some author activity: Earl, Robinson + Lederer,

Amanda Earl was interviewed in Paul Brookes' Wombwell Rainbow Interview Series, and has an essay on Ottawa's Centretown in Describing Space; Elizabeth Robinson has a new long poem up at Conjunctions; "Elizabeth Robinson, Jennifer Phelps and Jaime Robles in Conversation" has now been posted at The Argotist Online; and Katy Lederer has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal.

some author activity: Boyle, Lederer, mclennan, Gurton-Wachter + Turnbull,

Frances Boyle has new poems and a statement posted in rob mclennan's Spotlight series; Katy Lederer and rob mclennan both have new work in the twelfth issue of where is the river; rob mclennan also has a new poem up at Empty Mirror, and is interviewed by Train : a poetry journal; Anna Gurton-Wachter has a new poem up at Peach Mag; and Chris Turnbull has some new work up at UTSANGA.

some author activity: Kaminski, Collis, Rosenthal, Lederer + mclennan,

Another article on Megan Kaminski and her new above/ground press title appears, this time via The University Daily Kansan; Stephen Collis has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Sarah Rosenthal has new work posted in all the sins; Katy Lederer is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and rob mclennan has a new poem over at his clever blog.

new from above/ground press: The Children, by Katy Lederer

The Children
Katy Lederer
$5

Fetus Papyraceus

Sometimes, in the middle
of the night, our children will
insist that we tell them a story.
In the story, after heavy
rhyme and insistent inculcation
of our cultural mores,
our children will look down
at our apparent missing limbs,
which remind them
that they should not touch,
and, if they do decide to touch,
that absence can feel presence.
It can be difficult, this lesson,
and the children are defenseless
as we read to them this book.
They like to flap their hands
and look: at animals that long ago
died out. They roar and raise
their trunks. They lurk, alertly,
in their dens. We wonder
what has happened to their spirits
and discover, as an exercise,
such thinking is instructive.
Where is the presence
and the absence in this book?
The world is full of lulls
and shocks. To describe them all
would take a million lives.
What would it mean
to use up our one life like this?
And so we peel the pages back.
It is a treasure, this book.
It is a treasure beyond
the other treasures in the world
because the book is like
nothing. It is blank
with little colors, there.
Made from deciduous forest
and the end of time. We had once
walked along the boardwalks
very bored, in heavy weather,
under moonlit stars.
We had once held
our children in our arms.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Katy Lederer is the author of the poetry collections Winter Sex (Verse/Wave Books), The Heaven-Sent Leaf (BOA Editions), and The bright red horse—and the blue— (Atelos), as well as the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown). She is the editor of The Collected Explosive Magazine (Spectacular Books).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Schmaltz, Armantrout + beaulieu,

Eric Schmaltz interviews Kaie Kellough over at Queen Mob's Teahouse; a new interview with Rae Armantrout, conducted by Katy Lederer for Bennington Review; and derek beaulieu has a new poem up at h&.