Publishing-in-Transit: Cole Swensen zoom-interviewed Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan + Misha Solomon on above/ground press for Brooklyn Rail: recording now online,

It was such a good conversation! Check out the full hour-plus conversation with myself, Misha Solomon and Jennifer Baker on and around above/ground press, conducted by the brilliant Cole Swensen and hosted by Brooklyn Rail, either here through their site or via their YouTube channel. We talked about VERSeFest, we talked a brief history of above/ground press, we talked about Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] (and hear the legend of how the donkey got its name) and even the “Tuesday poem” series. You can order Misha Solomon’s above/ground press titles here (and his new book over here), Jennifer Baker’s above/ground press titles here, and my above/ground press titles here (or the chapbook I read from, even). Cole Swensen even has an above/ground press title! But you know she has a new book as well, yes? Thanks to everyone who made this thing happen!

Cole Swensen zoom-interviews rob mclennan, Misha Solomon + Jennifer Baker May 20th on above/ground press for Brooklyn Rail,

Publishing-in-Transit: above/ground
Featuring Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, Misha Solomon

Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

REGISTER HERE

Poets Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, and Misha Solomon join Rail contributor Cole Swensen for a conversation on Zoom on above/ground press (which turns thirty-three years old this summer, by the way). 

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Teaching Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of four chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021/reissued by above/ground press, 2023), Memento Mishka (co-authored with David Currie, Apt. 9 Press, 2023), and Wee Walk (above/ground press, 2026). Her work has been featured in Groundwork: Best of above/ground press (2023), Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, Canadian Literature, Dusie, and the Delisted project. 

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of some fifty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles include On Beauty: stories (University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collections the book of sentences (University of Calgary Press, 2025) and edgeless (Caitlin Press, 2026), and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). The current Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he founded above/ground press, a publisher of chapbooks, journals and other ephemera, way back in July 1993. He also spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

Misha Solomon is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His work has appeared in journals across Canada and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2024, 2026, and 2027 (Biblioasis) and in On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House Books). He is the author of three chapbooks, including FLORALS and Misha Solomon's BIODÔME: A Bestiary after Stephanie Bolster (above/ground press), and one full-length collection, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet (Brick Books). He has a BA from Columbia University, an MA from Concordia University, and he is currently a student in Concordia’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program.

Cole Swensen [see her above/ground press title here] is the author of twenty volumes of poetry, most recently And And And (Shearsman Books, 2023), which was long-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a collection of critical essays, Noise That Stays Noise. A book of hybrid poem-essays, Art in Time, was published by Nightboat in 2021. A former Guggenheim Fellow, she has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Award and has been awarded the Iowa Poetry Prize, the SF State Poetry Center Book Award, and the National Poetry Series. She has also translated over twenty volumes of poetry, prose, and art criticism from French and won the 2024 ALTA National Translation Award and the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Translation Award.

new from above/ground press: Wee Walk, by Jennifer Baker

Wee Walk
Jennifer Baker
$6

In June of 2025 two poets
—and relatively inexperienced hikers—

decide on a whim 
to walk Scotland’s West Highland Way 
for their honeymoon 

154km from Glasgow to Fort William.
This is just the beginning of how it went.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

[Jennifer Baker launches Wee Walk as part of a Common House event alongside Sneha Subramanian Kanta and Vera Hadzic on Friday, March 27, 2026 as part of VERSeFest 2026]

Jennifer Baker is a Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa, and the author of three chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021 & above/ground press, 2023), and Memento Mishka (with David Currie, Apt. 9 Press, 2023). She is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to experimental poetics, and her material poetics work will appear in the upcoming Delisted Project (Third Thing Press, 2026). She is the former Poetry Editor of Arc Poetry Magazine from 2023-2025, including a special Winter 2025 guest issue on The New Material Ecopoetics.

This is Baker's third chapbook with above/ground press.

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

The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading!

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,
The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading

at Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, Ottawa
Saturday, December 27, 2025
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm

with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including: Jennifer Baker, Frances Boyle, Conyer Clayton, David Currie, Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Claire Farley, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, Christine McNair, James Moran, Lee Parpart, Colin Quin, Mahaila Smith, Grant Wilkins and Chuqiao Yang (and possibly others,

see my report on the event two years ago here (last year's event hadn't a report, unfortunately;

some author activity: MacEachern, Levy, Solomon, Smith, Dolman, Clayton + Baker,

Jessi MacEachern has new work up at the Spotlight series; John Levy has a new poem up at The Pi Review, as does Misha Solomon; Mahaila Smith answers some interview questions for Angry Gable Press; and AJ Dolman, Conyer Clayton + Jennifer Baker were interviewed yesterday on Friday Special Blend for their reading later today at the Kemptville Branch of the North Grenville Public Library.

some author activity: Clayton, Boyle, Reid, Smith, Solomon, Dolman + Baker,

Conyer Clayton has some new work up at the ex-puritan, as does Frances Boyle; Clayton also has some new work up at Vallum magazine; Monty Reid had some poems up at The Dodge (that I hadn't noticed prior); Steven Ross Smith has a piece up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Misha Solomon has a poem up in the "Poetry Pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; and did you see that Conyer Clayton, AJ Dolman and Jennifer Baker are reading soon in Kemptville, Ontario at the North Grenville Public Library?

some author activity: Eleftherion, Baker, Armantrout, Dolman + mclennan,

Melissa Eleftherion has new work at Rogue Agent; Jennifer Baker is interviewed by Grace Wildman for Common House Magazine; Rae Armantrout is interviewed over at Better Than The Times; AJ Dolman has new work in the Spotlight series; and rob mclennan is interviewed by Han VanderHart for the Of Poetry podcast.

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #33 : 2024 VERSeFest Special,

The Peter F Yacht Club #33
2024 VERSeFest Special
lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan,
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2024 participants, including Jennifer Baker, Manahil Bandukwala, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, nina jane drystek, Klara du Plessis, Amanda Earl, Anita Lahey, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, James Moran, Pearl Pirie, Jaclyn Piudik, Monty Reid, Sandra Ridley, Marjorie Silverman, Madeleine Stratford, D.S. Stymeist, Derek Webster and Grant Wilkins,

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[a small stack of copies will be distributed free as part of the fourteenth annual VERSeFest, March 21-24, 2023]

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

some author activity: Turnbull, Hogg, Houbolt, Armantrout, Baker + mclennan,

a videopoem by Chris Turnbull (and Robert Hogg) is now online at The Typescript; Kyla Houbolt has new work up in the Spotlight series; Rae Armantrout has a new poem online, via Poetry Magazine; Jennifer Baker recently launched her interactive poem, "Hands"; and rob mclennan has recently been announced as a Juror for the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2024!

report: the above/ground press 30th anniversary reading/launch/party!

Can you believe three decades have come and gone already? As you probably know, I hosted a reading and launch and party on August 12, 2023 at the Clocktower Brew Pub in the Glebe as part of the glorious thirtieth anniversary of above/ground press, with readings by Jennifer Baker, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, Sophia Magliocca, Karen Massey, Jérôme Melançon, Monty Reid and Grant Wilkins. Unfortunately, Adrienne Ho Rose was unable to come in from Iowa City, but we all waved at one point to acknowledge her (I wonder if she saw us wave?). Her parents still live here, so I'm hoping there might be further opportunities for her to read in Ottawa at some point.

David Currie and Christine McNair

It was nice to finally have another in-person anniversary event, given the prior one was back in 2019 [see my report on such here]. And, naturally, brilliant thanks to my slate of attractive volunteers: Christine McNair and David Currie who ran the book table, and Brendan McNally who covered door duty. And did you see that Christine even dressed the same colours as the cover (which was originally temporary, but I wonder now if it may have stuck) for this fall's groundwork: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing)? Naturally, pre-orders are available now for this fine volume; and I think we're launching via the ottawa international writers festival this fall?

Amanda Earl

nina jane drystek [photo credit: Jérôme Melançon]

The first reader was Amanda Earl, who read from the latest issue of Touch the Donkey, which included some of her work. Having produced some ten chapbooks of her work-to-date through above/ground press [as well as a festschrift on her work], I always delight in hearing what she's been working on. Amanda really has been on fire the past few years. Have you heard that she's launching a new book soon? nina jane drystek launched her third chapbook and first with above/ground, missing matrilineal, a deeply intimate examination of loss that balances precision with open space, hesitation and clear patter.

Jennifer Baker [photo credit: David Currie]

Monty Reid

Jennifer Baker's Groundling: On Apology is a reissue of a chapbook she had in 2021 with the late John Goodman's Trainwreck Press, produced in a short enough run that she wanted to see it further out into the world. I know she works slowly, but I've been curious to see what else she's been working on. I was first introduced to her work through Phil Hall, from his time as writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa, which resulted in the publication of Baker's chapbook debut, Abject Lessons (2014). Monty Reid's Where there's smoke emerged as a direct result of the ongoing fires, with smoke that stretched not only across Quebec and Ontario, but his prior landscape of Alberta [you saw the festschrift I produced on his work, yes?]. I told the story of meeting Monty for the first time when we both participated in a group reading for National Poetry Month through The League of Canadian Poets, back on April 1, 1999 (curated and hosted by Susan McMaster, I think it was). I was curious at him travelling all that way for the reading, and he said: No, I moved here yesterday.

Chris Johnson [photo credit: Jérôme Melançon]

Oh, and I suggested Chris Johnson bring along copies of the latest issue of Arc Poetry Magazine for potential sale, given the new issue has a good-sized essay on above/ground press by Jérôme Melançon. Make sure you pick up a copy!

Karen Massey [photo credit: Jérôme Melançon]

Sophia Magliocca

It does seem that every decade or so above/ground press produces a new chapbook by Karen Massey, a poet who is clearly long overdue for a first full-sized collection. When might that happen? If only we were still doing Chaudiere Books, honestly. Karen was one of the first people (and only participant younger than forty) that I met when I first started attending readings via The TREE Reading Series circa 1992. Where has the time gone? Her third chapbook, SONGS FROM THE DEMENTIA SUITCASE, is easily the strongest work I've seen from her so far. Next up was Montreal-based poet Sophia Magliocca, launching her chapbook debut and arriving with her parents in tow, all of whom were deeply supportive and absolutely adorable. Adorable! Sophia (one of a growing list of authors younger than the press) is a poet I first heard about through a recommendation by Montreal poet Sarah Burgoyne, who has offered a handful of poets with chapbook manuscripts my way over the past few years (Misha Solomon, Rose Maloukis and Vivian Lewin being others). Sarah clearly has an interesting eye. I am looking forward to seeing what Sophia does next.

Jérôme Melançon

Jérôme Melançon flew in from Regina (to visit family in Gatineau, but we coordinated) to launch his third above/ground press chapbook, Bridges under the water. There aren't that many attending English and French-language poetries the way he is, now having published works in both languages, as well as writing criticism on both French and English-language titles in periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. You should catch this interview I did with him last year over at Touch the Donkey on the two sides of his language/poetic: there's some interesting stuff in there.

rob mclennan [photo credit: Jérôme Melançon]

And he even pushed me to read a poem, saying that he came all this way and wanted to hear me read in person. So I did!

Grant Wilkins [photo credit: Jérôme Melançon]

The final reader of the evening was Ottawa poet and printer Grant Wilkins, who somehow exploded out of the woodwork a few years back, despite being around the Ottawa literary scene since the early 1990s (not long after I emerged). Grant always used to tell folk that he didn't write, no no, but I think it was his work with jwcurry and Messagio Galore that prompted something, whether a newfound interest or confidence, and now he's doing the most interesting combination of sound, visual and conceptual/response work around. We launched not one but two chapbooks of his as part of this event (with a prior above/ground press title earlier this year and even another one last year). What might be next?

Thanks so much for all who attended! It was such a great crowd, including natalie hanna, Charles Earl, Marilyn Irwin, Rob Fairchild, Jason Christie, Frances Boyle, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Cathy Macdonald-Zytveld, Marc Adornado, Susan Johnston, Senka Stankovic and a whole bunch more. Thanks again to the Clocktower Brew Pub! It was a pretty nice space. We clearly need to do this again next year.

new from above/ground press: Groundling : On Apology, by Jennifer Baker

Groundling: On Apology
Jennifer Baker
$5

*

fighting in the street
 we were two kicked dogs

bared teeth
 cornered

& terrible
    we clung
    
I still don't know
how to write about this in a poem
    the utter    breakdown        of love
    when love is seeing each other

    we got it so wrong
    we devoured our own hearts

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
[Jennifer Baker will be launching this title in Ottawa as part of the above/ground press 30th anniversary reading/launch/party on August 12!]

Groundling: On Apology was originally published by John Goodman’s Trainwreck Press, November 2021.

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Adjunct Professor of English Literature living and working in Ottawa. She is the author of three chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Memento Mishka (with David Currie, Apt.9 Press, 2023) and Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021). Her poetry, reviews, and articles can be found in ottawater, Dusie, Canthius, The Bull Calf, Canadian Literature, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, and Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet (University of Ottawa Press, 2020), among others, and she is the 2022 honourable mention recipient of Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize.

This is Baker’s second title with above/ground press, following Abject Lessons (2014).

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

THIS WEDNESDAY: the ottawa small press book fair pre-fair reading:

readings and chapbook launches by:

Jennifer Baker
David Currie
Vera Hadzic
rob mclennan
+
Pearl Pirie

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
As a precursor to Saturday’s spring edition of the ottawa small press book fair
at Jack Purcell Community Centre:
Doors 7pm / Reading 730pm
Ten Toes Coffee House and Laundry
837 Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Adjunct Professor of English Literature at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of three chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021, reissued by above/ground press, 2023), and Memento Mishka (with David Currie, Apt.9 Press, 2023). Her poetry, reviews, and articles can be found in Ottawater, Dusie, Canthius, The Bull Calf, Canadian Literature, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, and Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet (University of Ottawa Press, 2020), among others, and she is the 2022 honourable mention recipient of Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize.

David Currie is a writer in Ottawa.  He is the author of five chapbooks and no book books. His chapbooks include Bird Facts (Apt 9 Press, 2014), Mystery Waffles (In/Words Press 2014), Poems for the Mishka (Shrieking Violet Press 2015), The Planets that Block our Light (In/Words 2015), and now Memento Mishka (Apt. 9, 2023) in collaboration with Jennifer Baker.  His poems have appeared in magazines across Canada most recently in Plants, Animals, and Humans (Apartment 613 2023).  He currently works as a political organizer – a job which brings him to exotic locations across Canada most recently the resplendent former municipality of Kanata.

Vera Hadzic is a writer from Ottawa, Ontario, currently studying English and history at the University of Ottawa. Her work has appeared in Minola Review, flo., and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Fossils You Can Swallow, is from Proper Tales Press.

The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, rob mclennan’s most recent titles include the poetry collections the book of smaller (University of Calgary Press, 2022) and World’s End, (ARP Books, 2023), the chapbook The Alta Vista Improvements (above/ground press, 2023), and a suite of pandemic essays, essays in the face of uncertainties (Mansfield Press, 2022). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

Adding Up to This (Catkin Press, 2023) is Pearl Pirie’s [pictured] newest chapbook. Her next upcoming chapbook is A Couple Sumerians (Turret House Press, 2023). rain's small gestures (Apt 9 Press, 2021) won the Nelson Ball Prize 2022. footlights (Radiant Press, 2020). Support her at Patreon for the price of a coffee or less where there are author updates and poem drafts. Or at Substack where she writes in-depth essays. www.pearlpirie.com

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.

some author acitivity: Clayton, Dolman, Earl, Baker + Polyck-O'Neill,

Conyer Clayton has some new work up at BlueHouse Journal; Anita Dolman has two new poems up at The Pi Review; Amanda Earl has some new work in Bones - a journal for the short poem; Jennifer Baker is interviewed as part of the "Six Questions" series via Chaudiere Books; Julia Polyck-O'Neill has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal.

some author activity: Baker, Tucker, Gurton-Wachter, Claxton + Saklikar,

Jennifer Baker has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Aaron Tucker; Anna Gurton-Wachter has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series at dusie; and Fazeela Jiwa writes on Meet the Presses, the bpNichol Chapbook Award and recent shortlist, including Dana Claxton and Renée Sarojini Saklikar for CWILA: Canadian Women in the Literary Arts.

some author activity: hastain, Price, Baker, Blouin + Downs,

j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have some new collaborative work up at tenderness, yea; Katie L. Price is interviewed over at Speaking of Marvels; Jennifer Baker was interviewed earlier this year at Aella's blog; Michael Blouin has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Buck Downs is featured at Medium as part of rob mclennan's Spotlight series.