some author activity: Kronovet, Stewart, Johnson, Brockwell, Polyck-O'Neill + Nilson,

Jennifer Kronovet is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; Fenn Stewart has a guest post up at The League of Canadian Poets blog for National Poetry Month; forthcoming author Chris Johnson has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as do Stephen Brockwell, Julia Polyck-O'Neill and Geoffrey Nilson.

above/ground press participates in The Capilano Review's epic kickstarter!

above/ground press has donated a mound of chapbooks for The Capilano Review's epic fundraiser! For a donation for $50 or more, you can pick up a set of fourteen above/ground press chapbooks. Only three sets available!

Each set includes: Gregory Betts, Who Let the Mice in Brion Gysin (2014), rob mclennan, How the alphabet was made (2014), Rae Armantrout, Rituals (2013), Fenn Stewart, An OK Organ Man (2012), Robert Manery, Richter-Rauzer Variations (2012), Mark Cochrane, Cat. (2012), Shannon Maguire, Vowel Wolves & Other Knots (2011), Ken Norris, GREEN WIND (2010), Natalie Simpson, The writing that should enter into conversation (2005), ryan fitzpatrick, Adolesce (2005), George Bowering (as "Ellen Field"), A, You're Adorable (2004), Meredith Quartermain, "Highway 99" (STANZAS #35) (2003), Donato Mancini, @phabet (2003), bpNichol, KON 66 & 67 (for jiri valoch (2002).

some author activity: Rogal, Abel, Martin, Stewart + mclennan,

Stan Rogal has a poem up as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; Mercedes Eng writes on Jordan Abel over at Jacket2; Camille Martin has some new work in the third issue of Posit: a journal of literature and art; both Jordan Abel and Fenn Stewart have new work in the new issue of The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada; rob mclennan has a new poem and corresponding short interview online at Canadian Literature; and has three tiny poem-chapbooks reprinted/reissued by Poems-For-All.

some author activity: Stewart, beaulieu, Martin, Earl, Armantrout + Adams,

Fenn Stewart has the first dusie Tuesday poem of 2014, and derek beaulieu has the second; Camille Martin has some new work up at Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics; there's a lengthy interview with Amanda Earl over at margento: a uOttawa Arts website, and she has also composed a new essay on her ghazals over at The Town Crier; A. Bradstreet interviews Rae Armantrout; and Carrie Olivia Adams features at the Phoenix Reading Series in Arizona on January 30, 2014.

some author activity: Reed, mclennan, Earl, Anstee, Young + Stewart,

Marthe Reed has a new poem up as part of "The Trash Issue" of The Volta, and rob mclennan's small press book fair interview, along with interviews with Amanda Earl, Cameron Anstee and Kimberly Dawkins, was posted as part of a selection of interviews in The Volta's sister publication, The Conversant (the original list of twenty-nine interviews from the fall 2013 ottawa small press book fair is posted here); Amanda Earl's AngelHousePress introduces a new imprint for transgressive work, DevilHousePress; Deanna Young reads at Ottawa's Pressed Cafe's Railroad Reading Series (750 Gladstone Avenue) at 7pm, January 16, alongside Dean Steadman, Susan McMaster, Lesley Strutt and Bruce Taylor; and Fenn Stewart reads with Mat Laporte at Toronto's HIJ Reading Series (260 Ryding Avenue), January 19, 4-7pm.

above/ground press author Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) on the bpNichol 2013 chapbook award shortlist!

Congratulations to Toronto poet Fenn Stewart, whose 2012 chapbook An OK Organ Man (copies are still available) is on the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist! This is above/ground press' second appearance on the shortlist, after two titles appeared on last year's list. Nice, also, to also see above/ground press authors Gil McElroy and Shannon Maguire on the list for other titles, and even one of our authors as a judge! (the press appears to be everywhere these days) Congratulations to the entire shortlist!

Here's the press release that Toronto's Meet the Presses Collective sent out today:

Congratulations: Meet The Presses Collective and the bpNichol Chapbook Award Committee are pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award.

thirteen poems for releasing love by joanne thorwaldson (leaf press)
An OK Organ Man by Fenn Stewart (above/ground)
Ordinary Time: The Merton Lake Propers by Gil McElroy (baseline press)
fruit machine by Shannon Maguire (Ferno House)
21st century monsters by ryan fitzpatrick (Red Nettle Press)
naturally speaking by Sandra Alland (espresso [paperplates press])

The winner will be announced at 2PM on Saturday 16 November 2013 at the Indie Literary Market, Tranzac Club, Toronto. A cheque for $2,000 goes to the winning poet and $500 to the winning publisher. Donors for the prizes include Anonymous ($2,000 prize), Jim Smith and Brian Dedora ($500 prize).

Judges this year are Sandra Ridley (Ottawa) & kevin mcpherson eckhoff (Armstrong, BC), who received 90 chapbooks from which they made this year's shortlist selection.

                                        ❧ ❧
 
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 was 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, Paul Dutton, Beth Follett, Hazel Millar, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross.

Some author activity: Stewart, Robertson, Markotic + Wilkinson; and McElroy, McNair + Markotic at VERSeFest!

Fenn Stewart, Lisa Robertson and Nicole Markotic read with Susan Holbrook in Toronto on Friday, March 8, 2013, hosted by the Toronto New School of Writing; and Joshua Marie Wilkinson has a new essay, "On Poetry & Accessibility," over at The Volta, and a review-essay over at West Branch Wired. And don't forget Gil McElroy, Christine McNair and Nicole Markotic (and many others) at this year's VERSeFest!

Fenn Stewart's above/ground chapbook, An OK Organ Man, is reviewed in Broken Pencil #57

Justin F. Ridgeway was good enough to review Fenn Stewart’s above/ground chapbook, An OK Organ Man (above/ground press, 2012) in Broken Pencil #57 (autumn 2012 issue). Thanks, Justin! There are a few copies still available, here. Although I admit to still not understanding why so many reviewers in Broken Pencil seem not to comprehend that not all folded/stapled are “zines.” Why can’t they call them chapbooks?

Reading this poetry zine, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not quite poetry-illiterate. It makes me ask myself: Is this why I read fiction? Do I need it spelled out for me with sentences and paragraphs and familiar punctuation to hold my hand and read to me while I fall asleep where dreams are the closest thing to an imagination I have? As it turns out, this zine made poetry feel a little closer, a little more welcome, a little more familiar.

            Fenn Stewart’s zine follows a nature study club and a Classics club when they find themselves double-booked into one of those stuffy, wood-paneled university classrooms. Or maybe they are in nature – the Classics club, that is – and they’re discussing Lake Ontario, its fish and other aquatic species. Through the poems they describe the vegetation and the region’s life cycles in speech that sounds like humming birds, delicate but with determination and purpose, exhibiting a syntactical playfulness and careful word selection. One can only admire the precise angle through which a phrase is turned.

            Even as a poetry neophyte, this work drew me in, and I appreciated the amorphous quality of the atmosphere and setting.

some photos from last night's above/ground press 19th anniversary reading/anniversary/launch,

A stellar evening last night at Overkill, a small lounge just underneath The Mercury Lounge in Ottawa's Byward Market. Have you ever seen such a lovely picture of chapbooks?

With some forty people in attendance, we launched new publications by Amanda Earl, Cameron Anstee (above), Marilyn Irwin (below) and Stephen Brockwell (below-er), and nineteen years of chapbook publishing, and all four authors gave amazing readings. I even managed to have copies of both of Amanda Earl's previous above/ground press items, as well as Stephen Brockwell's, yet couldn't manage to find copies of Marilyn Irwin's previous above/ground press item (she brought some of her own copies along).

Thanks to everyone who participated in the event, from the readers to audience to bartendress, to Christine McNair, willing to be the evening's door person and bookseller. The audience was filled with Ottawa writers, including various above/ground authors and non-authors alike: Christian McPherson, Michelle Desberats (Eve'n Adam), Brandon McNally, Pearl Pirie (oath in the boathouse), Monique Desnoyers, David Currie, Vivian Vavassis and Bardia Sinaee. 

By October, I'll be announcing the 2013 above/ground press subscriptions, and watch for readings coming up this fall, with possible appearances by George Elliott Clarke, Shannon Maguire and Fenn Stewart, and a late March, 2013 reading by American poet Deborah Poe. Just what might the 20th anniversary bring...? 

Fenn Stewart: Poets in Profile, Open Book: Toronto/Ontario

above/ground press author Fenn Stewart, author of An Ok Organ Man (2012), answers questions over at Open Book: Toronto.

Amanda Earl's above/ground press 2012: notes on four chapbooks

Ottawa poet, publisher and blogger Amanda Earl (author of a couple of above/ground titles of her own as well) was good enough to review a small selection of recent chapbooks -- Rae Armanrtout's Custom (2012), Sarah Mangold's Cupcake Royale (2012), Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) and j/j hastain's we / cum ::: come / in the yield fields / amongst statues with interior arms (2012) -- thanks, Amanda! See a link to the original review here.

Rae Armantrout's Custom.
This chapbook is composed of four poems, three of which are series poems. In minimal language, Armantrout juxtaposes philosophical musings with tangible and fanciful images. She has a delightful sense of irony: "Someone says, "Dream bigger," handing us/an RPG." America appears as desperate and out of control.  Bored souls hang from the ceilings. There is some syntax play, such as a poem that ends with the adverb "when." Also common expressions are tampered with, such as "Let volumes speak volumes." There is a feeling of strangeness, of not belonging, throughout the chapbook: "someone else's terrain." What we see on screen or in a role playing game vs what is happening in reality, how that changes our expectations to reflect the fantasy. "On screen/men discover/that their mothers/are imposters,/that their world's/unreal." There is a lack of progress, "zero surface tension," "lines of ants," "a string of stragglers on death march," an actress rooting for a lone cloud. "We maintain a critical distance."

Sarah Mangold's Cupcake Royale.
In Cupcake Royale Mangold juxtaposes the language and imagery of cake with the trappings of everyday life:  colour coded medications, compost, stir-fry, sweater-folding. The main form used in the chapbook seems to be accumulation, not necessarily of objects; sometimes short, declarative sentences in the form of objective observation, instructions, same grammatical categories, incomplete thoughts. Somehow it comes across as subversive, this juxtaposition of cake with the everyday: "I'm somewhere in the middle/injectable drugs/vanilla      buttercream". 

Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man
In this chapbook, Stewart's wordplay is prevalent, including puns, foreign languages, alliteration, assonance, repetition, words of three syllables or more & anagrams. By taking text from 18th century philosophers  such as Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, John Locke etc., Stewart has ensured that the chapbook will have an old-fashioned, antiquated feel which is juxtaposed with a general feistiness or rebellion against the conventions of the era from which she is pilfering & gives the work a certain cadence evocative of times gone by. "under what conditions -- say, heroic butchery -- / might I make manifest this trepidation? / what is it but a segment/ or a fluke of sin". The chapbook also contains a level of metatext about language itself: "this ruddy syntax," "for language, beasts, and creatures are conducive," "but really, I'm/your girl for discourse". 

j/j hastain's we / cum ::: come / in the yield fields / amongst statues with interior arms (above/ground press, 2012)
in this chapbook j.j. hastain offers us prose poems that treat abstract concepts as tangible objects: "Liquid light or herds of manic." Much of the work deals with gender as fluid, as a non binary construct: "Gender here, our interactive contour." The text is full of unique & dream-like imagery, poignant observations, provocative paradoxes: "Extracting blossoms from a slaughter house." "A single ant carries the large body of a splayed moth." The poems are chock full of sensuality, poems formed of sentences of varying lengths & styles that careen drunkenly & wildly along. The work is visually strong. I can easily imagine some of these poems being illustrated with paintings or as surreal films" Like the rust colored sunflower that (while soft on its exterior) when cut turns the water it depends on bright pink." The author is a skilled soundsmith, each sentence deliberately muted or  cacophonous, depending on hastain's intent.

new from above/ground press: An OK Organ Man, by Fenn Stewart

An OK Organ Man
Fenn Stewart
$4

polonius

give thy furrows no fatigue
nor any charming king his march
be thou clever, but by no means five feet high
the blows thou hast, and their remonstrance tried
compact them to thy palm with  venison
but do not dew thy dog with common law
for each malignant, unrepentant fish
doth know: that every grief remains in common yet.
give every woman’s ear thy question voice
beware the ambergrise, that it beware of thee
take each man’s acre of inclosed land
reserve thy wild, uncultivated wastes
costly thy nations as thy purse can buy
but not expressed in quarrels, fancy, hums
for oft it is delight proclaims the ban
& the fleetest part of all’s the baker’s sweat.
neither abundance nor a husband be.
supply my defects: this is thy chief end
and thou, my proper fee.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2012
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Fenn Stewart reads and writes in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has previously appeared in The Capilano Review, Peter F. Yacht Club, and Open Letter. She is currently writing a dissertation on de/colonization and literature, and reading Daniel Deronda.

cover artwork by reed stewart

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

"poem" broadside #298: this used to be a sestina, by Fenn Stewart

they don't know that/ the earth is a magnet
when they are released/ they cannot find their heads
they navigate/ they don't know where

they move/ confused/ into the swamps

to live! slowly they remember
to experiment! they have magnets!
they seek crocodiles!

O those scientists,
we will swath their heads
extrememly. in black bandages. in thick technique.
in florida.

we will disrupt these territorial scientists
they are unique/ and valuable creatures
we will disrupt them/ at a rate of 10 miles per week

to increase their numbers!
this is our radar/ this is our responsibility

their eyeballs are magnets
they roll/ their gait/ their heavy eyes inside their heads
they watch

they are less

their eyes
their magnet eyes
shine deeper in the swamps/

the disruption is over

it is safe to


this used to be a sestina
by Fenn Stewart
above/ground press broadside #298

Fenn Stewart reads and writes in a skinny old house in Toronto. She used to live in Montreal and Vancouver and probably will again, someday. Recent work also appears in The Capilano Review and the "Toronto issue" of The Peter F. Yacht Club.