some author activity: Gevirtz, Adams, mclennan, Gordon, Polyck-O'Neill, Schmaltz + Siklosi,

Susan Gevirtz is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Adrienne Adams has a poem up in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; rob mclennan has new work up at Gone Lawn; Nada Gordon's recent Segue Series reading with Kit Robinson is now up on YouTube; and Julia Polyck-O'Neill has a new poem up at NewPoetry, as does Eric Schmaltz, and Kate Siklosi!

an above/ground press (zoom) launch, May 19, 2024: Ballard, Eleftherion Carr, Deutch, Ebbitt + Polyck-O'Neill : video now online,

In case you missed it, the video for the above/ground press (zoom) launch from May 19, 2024 is now online, posted to the same YouTube channel that also hosts the ongoing  virtual reading series via periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. With readings and launches by five different above/ground press authors: Micah Ballard (San Francisco CA), Melissa Eleftherion Carr (Ukiah CA), Amanda Deutch (Brooklyn NY), Katie Ebbitt (New York NY) + Julia Polyck O'Neill (Toronto ON). lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,

 

 
You can find the link to author biographies, as well as to each of the new chapbooks they were launching, here.

an above/ground press (zoom) launch, May 19: Micah Ballard, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, Amanda Deutch, Katie Ebbitt + Julia Polyck-O'Neill,

Micah Ballard (San Francisco CA)
Melissa Eleftherion Carr (Ukiah CA)
Amanda Deutch (Brooklyn NY)
Katie Ebbitt (New York NY)
+
Julia Polyck O'Neill (Toronto ON)

lovingly hosted by publisher/editor rob mclennan
Sunday, May 19 2024: 3pm PST/6pm EST ZOOM
please contact host or readers for zoom link:
rob mclennan : rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com or Melissa Eleftherion Carr : melissa.eleftherion (at) gmail (dot) com

Micah Ballard is the author of over a dozen books of poetry including Waifs and Strays (City Lights Books), Afterlives (Bootstrap Press), The Michaux Notebook (FMSBW), Krewes (Bootstrap Press), Selected Prose, 2008-19 (Blue Press), Evangeline Downs (Ugly Duckling Presse), Daily Vigs (Bird & Beckett Books), Vesper Chimes (Gas Meter), Muddy Waters (State Champs), and Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners (Bootstrap Press). He lives in San Francisco with poet Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, their daughter Lorca, and co-edits Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions.

He will be launching BUSY SECRET (2024), his first chapbook with above/ground press, although he did co-edit G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #21, "Castle Greyskull," with Garrett Caples (above/ground press, 2022).

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. They are the author of the full-length poetry collections, field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), as well as twelve chapbooks including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022).  Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Sixth Finch, Entropy, & Barren Magazine. Melissa now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Ukiah. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

She will be launching abject sutures (2024), her third chapbook with above/ground press, after little ditch (2018) and trauma suture (2020).

Amanda Deutch is a poet born and raised in New York City. She is the author of several chapbooks including Bodega Night Pigeon Riot (above/ground press, 2020), and Surf Avenue & 29th Street, Coney Island (Least Weasel Press, 2018). Deutch’s poetry has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Oversound, The Rumpus, Cimarron Review and in many other journals and magazines. An artist book collaboration with Sarah Nicholls, wild anemone, is forthcoming in 2024. She lives in Brooklyn where she is the founder of Parachute Literary Arts.

She will be launching new york ironweed (2024), her second above/ground press title, after bodega night pigeon riot (2020).

Katie Ebbitt is a poet/psycho-behavioralist living in NYC. She is the author of the chapbooks ANOTHER LIFE (Counterpath, 2016), Para Ana (Inpatient, 2019), and Air Sign (Creative Writing Department, 2024). Fecund, her first full-length book, will be released by Keith LLC.

She will be launching HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY (2024), her first title with above/ground press.

Julia Polyck-O’Neill (they/she) is an artist, curator, critic, poet, and writer. They are currently the Michael Ridley Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Guelph and a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University’s Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. Starting in July 2024, they will be an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her research explores feminist, digital approaches to interdisciplinary artists’ archives and intersections between archives and creative praxis. Her publications appear in Amodern, Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (The Journal for Aesthetics and General Art History), English Studies in Canada, BC Studies, Canadian Literature, and other places.

She will be launching Process (2024), her fourth above/ground press title, after femme (2016), Everything will be taken away (2018) and poem | image | self (2019).

new from above/ground press: Process, by Julia Polyck-O’Neill

Process
Julia Polyck-O’Neill
$5

Lisa, Lisa
 
velvet
ribbons      
& tender buttonhole

de-influence
me sip
air

powder’s gentlest
breaths its rare
sapidity

surface the
idle she-
capital

the pungency
of new
bloom

the
rose
bud

dew
& warm
air

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Julia Polyck-O’Neill (they/she) is an artist, curator, critic, poet, and writer. They are currently the Michael Ridley Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Guelph and a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University’s Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. Starting in July 2024, they will be an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her research explores feminist, digital approaches to interdisciplinary artists’ archives and intersections between archives and creative praxis. Her publications appear in Amodern, Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (The Journal for Aesthetics and General Art History), English Studies in Canada, BC Studies, Canadian Literature, and other places.

This is Polyck-O’Neill’s fourth above/ground press title, after femme (2016), Everything will be taken away (2018) and poem | image | self (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

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: Eleftherion, Rogal, Clayton, Polyck-O'Neill, Christie + Trivedi

Melissa Eleftherion has some poems up at the tiny; Stan Rogal is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; Conyer Clayton is profiled over at Open Book; Julia Polyck-O'Neill has new work up at IceFloe Press; Jason Christie has a new poem up at at the Coach House Books blog; and Amish Trivedi has new work up at the re-launched Can We Have Our Ball Back?

Julia Polyck-O'Neill and Gregory Betts etc read as part of The Kestrel Readings, June 4, 2019 (Vancouver BC);

See the Facebook invitation for such here.

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.

new from above/ground press: poem | image | self, by Julia Polyck-O'Neill

poem | image | self
(after Adrian Piper and Lucy Lippard’s Catalysis)
Julia Polyck-O'Neill
$5

I hold monologues with myself


a meditation on what it means to practice
in 2019 what it means to be a body when bodies
are public when bodies are anti-monuments—when
the self is reshaped according to a framework of

autonomy

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
in part for the author’s participation in the TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space conference at University College Dublin, Ireland, April 25-27, 2019.
https://textsoundperformance.wordpress.com/
April 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Julia Polyck-O’Neill is an artist, curator, critic, and writer. Her writing has been published in B.C. Studies, Feminist Spaces, Tripwire, Touch the Donkey, Fermenting Feminisms (a project of the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology, curated by Lauren Fournier), The Avant Canada Anthology (WLU Press, 2019), and other places. She recently co-edited a special issue of Canadian Literature with Gregory Betts, “Concepts of Vancouver: Poetics, Arts, Media.” She currently lives in Toronto, where she is completing her SSHRC-funded PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities (Brock University).

This is Polyck-O’Neill’s third above/ground press title, after femme (2016) and Everything will be taken away (2018).

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Blades, Pirie, Massey, McElroy, mclennan, Clayton + Polyck-O'Neill,

Joe Blades has a new poem on the Chaudiere Books blog as part of #NationalPoetryMonth, as does Pearl Pirie, Karen Massey and Gil McElroy; rob mclennan has a poem in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; forthcoming author Conyer Clayton is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal, and has new work at talking about strawberries all of the time; and Julia Polyck-O'Neill is also interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Julia Polyck-O’Neill

This is the thirty-eighth in a series of short essays/reminiscences by a variety of authors and friends of the press to help mark the 2018 quarter century mark of above/ground. See links to the whole series here.

Reflecting on the significance of above/ground press on the occasion of its 25^th anniversary brings me to a good number of places.

I’m fortunate to count myself among the hundreds of above/ground authors editor/publisher rob mclennan nurtures. Like a patient gardener, rob applauds progress at the moments when we’ve learned to anticipate indifference, finding greatness in the quietest parts of quiet artists (and also, I add, in the loudest parts of loud artists). Anyone who writes knows that to write means to reach out to an imagined audience, and rob has often been the first to read my work, and certainly was the first to publish a small collection of my shy poems.

But my personal relationship with above/ground extends beyond publishing my first two texts, the chapbooks Everything will be taken away (2018) and femme (2016). It extends beyond my first ‘biggish’ public reading in Ottawa as part the Factory Reading Series, an unofficial parallel event held in conjunction with the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities in 2015. There is a reason that I was nervous to first meet rob, and that was because above/ground published works by many of the poets I love and has come to represent one of the most important nodes in the network of experimental poetry and small or micro-press publishing in Canada and beyond. I cited interviews on his blog in my essays and collected the small, innocuous-looking booklets of exquisite poetry he made in at his desk long before I knew I’d have a chance of interacting with him personally, and certainly well before I would have considered sending or showing him my work. Writing this particular piece is making me emotional; the fact of being invited to share my thoughts on the occasion of above/ground’s twenty-fifth anniversary makes me emotional (which explains, at least in part, why my reflections are late).

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I grew up on the periphery of Canadian cultural happenings, in Whitehorse, Yukon, where visits from prominent authors were regular but rare, and always sponsored by government grants and cultural initiatives. Acquiring small press work (and thus accessing the kinds of voices small presses publish) happened when I’d travel out of the territory, which I was lucky (privileged) enough to do regularly, but this travel also gave me a sense of the distance between my own creative community and those that ‘mattered’ – a cultural read I’d later come to critically question. These (much) later realizations aside, I came into my own with a reflexive consciousness that I would always be an observer and not a participant, and this sense of backgroundness, of peripheral identity, remains distilled in my self-imaginary. I remember reading poems in Ottawa, amongst my peers, and having rob share some generous praise for my writing and performance, then, quite by surprise, inviting me to submit work for an Ottawa project he was editing. Later, an invitation to submit a chapbook (which would be followed by a number of other exciting invitations, including the heartening invitation to read alongside poetry heroes at the anniversary event this past August). I recall the sensation of holding a box of my chapbooks and feeling overwhelmed. I was part of the network I’d studied. It was surreal.

above/ground press chapbooks represent a shared understanding that writing inhabits a variety of scales, and that many of them are small, intimate, and that these small intimacies are the building blocks for the larger worlds of poetry’s possible futures, its potentialities. Poetry really does come down to words on a page, but also, words that make their way to readers, and this is no small feat. above/ground is a press, but it’s also a network. above/ground is also rob mclennan, the patient gardener of poetry’s intimacies.

Julia Polyck-O’Neill is an artist, curator, critic, and writer. Her writing has been published in B.C. Studies, Feminist Spaces, Tripwire, Train, Touch the Donkey, Fermenting Feminisms (a project of the Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology, curated by Lauren Fournier), Avant Canada (WLU Press, 2018), and other places. She has published two chapbooks, Everything will be taken away (2018) and femme (2016), both with above/ground press. She currently lives in Toronto, where she is completing her  SSHRC-funded PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities.

above/ground press chapbook bundles in the 2018 Belladonna* auction!

above/ground press has donated six different above/ground press 2018 titles (three copies of each) for the sake of the 2018 Belladonna* auction!

To help support some of the work they do (check out their website to get a sense of it), you can bid on one of three identical bundles of above/ground press poetry chapbooks: MOTHER OF ALL, by Anna Gurton-Wachter; Each Acre, by Megan Kaminski; Seventeen Summers, by Cole Swensen; Everything will be taken away., by Julia Polyck-O’Neill; Twenty-Five, by Emily Izsak; and CONCEALED WEAPONS / ANIMAL SURVIVORS, by natalie hanna.

See the links to the three identical bundles here, here and here.

Now, yes, all of these titles are still in print, but why not see if you want to support Belladonna* in their glorious works?

You can always come back here after, and order titles individually, or simply pick up a 2019 above/ground press subscription. Right?

some author activity: Barwin, Braune, mclennan, Polyck-O'Neill, Boisvert + Dennis,

Gary Barwin has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Sean Braune, rob mclennan and Julia Polyck-O'Neill; Jon Boisvert is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey, and Amy Dennis had some work up at Stuart Ross' the week shall inherit the verse.

REPORT: THE ABOVE/GROUND PRESS SILVER ANNIVERSARY READING/LAUNCH/PARTY!

lovable editor/publisher/host rob mclennan ; photo by Julia Polyck-O'Neill

Already a week-plus behind me, and I’m still reeling from the recent silver anniversary above/ground press event at Vimy Brewing Company: an incredible array of readings, writing and support, celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press [I forgot to report on last year's, but do you remember the year prior? That was fun. And the Toronto event? Or the 19th anniversary?]. Thanks so much to everyone who came out to hear, came out to read, and/or came out to otherwise assist with the event, including valuable tech-asssists by Stephen Brockwell and Monty Reid, book tabling by Anita Dolman and door-coverage by Allie Duff and Marilyn Irwin. The staff at Vimy Brewing Company were incredibly generous, and the space was perfect for the event. My only disappointment was the realization that gifts of silver weren’t forthcoming, despite my hints, given the twenty-fifth anniversary, that such would be certainly welcome.

Anita Dolman sporting the new above/ground press anniversary shirt ; photo by Pearl Pirie

This event also saw the introduction of above/ground press t-shirts! Lovingly designed by Christine McNair, utilizing the classic above/ground press logo, and produced by Ottawa’s own Troublemaker Print! Tote bags were also ordered, but the bags themselves were backordered by the supplier, so they have yet to arrive (I’m also putting another order in soon for t-shirts, so if you have any specific size requests, please let me know: I’m selling them for $25 (shipping, at least to anywhere in North America, included)). Send me an email to see what I have on-hand, and what sizes I might be ordering, and when (rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com).

photo by Pearl Pirie

Really, it was just grand to be able to see so many people I like in one place, and the audience included multiple friends and above/ground press authors alike, including Karen Massey, Kees Kapteyn, Amanda Earl, Pearl Pirie, Chris Turnbull, Gwendolyn Guth, Allison Calvern, Cameron Anstee, Rob Fairchild, Avonlea Fotheringham, Michael Dennis, Grant Wilkins, Conyer Clayton, Robert Hogg, Grant Savage, David Scrimshaw, jwcurry and many, many others. Unfortunately, given we were technically out of town for the weekend, watching my father’s house/pets as well as my sister’s, Christine wasn’t able to make the event at all (I attempted an audio recording of the evening, but god knows if it actually worked), solo at the McLennan homestead an hour away, with the girls: watching two dogs, two cats, a guinea pig and a fish. It did, at least, mean that I could stay out a bit later, and even host Billy Mavreas over at our wee house. The following morning, I might add, was not an early one (and involved me driving an hour, once I finally woke and delivered Billy, post-breakfast, to the bus station).

Aaron Tucker ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

Old pal Aaron Tucker opened the event, as well as the first set, reading from his third above/ground press title, Catalogue d’Oiseaux (2018), an excerpt of a much longer work-in-progress, dedicated to his partner, Julia Polyck-O’Neill. I’m fascinated by the long stretch of lines, and the accumulation, existing as a single, extended poem.

natalie hanna ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

photo by Pearl Pirie

I’ve been fortunate enough to be aware of natalie hanna’s work for some time now, since she emerged somewhere in the mid-1990s, before retreating into law school. Fortunately for us, she reappeared after a few years, and has been impressing us ever since. Reading from her new chapbook, some of which responds directly as a call-and-response with recent work by Stephen Brockwell, she ended her set with a startling poem for multiple voices, adding Liam Burke, Conyer Clayton, Cameron Anstee, Nathanael Larochette and Frances Boyle for a piece that description can’t do justice.

Natalee Caple ; photo by Julia Polyck-O'Neill

It was great to be able to hear Natalee Caple read from her Love / Wildness (2018), especially knowing that she’ll be doing more of such next spring, when the book-length version appears with Wolsak and Wynn. She drove the whole family from St. Catharines, Ontario to Ottawa for the event, but their twins became immediately infatuated with Jason Christie’s small children (who could blame them?) and decided to remain there, instead of coming out to the reading. I can’t even remember the last time I heard Natalee read, but it would have been at The TREE Reading Series back when the readings were held at SAW Gallery; at least five years ago? Seven?

Billy Mavreas ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

Opening the second set of readers, Montreal’s Billy Mavreas launched his visual collection A MERCY OF SIGNS (2018) by discussing the difficulty with reading from a collection of visuals, and managed to give a performance on marginalia that felt like a silent sound poem. Why doesn’t this guy have a full-length collection of his concrete and visual poetry yet? He has micropress publications going back years, from an array of publishers, including self-published, and his work deserves far more attention.

Stephen Brockwell ; photo by rob mclennan

Stephen Brockwell really is one of my favourite humans. It is always such a pleasure and a delight to interact with him at all, and I do think his ongoing thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit is often taken for granted. As part of reading his latest title, Immune to the Sacred (2018), he read some of the poems he had composed in conversation with natalie hanna. I’m curious to see where this conversation might go, and what form the eventual larger conversation might take. Will this ever appear as a single-unit collaboration/conversation, or will the threads remain more disperate?

Phil Hall ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

Stuart Kinmond ; photo by Pearl Pirie

Phil Hall’s collaboration with artist Stuart Kinmond, Alternative Girders (2018), provided an opportunity for both to present on the two sides of their conversation, from Hall’s words to Kinmond’s visuals, backdropped beautifully by Kinmond’s own work. Hall’s thoughtfulness is expansive, and incredibly precise, and he manages to both capture an attention to the smallest moment as well as somehow see the big picture, simultaneously. I’m curious to see if their collaboration continues beyond the work gathered in his small chapbook.

Jason Christie ; photo by rob mclennan

Jason Christie opened the third set, launching his sixth chapbook with the press, by reading excerpts from every one of his above/ground press titles, from his Calgary-work 8th Ave 15th St NW. (2004) to works produced since their move to Ottawa: Government (2013), Cursed Objects (2014), The Charm (2015), random_lines = random.choice (2017) and glass language (excerpt) (2018). One of my favourite people these days, I am very much looking forward to his next full-length title, out next spring with Coach House Books.

Julia Polyck-O'Neill ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

I’ve been quite taken with the work of Julia Polyck-O’Neill, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to appear fully-formed and confident in her work, allowing above/ground press to produce two chapbooks of her writing so far. And did you see this recent interview up at Train: a poetry journal? There is some absolutely amazing work happening here, and worthy of far more attention. I’m just hoping the next time we cross paths, I’m actually able to spend some time talking to her (the evening made for very little in the way of larger conversation with just about anyone).

Stuart Ross ; photo by Stephen Brockwell

A personal favourite, Stuart Ross closed the event with a reading from his above/ground press debut, ESPESANTES (2018). Given his generous example as a poet, editor, reviewer, chapbook publisher and supporter over some four decades, I was incredibly grateful to have Ross included in such an event. His own Proper Tales Press will be forty years old next year, if you can imagine it. I just hope that 2019 sees some kind of proper acknowledgement for his ongoing contribution and support of small and micro press.

Julia Polyck-O'Neill, rob mclennan and Aaron Tucker ; photo by Julia Polyck-O'Neill

Twenty-five years! God sakes. And of course, after weeks of lead-up, I managed to crash entirely after the event, falling into a combination of exhaustion/sinus cold that lingers. And, as well, the inevitable look forward to what publications will emerge next. Work is already underway on more than a couple of titles, with still-forthcoming chapbooks by Erín Moure (which has appeared already, in the time it took me to write this up), Ian Dreiblatt, Melissa Eleftherion, Kyle Flemmer, Lisa Rawn, Sean Braune, Michael Martin Shea, Cole Swensen, Jennifer Stella, Jamie Townsend, Sara Renee Marshall, Dennis Cooley, Mark Laliberte, Sacha Archer, Sandra Ridley and multiple others. Watch for 2019 subscriptions to announce on October 1^st! (or just send me an email if you really can’t wait)

photo by Pearl Pirie

And: if you’ve been keeping track, above/ground press has done anniversary anthologies every ten years, so this year won’t be seeing such, but watch for the launch of a special twenty-fifth anniversary project at the Ottawa international writers festival on October 30^th, featuring readings by Sarah Mangold (Seattle), Gil McElroy (Colborne) and Sandra Ridley (Ottawa)!

photo by Pearl Pirie

But don’t you worry: a thirtieth anniversary collection is in the works. Picton, Ontario publisher Invisible Publishing recently accepted the project, which will appear in print in 2023! I mean, that might sound like a long time away, but it really isn’t…