some author activity: Hawes, Burdick, Paige, Kemp + Crosby,

James Hawes has new work up at carte blanche; Alice Burdick is included in the Canadian Poets Series via peripety and/or tronies; Salem Paige is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Penn Kemp has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; and did you know that Gregory Crosby has a newsletter?

some author activity: McNair, Hawes, Saklikar, Bell, MacEachern + Armantrout,

Christine McNair has added a rare new post to her blog; James Hawes has a poem up at SQUID; Renée Sarojini Saklikar is interviewed in the 5 Questions series by Finnian Burnett; Wade Bell offers his own piece on filling Station for The Typescript; Jessi MacEachern has new work up at the ex-puritan; and Rae Armantrout has a poem up at The London Review of Books.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 17: Kearney, Hawes, Pennock, Beaulieu + (possibly) McNair,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
the glorious return (after four years!) of the pre-small press book fair reading
celebrating 29 years of the ottawa small press book fair
featuring readings by:

Rae Kearney (new to Ottawa!)
James Hawes (Montreal)
Tyler Pennock (Toronto)
Derek Beaulieu (Banff)
              + possibly (childcare-dependant)
Christine McNair (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 17, 2023
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day (NOTE DIFFERENT LOCATION) at the Tom Brown Arena]

Rae Kearney [pictured] is a poet and designer who just moved to Ottawa after spending time on the west coast. This year, she helped edit and design The Lupine (2023), a new journal published alongside the Whistler Writers Festival. Previous work can be found at above/ground press (2020) and in antilangmag no.3 (Winter 2019).

James Hawes lives and writes and makes films in Montreal. His poems have been published in print and online journals across Canada. His full length book of poetry Breakfast With a Heron (Mansfield Press) was shortlisted for the 2020 ReLit Award. He is the author of 3 chapbooks; Bus Metro Walk (Monk Press) was long-listed for the inaugural Nelson Ball Prize, The Hotdog Variations (above/ground press) and under an overpass, a fox (Turret House) was recently shortlisted for the 2023 Nelson Ball Prize. He started Turret House Press in 2023, dedicated to publishing new and experimental Canadian poetry. He has 2 cats.

Tyler Pennock is the inaugural Indigenous Writer-in-Residence at Carleton University. They are a two-spirit adoptee from a Cree and Metis family around the Lesser Slave Lake region of Alberta, and is  a member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. They graduated from Guelph University’s Creative Writing MFA program in 2013.Their first book, BONES (Brick Books) was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Indigenous Voices Award for Poetry. Their second book, BLOOD was released in September 2022. They currently teach at the Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto.

Derek Beaulieu is the author/editor of over twenty-five collections of poetry, prose, and criticism. His most recent volume of fiction, Silence: Lectures and Writings, was published by Sweden’s Timglaset Books, his most recent volume of poetry, Surface Tension, was published by Toronto’s Coach House Books. Beaulieu has won multiple local and national awards for his teaching and dedication to students, the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for this dedication to Albertan literature and is the only graduate from the University of Calgary’s Department of English to receive the Faculty of Arts ‘Celebrated Alumni Award.’ Beaulieu holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Roehampton University, has served as poet laureate of both Calgary and Banff, and is the Director of Literary Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

Christine McNair is the author of Charm (Book*hug, 2017) and Conflict (Book*hug, 2012). McNair lives in Ottawa where she works as a book doctor. And she even has a new chapbook with shreeking violet press!

some author activity: Hawes, Mody, Robinson + Berlatsky,

The Encore Poetry Project includes a poem by James Hawes; Monica Mody now has a substack; Elizabeth Robinson has new work up at Posit; forthcoming author Noah Berlatsky has a poem up at New Feathers Anthology.

some author activity: Hawes, Ace, Williams, Coulton, Myers, Schapira + Bell,

James Hawes has a new poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does Samuel Ace and forthcoming author Evan Williams, as well as Valerie Coulton; forthcoming author Peter Myers has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series via dusie; Kate Schapira has new work in Anomaly; and Wade Bell has new work up at The Typescript.

some author activity: Scroggins, Norris, Carisse, Hawes, Tracy, Mohammadi + Cadsby,

Mark Scroggins has a new poem up at talking about strawberries all of the time; Ken Norris is interviewed there, as is Russell Carisse, and so is James Hawes; Dale Tracy is interviewed in the '12 or 20 questions' series; Khashayar Mohammadi has a poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, and so does forthcoming author Heather Cadsby!

some author activity: Jahn, McKinnon, Hawes, Boyle, Baker + Kaplan,

forthcoming author Ben Jahn has a new poem up in the Tuesday poem series via the Dusie blog; Barry McKinnon is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; James Hawes has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as does Frances Boyle; Jennifer Baker is included in the Spotlight series; and Genevieve Kaplan has two poems in the new issue of House Mountain Review.

Scott Bryson reviews James Hawes' The Hotdog Variations (2021) in Broken Pencil

Scott Bryson was good enough to provide the first review of James Hawes' The Hotdog Variations (2021) over at Broken Pencil. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

The Hotdog Variations : Chapbook, James Hawes, 14 pgs, above/ground press, abovegroundpress.blogspot.com, $4

Never has “a hotdog with mustard & relish” been so elevated. This humble phrase constitutes the entirety of James Hawes’ chapbook. Poem after poem is built by rearranging — and using all of — the 24 characters of that dog description. Each line and stanza is a jumble of the letters in “a hotdog with mustard & relish.”

For some reason, the word “with” is never altered, always appearing as is. The remaining text shifts into a mix of non-sense — such as “do thog & rast / umd with is a rhel” — as well as strange but sensible verse: “a slide with & through stardom.” Some of these poems, viewed individually, evoke tangible feelings regardless of one’s ability to understand the content. When the reassembled words in a poem are all curt, for example (that done on purpose by Hawes, one would assume), they speak with anger or disgust.

Nearly more interesting than these poems is imagining Hawes’ process. Why a hotdog? Did he use some sort of anagram generator or painstakingly rearrange these letters from scratch? Do the seemingly nonsensical lines make sense to him, in some way? Why no ketchup?

new from above/ground press: The Hotdog Variations, by James Hawes

The Hotdog Variations
James Hawes
$4

& dog
a relish hot
with mustard

with relish
& hot a mustard
dog

hot relish
& a mustard
with dog

dog a mustard
with hot
& relish

a relish
with dog &
hot mustard

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

James Hawes lives & writes in the Montreal borough of NDG. His work has appeared in various print journals & online sites. His chapbook Bus Metro Walk (Monk Press) was long-listed for the inaugural Nelson Ball Prize in 2020. His first full-length book of poems Breakfast with a Heron (Mansfield Press) was published in 2019.

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