saklikar; After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (second printing, 2019) by Renée Sarojini Saklikar; Open Island, three poems (2017) by Faizal Deen; CONCEALED WEAPONS / ANIMAL SURVIVORS (2018) by natalie hanna; dark ecologies (2017) by natalie hanna; G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #9 (2020), edited by natalie hanna; and ANGELTONGUE / LENGUA DE ÁNGEL (2018) by Miguel E. Ortiz Rodríguez.

First come, first served! And while supplies last, obviously. I’ve twenty or more of all but natalie hanna’s earlier chapbook on hand for this give-away. I had hoped, as well, to be able to include copies of either of Jordan Abel’s above/ground press titles, or either of George Elliott Clarke’s above/ground press titles, but I simply haven’t enough copies of any of those. If you are able to donate and wish to let me know, send me an email to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com with your mailing address, and your requested title(s). I will keep running this until all of the chapbooks in this box by my desk is empty!

Could above/ground press be better at producing works by writers of colour? Oh, certainly. There’s plenty of room for improvement. I will do my best to do better.

some author activity: Polyck-O'Neill, Braune, Deen, Syersak, Schmaltz + Tokar,

Julia Polyck-O'Neill, Sean Braune, Faizal Deen and Jake Syersak etc all have new work in the sixth issue of where is the river; Eric Schmaltz is interviewed at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Janice Tokar is shortlisted for the 2018 Far Horizons Poetry Award, via The Malahat Review.

Amanda Earl reviews six (further) 2017 titles: N.W. Lea’s Nervous System, Jason Christie’s random_lines = random.choice, natalie hanna’s dark ecologies, rob mclennan’s It’s still winter, Marilyn Irwin’s north and Faizal Deen’s Open Island

Following her first two group reviews posted here and here, the esteemed and muchly generous poet, editor, publisher and reviewer (and above/ground press author) Amanda Earl continues her reviews of 2017 above/ground press items, providing a first review of N.W. Lea’s Nervous System, a first review of Jason Christie’s random_lines = random.choice, a first review of natalie hanna’s dark ecologies, a first review of rob mclennan’s It’s still winter, a second review of Marilyn Irwin’s north (after Ryan Pratt's review at the ottawa poetry newsletter) and a first review of Faizal Deen’s Open Island. Thanks so much! You can see Amanda's full review here.

The Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta : a report,

Last night was our annual Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta, once again in our usual space in Parkdale Market's Carleton Tavern [see last year's report here], held as the "office Christmas party" for our informal writer's grouping.

The evening held a myriad of short readings by PFYC regulars and even an irregular, including Anita Dolman, Christine McNair, D.S. Stymiest, Faizal Deen, Amanda Earl, Chris Johnson, Roland Prevost, Frances Boyle and rob mclennan (with absences by Jason Christie, Chris Turnbull, natalie hanna, James Moran, Cameron Anstee, Vivian Vavassis and Claire Farley, all of whom were sorely missed), with an unexpected appearance by new father N.W. Lea (we had a copy of his most recent above/ground press title handy, so managed to convince him to read), and Nova Scotia poet E. Alex Pierce, who gave a short reading as well. Apparently Pierce was in Ottawa for part of the holidays, and Basma Kavanagh sent her an email and told her to get herself down to the tavern, because of all the poets that would be there!

[above, from top: N.W. Lea reading; N.W. Lea listening as Anita Dolman reads; E. Alex Pierce; D.S. Stymiest] Reading to a healthy crowd of friends new and old, the audience included Jennifer Pederson, Grant Wilkins, Janice Tokar, Monty Reid, Josh Massey, Stephen Brockwell, Charles Earl, jwcurry, Marilyn Irwin and Chris Jennings, among others. And we even helped train a new waitress to our shenanigans.

[above: Roland Prevost; crowd scene including Josh Massey; post-reading w jwcurry, Faizal Deen + D.S. Stymiest] Christine and I made a point of reading from works-in-progress (as well as a poem I wrote the day after our prior PFYC Christmas gathering), her from a series of poetry and prose sections on her experience with preaclampsia, and myself a short story in-progress, one of the three I've been actively working on over the past few months. It was good to hear pretty much the entire group reading from new or recent work, from recently-polished poems to completely unfinished works, including a longer piece by Faizal Deen we're hoping will soon make it into an above/ground press chapbook (a section of the same work appeared in the tenth issue of Amanda Earl's experiment-o).

[Monty Reid and Chris Johnston, listening] And yes, I made cookies (lemon icebox and sugar) and everyone loved them. And Frances made cookies also, which were also loved.

some author activity: Hall, Earl, Iijima, hanna + Deen,

Phil Hall has a new poem up at Halibut Haiku; Amanda Earl has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Brenda Iijima has new work in issue #8 of DATABLEEDZINE; natalie hanna has a new poem up as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie; and Amanda Earl's The Small Machine Talks interviews Faizal Deen.

new from above/ground press: Open Island, by Faizal Deen

Open Island
three poems
Faizal Deen
$3

Wrong Essays

begins a mouldy turn into kaiso
Archie “and Muslims in general”
better than the hippogriff Kali come to life
behind Sinbad
little master in Mom’s panties
read more hippogriff where the masters let them
Ray Harryhausen a thousand arms
head griffin claws
hooves horse tail
Moors from Afrique
In hybrid hands; Ottawa special effect.
“see, Orientalist!, see?”
every funeral, the 4th takbir, remain standing
without wing or hippogriff
Moderns grow lush in their dream of an open island
Okroes in the grabber of scotch bonnet
a dying shoreline Hellshire’s fried Dancehall
love affairs
“The Indies,” a moonlight Haji shears history
At Plaza, hands everywhere Sinbad.
At Plaza, read more hippogriff mister.
Mom turns walaikum into laughing Sparrow
blows loud balloons
this secret petition to Kali

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Faizal Deen Forrester is a doctoral student in the Department of English Language & Literature at Carleton University. As a contributor to the Migration and Diaspora Studies initiative at Carleton, Faizal seeks to address the ways in which the cultural production of Caribbean populations in Canada—in particular, the work of poets—encourages us to rethink existing notions of diasporic identity. Faizal has studied at Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus), McGill University; and, most recently, received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Windsor. As Faizal Deen, he maintains—along with his scholarly endeavours—an acclaimed poetry practice, beginning in 2000 with the publication of Land Without Chocolate, a Memoir, Guyana’s first LGBTQI poetry collection. His most recent collection, The Greatest Films, which, in part, addresses Caribbean queer Islamic identities in the post-9/11 era, was published by Mawenzi House.

[Produced for Deen's participation in Ottawa's 7th annual VERSeFest, March 21-26]

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: mclennan, Downs, Earl, Robertson + Deen,

rob mclennan has five new poems up at BRAVE NEW WORD; Buck Downs has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; the second installment of Amanda Earl's "Lisa Robertson, A Reading Diary" is now online; and Faizal Deen [who reads next week at VERSeFest's Factory event] was interviewed by rob mclennan for the Ploughshares blog. And you're coming to VERSeFest, right?

The Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest: Faizal Deen + Marilyn Irwin, March 25, 2017

The Factory Reading Series

as part of the seventh annual VERSeFest poetry festival presents:

The Factory Reading Series Lecture Series, two talks and readings by:

Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa)

Faizal Deen (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan

Saturday, March 25, 2017

FREE ADMISSION!

1pm at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar St. Ottawa

http://versefest.ca/year/2017/schedule/?day=Mar25

check the VERSeFest link for the full schedule of events!

March 21-26, 2017

http://versefest.ca

Shortlisted for the 2016 bpNichol Award, a 2014 Tree Reading Series Hot Ottawa Voice, and winner of the 2013 Diana Brebner Prize, Marilyn Irwin’s work has been published by above/ground press, Apt. 9 Press, Arc Magazine, and Matrix Magazine, among others. Her seventh chapbook, waving usufruct; a collaboration with David Emery and Samantha Lapierre, was published by The Steel Chisel last year, and she will be launching a brand new chapbook with above/ground press: north. She runs shreeking violet press in Ottawa. She'll be talking about the crosshairs of mental health and literature making.

http://versefest.ca/year/2017/poet/?id=168

Faizal Deen Forrester is a doctoral student in the Department of English Language & Literature at Carleton University. As a contributor to the Migration and Diaspora Studies initiative at Carleton, Faizal seeks to address the ways in which the cultural production of Caribbean populations in Canada—in particular, the work of poets—encourages us to rethink existing notions of diasporic identity. Faizal has studied at Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus), McGill University; and, most recently, received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Windsor. As Faizal Deen, he maintains—along with his scholarly endeavours—an acclaimed poetry practice, beginning in 2000 with the publication of Land Without Chocolate, a Memoir, Guyana’s first LGBTQI poetry collection. His most recent collection, The Greatest Films, which, in part, addresses Caribbean queer Islamic identities in the post-9/11 era, was published by Mawenzi House.

http://versefest.ca/year/2017/poet/?id=204