some author activity: Barwin, Tierney, Strang, Mc Donnell, Sparrow, Swensen, Johnson + Earl,

Doreen Nicoll interviews Gary Barwin for the Small Change Podcast; Orchid Tierney has new work in petrichor; Catriona Strang has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Conor Mc Donnell, Noah Sparrow, Cole Swensen and Chris Johnson; and Amanda Earl is part of an assemblage of translations of John Keats over at Asymptote, as curated by Johanna Drucker.

some author activity: Barwin + Nećakov, Harder, Ebbitt, Koss, Adams + Pirie,

Gary Barwin and Lillian Nećakov have work from a collaboration-in-progress over at talking about strawberries all of the time, where Shelly Harder also has new work, and Pearl Pirie has new work, and Katie Ebbitt is interviewed; Zane Koss has a poem on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, ; Carrie Olivia Adams writes on her reading series, poetry, and biscuits over at LitHub; and Pearl Pirie has two new poems up at The Pi Review.

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.

some author activity: Boyle, Betts, Banks, Barwin, Sawyer + Barwin,

Frances Boyle has new work up at Bad Dog Mag; Gregory Betts has a poem up at NewPoetry; Chris Banks has a new poem and a short essay up at The Woodlot; Betts also appears with collaborators Lillian Allen and Gary Barwin via "Poetry in Utter Space," The Poet Speaks Podcast S10E7; Larry Sawyer has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Gary Barwin has a poem up in Paul Vermeersch's "In the Third Sleep" series.

new from above/ground press: TULIP IS AN AXE, by Gary Barwin

TULIP 
IS 
AN AXE
Gary Barwin
$6

in the fable, there was a sad window
and a sad chair
I threw the chair through the window
and climbed out


            §


sheep was a bird
and bird was a leaf
everyone was tulips
even the gun

we were forced to consider
what we didn’t want to consider


            §


there once was a tulip
it was like a bomb but more gentle
boom, it went in the night
boom, it went at dawn

its red was blood if blood
didn’t mean dying

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Gary Barwin is a writer, musician and multimedia artist and the author of 35 books including Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984. His most recent novel, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead will be published by Book*Hug in 2026. He lives in Hamilton. garybarwin.com

This is Barwins’s ninth above/ground press chapbook, after “SYNONYMS FOR FISH,” STANZAS #26 (March, 2001), Seedpod, Microfiche (2013), Dust of the Wren: poems and translations (2019), the collaborative PLEASURE BRISTLES (with Alice Burdick; 2018), gravitynipplemilk anthroposcenesters (with Tom Prime; 2018) and SOME LEAVES (with rob mclennan, 2020), and SAYING “BOY” IN A WILDERNESS OF SONG (2021) and MY STRUGGLE WITH NOUNS (2024). He is also one of the collaborators in Kevin Spenst's Ghosted Under the Christmas Tree (2025).

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

some author activity: Banks, Shirley, Unrau, Betts, Barwin + Carpenter,

Chris Banks offers his "best Canadian poetry books of 2025" list, via The Woodlot; Vik Shirley has a new poem up at Burning House Press; Melanie Dennis Unrau is included in the Canadian Poets Series via Peripety and/or Tronies; Gary Barwin, Gregory Betts and Lillian Allen are interviewed on their Muttertongue collaborative projects by Hollay Ghadery for the New Books Network podcast; and J.R. Carpenter has two poems online at The Manchester Review.

new from above/ground press: Heat Lamp, by Pearl Pirie

Heat Lamp
Pearl Pirie
$6

(cinematic)

i          candle
b         ladle 

c         overturned soup
*         gunshot 





D         half moon        
4          sailboat 
≈          uncaring ocean

H         ladder 
v  v      vampire swimming 
o          life saver thrown 

∞         years left for crew learning 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Pearl Pirie is an Ottawa-area, Quebec writer. She has been lucky enough to have had four poetry collections published, most recently footlights (Radiant Press, 2020). A past-president of KaDo, an Ottawa-area haiku and tanka group, she is the coordinator of the Betty Drevniok Award for haiku and has been the publisher of phafours press since 2007. Find her at Patreon and at www,pearlpirie.com This book sprung from the forehead of Gary Barwin's anus porcupine eyebrow.

This is Pirie’s seventh chapbook with above/ground press, after the oath in the boathouse (2008), vertigoheel for the dilly (2014), today’s woods (2014), sex in sevens (2016), Eldon, letters (2019) and Rushing Dusk (2024). Report from the Pirie Society, Vol. 1 No. 1, appeared in 2023.

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

new from above/ground press: Ghosted Under the Christmas Tree, by Kevin Spenst, with Onjana Yawnghwe, Joshua Pitre, Gary Barwin and Derek DeLand

Ghosted Under the Christmas Tree
Kevin Spenst, with Onjana Yawnghwe, Joshua Pitre, Gary Barwin and Derek DeLand
$6

This Machine Kills Fascists 
— co-written with Onjana Yawnghwe 
 
From sunlight in fall to birdsong in spring, 
the spokes of the seasons turn us to tarry. 
The cars are burning electrical corners 
as fumbling fingers button and unbutton.

The spokes of the seasons turn us to tarry
a tad longer in flustersongs we lob at the road.
As fumbling fingers button and unbutton
the edges of a white shirt, and also grief.
 
A tad longer in flustersongs we lob at the road
built as it was on the backs of lost species
waving the edges of a white shirt. And also grief
still and growing, in the process of repair –

gilt as we are on the backs of lost species,
we dig creeks back to cradle some survival.
Still, growing, and in the process of repair,
this machine makes animals of our sins.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kevin Spenst has made many chapbooks and four full-length books of poetry. He’s an organizer for the Dead Poets Reading Series, writes for subTerrain magazine, occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio, and teaches poetry at SFU’s The Writer’s Studio in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territory.

Onjana Yawnghwe writes, draws and makes little books. 

Joshua Pitre teaches ESL classes in Montreal, and is the co-author of Recto, Verso, Chez the Devil’s Printers (with Kevin Spenst, Collusion Books, 2022). 

Gary Barwin is a writer, musician and multimedia artist and the author of 35 books including Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984. Recent work includes Bird Fiction, an interactive poetry multimedia work (with Sarah Imrisek) and Muttertongue, a poetry book and recording with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts. He lives in Hamilton and at garybarwin.com

Derek DeLand is an award-winning design architect, published writer, sportsman, artist and musician. His creative work is interdisciplinary and dynamic, and often locates the hidden energies connecting things.

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

some author activity: Smith, Browne, Carr, Ebbitt, Armantrout, Barwin + McEwan,

Mahaila Smith has new work up at Strange Horizons; the recent "Writing as Alchemy" event, featuring readings by Laynie Browne, Julie Carr and Chloe Garcia Roberts, is now on YouTube via the HDS Center for the Study of World Religions; Katie Ebbitt has new work in the Spotlight series; Rae Armantrout has new work in Plume; and both Gary Barwin and Drew McEwen have new work up at The Ex-Puritan.

some author activity: Archer, Barwin, Spinosa, Dachsel, Betts, MacEachern + Vitkauskas,

Sacha Archer has some visual work up at Arnold McBay's mOvement, as does Gary Barwin, once or twice, and Dani Spinosa; Marita Dachsel has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Gregory Betts is interviewed at The Ethically Immoral Podcast; Jessi MacEachern is featured in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

some author activity: Barwin, Donato, Smiley, dueck, Mc Donnell + Boyle,

Gary Barwin is interviewed by Selena Mercuri as part of the substack Coffee Dates with Authors; Joseph Donato is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Conal Smiley has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; nathan dueck offers a lecture in Cranbrook, British Columbia on September 24 as part of COTR's Museia Lecture series, titled 'Jesus vs Superman'; Conor Mc Donnell is interviewed by Sheelagh Caygill for On Creative Writing; and Frances Boyle has a new poem online at Anacapa Review.

some author activity: Vitkauskas, van Vliet, Betts, Beaulieu, Kemp, Smith, Barwin + Jarvis,

did you know that Lina Ramona Vitkauskas has a substack? ; Robert van Vliet answers the "12 or 20 questions"; Gregory Betts is a guest on Richard Capener's Morgiana Podcast/substack, where I had clearly missed that Derek Beaulieu had also been a guest, as had Penn Kemp; some new Steven Ross Smith collaborations are now up at bandcamp; Gary Barwin has a new visual poem up at Asemana Magazine; and Jenna Jarvis has new work up at Discordia Review.

some author activity: Chang-Richardson, Hausner, Niespodziany, Shirley, Barwin + Reid,

Ellen Chang-Richardson is featured in the "Canadian Poets Series" via Peripety and/or Tronies; Beatriz Hausner is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Benjamin Niespodziany hosted an online reading for Evan Nicholls that included readings by above/ground press authors Vik Shirley and Gary Barwin, as well as readings by Mark Leidner and Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, the entirety of which is now available via YouTube; and did you see the new interview with Monty Reid via the above/ground press substack?

some author activity: Mellis, Gevirtz, Niespodziany, Dardis, Barwin + Straumsvåg,

Miranda Mellis writes on Karl Ove Knausgaard over at Hilobrow; Susan Gevirtz has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series; Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up at Afterimages; Colin Dardis has four poems up at Rochford Street Review; Hollay Ghadery podcast interviews Gary Barwin; and Dag T. Straumsvåg is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

some author activity: Graham, Barwin, Ross, Mellis, mclennan + Tierney,

Lea Graham has a poem up at The Fortnightly Review; Gary Barwin has a poem up at NewPoetry; Stuart Ross has new work up at The Glacier; Miranda Mellis writes on Robert (Bob) Glück for BOMB magazine; rob mclennan has a poem up at Poem Alone, two more up at Blood+Honey, and is interviewed by Mia Funk for The Creative Process; and Orchid Tierney is hosting a free, virtual zine workshop, “pedagogies for the planthroposcene!,” on August 8 at noon as part of Sarabande Books's ⚡ZINE LUNCH!⚡ series.

some author activity: Barwin, Nećakov, Cain, mclennan, Smith + Davis,

Gary Barwin and Lillian Nećakov have some collaborative work up in the Tuesday poem series; Book*hug Press features Stephen Cain as part of their National Poetry Month spotlight series; rob mclennan has a new poem on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month; Mahaila Smith is interviewed in the 12 or 20 questions series; and Jordan Davis is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

some author activity: Heroux, Jenks, Earl, Siklosi, Barwin, Collis, Robinson + Niespodziany,

Jason Heroux has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does forthcoming author Tom Jenks, and Amanda Earl; Amanda Earl also has a new essay up a The Typescript; Kate Siklosi is #3 in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; Gary Barwin has started a substack; Stephen Collis is interviewed via the SFU Department of English website; Elizabeth Robinson has a poem up at Poetry Daily; and Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month.

some author activity: Armantrout, Browne, Turner, Stebner, Dean, Barwin, Nichol + Heroux,

Rae Armantrout discusses two poems from her latest collection with Laynie Browne, Julia Bloch and Al Fireis as part of PoemTalk #207 at Jacket2; Michael Turner has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does Kevin Stebner, and even Leesa Dean; Gary Barwin has posted new music over at bandcamp, "I before H: music after bpNichol"; and Jason Heroux has a new poem up at unbroken.

The League of Canadian Poets : Lifetime Achievement, Penn Kemp : Life Member, Gary Barwin

Congratulations to above/ground press author Penn Kemp (author of the recent Lives of Dead Poets), for receiving this year's Lifetime Achievement Award through The League of Canadian Poets! And to Gary Barwin (author of eight titles through above/ground press, most recently MY STRUGGLE WITH NOUNS), for receiving this year's Life Membership! Hooray! As the website for The League of Canadian Poets offers:

Poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication of poetry by Coach House (1972), a “poetic El Niño”, and a “one-woman literary industry”. The League of Canadian Poets has honored her with the Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award  (2025),  as Spoken Word Artist of the year (2015), as a foremother of Canadian Poetry, and Life Member. Penn has long been a keen participant/activist in Canada’s cultural life, with more than thirty books of poetry, prose and drama; seven plays and ten CDs produced as well as award-winning videopoems. She was London's inaugural Poet Laureate (2010-13) and Western University’s Writer-in-Residence (2009-10). Her project was the DVD, Luminous Entrance: A Sound Opera for Climate Change Action, performed at Aeolian Hall, London. Her other Sound Operas have been performed there and at venues across Canada. She has been writer-in-residence at universities throughout India and Brazil with her work widely translated. Her “poem for peace in many voices”, for instance, is out in 136 languages. Her many collaborations with artists are up on Youtube and River Revery. Out now is POEMS IN RESPONSE TO PERIL, an anthology for Ukraine. Penn’s sound poetry, INCREMENTALLY, is up as e-book and album. New collections in 2025 are available through Silver Bow Publishing and above/ground press. Penn is active across the web on her website; on Facebook, X, and Instagram; on her blog; on Substack; and on Soundcloud.

The award selection committee writes:

Penn’s contributions to community are wildly impressive and undeniable. The tendrils of her devotion to poetry and literature not only span decades, but extend across mediums, forms, and the country. Directly or indirectly, so many of us have benefited from Penn’s contributions to our literary landscape.

Over a career spanning six decades, London ON poet Penn Kemp has done it all: poetry in both voice and print, editing anthologies, publishing, mentoring countless young writers, writing for theatre and sound operas, extensive collaborative and community engagements, and promoting poetry in all its forms. As important as her poetry, and integral to it, is her activism and commitment to social justice. Translated into multiple languages and performed around the world, Penn’s poetry addresses peace and justice, environmental activism, domestic violence and a range of other social and political concerns.  With books and multi-media projects published as early as 1972 and as recent as, well, yesterday, Penn is more than deserving of this celebration of a lifetime very full of achievement.

On winning the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, Penn writes:

To be the inaugural winner of the League's new Lifetime Achievement Award is a profound honour, given the wealth of senior poets across Canada. Throughout sixty years of writing and publishing, poetry has been my lifeline.  But there is so much more to explore! At eighty, I feel at the beginning of all that poetry can offer... I still stare daily at the blank page until words unfurl. In accepting this award, I'd also like to pay tribute to our elder poets, for whom this ongoing award is so pertinent. A deep bow to the League for supporting poetry in Canada over the decades, and on.

Gary Barwin is a writer, musician and multimedia artist and the author of 34 books including Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984 and, with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts, Muttertongue: what is a work in utter space. His national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates which won the Leacock Medal and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize and was longlisted for Canada Reads. His last novel, Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was the Hamilton Reads choice for 2023-2024. His last poetry collection, The Most Charming Creatures also won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award. His most recent novel, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead will be published in 2026. His art and media works have been exhibited internationally.

His poetry installation, The Ambitious Sky was projected on a five-storey wall in Hamilton in February 2025, an interactive multimedia poetry exhibition (created with Elee Kraljii Gardiner) was exhibited at Massy Arts (Vancouver) in Fall 2024, and Bird Fiction, and an interactive multimedia work (with Sarah Imrisek) was featured in Hamilton Arts Week in June 2025.

Known for his dynamic and engaging performances, Barwin has given hundreds of readings and multimedia poetry presentations (with live music, interactive computer systems, and/or projections) in Canada and internationally. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com

Jay Miller reviews Gary Barwin's Seedpod Microfiche (2013)

Montreal poet, translator and reviewer Jay Miller was good enough to review Gary Barwin's Seedpod Microfiche (2013) over at Bibelotages. Thanks so much! This is actually the third review of this particular title, after Scott Bryson reviewed such over at Broken Pencil, and Ryan Pratt reviewed same via the ottawa poetry newsletter. You can read Miller's original post here. As Miller writes:

Seedpod Microfiche: a half dozen poems I received last year from rob mclennan, dated August 2013, and written by Gary Barwin.

The cover and back feature line drawings of faceless individuals bearing stethoscopes in an outstretched hand, a grandma-type figure on the front and a Lord Byron-looking type on the back (under a prominent $4 price tag), turnt away from the device being placed under his left clavicle. The title and author name appear in a lovingly unassuming serif, one word on each line, with title case capitalization, and author name all on one line, roughly 6-8px smaller. Stark inkblack on yellow.

The first of six poems has literary resonances from the first line. Yet, I turn away from them to take what’s left without allusion and nostalgia, not to be a literalist or purist, but to appreciate the imagery for what it is rather than what may or may not indirectly imply or illicit: a grass blade, it begins.

The thing about Gary Barwin is his affinity for assonance. There are a handful of other Canadian poets who sometimes pull off what he’s doing on this single page (and if you’re an optimistic judge, even myself, by inadvertent imitation to some extent). Albeit, it’s this rhythm that yanks you into the rut of a groove that combines the sounds of the words with the images it evokes.

Take a look at the logo for my blog, for example. For a minute, Leigh Kotsilidis and I had discussed whether or not to use ol’ timey medical texts (and microfiche!) to achieve the sort of dark academia vibe I was weighing in my head for the branding of this site. I’m glad we didn’t end up there per se, but you have to agree it is a vibe that exists. It’s the same aesthetic as the line-drawn figures on the covers of Barwin’s chap here in my hand right now. Collage removed from the chaos of collage, just a paparazzi flash of clinical press clippings removed from their historical context.

When you hear the title of the chapbook revealed in this opening poem, then, it all sort of clicks in the nebulousness of it all, without feeling like equivocation of any kind: seedpod, microfiche of twilight/a dewdrop observed, a cobweb/a weed-wrapped tongue or treetop.

The second page over, the dissonance encroaches one step further into your experience of reading it for the first time. The words slightly change, one line off, one syllable off, one noun replaced by one verb, but an evocative one, one that might appear with a red squiggle in your word processor or draft email message: the sewn seed is dropped twilight/microfiche an observation tower for wings/weeds, a rupture of the tongue. The mystery does not reveal itself even as it unfolds.

Next page: now lines are more noticeably moving to form a sextet where before there was couplet or triplet, and the ersatz of sounds, nouns and syntax takes on a new valency or prime order. What is the algebra that reverse engineers Barwin’s paperweight enigmas? Their unassumingness certainly does not warrant the impression we need to don the tinfoil hat of Pascalian curiosity to investigate. Let the puzzle remain unsolved. It is not cryptographic, but cryptic for the sake of beauty, not for the sake of being hammered out for good. Format adds square brackets here, as though instructional or journalistic.

Fourth of six poems: seed is the mitosis of sleep. Reminds me of a Nas lyric: I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death. What is a mitosis? Something to do with mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell? Cytology, the part usually followed by cell division, from Ancient Greek mitos, thread, synonym karyokinesis. Division of a cell nucleus in which the genome is copied and separated into two identical halves. An older dictionary (my beloved Annandale) offers a briefer picture: a somewhat complicated process.

Fifth poem, finneganation nearly complete, wake in progress: the truck, only four, asks/what else would stars do but constellate?

Then, further down the page: the way a scientist follows/an atom’s breath//love like a stethoscope/with neither ears nor heartbeats.

The final and sixth poem, perhaps the circumnavigation, the all-the-way-rounding off of the last decimal place in this irrationally derivated equation of a poem sequence: dusk on the owl of the tongue, it proffers.

And I was right: a stethoscope whose end/is its beginning/and whose beginning/is also twilight.