new from above/ground press: POEMS I DIDN’T WRITE, by kevin mcpherson eckhoff

POEMS I DIDN’T WRITE
kevin mcpherson eckhoff
$6

THE LEAST OFFENSIVE POEM

welcome nice pills yes interesting pillar gadzooks toasty pillows throw bland marshmallow then happy ukuleles sunshine blasts mellow underpants puppy pudding oh wow fluffy toes and holy moly banana eh you're kidding sorry of course no really flake you monkey feather puce jubilation lull picnic snack blossom breeze pool dorsal to water drumlin pingo roof zigzag there adjective peace geranium beam approved transom colander tousled cilantro door good block together the larch loam sky great tolerance shoot heck sonder word personable tune parsley cuddles innocuous cookie creamy aardvark bosom butter kitten bum tuffet honey molecule tingle pickle pie pewp bewbz fudge slab butterfly dink vajayjay custard poptart ummmm gee ok as you wish also love neat toodles

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

kevin mcpherson eckhoff recently became friends with Peter and Melody Anderson, and his life is objectively better for it. His latest full-length book is called The Pain Itself, and it really is. In 2022, he politely asked Maria Bamford to contribute one word to his album, Joke Killed, and she did: how?! He is currently trying to dry off Lavender, a sweet and gentle La Mancha. Jake Kennedy is his forever best friend. Bye for now!

This is eckhoff's fourth above/ground press title, after dissections from their biography (2012), faux foe (2018) and dieting Herb Wit (2020).

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: Witek, eckhoff, Kemp-Gee, Casteels + Archer,

forthcoming author Terri Witek has new work up at Michigan Quarterly Review; kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberley Dyck collaboratively answer some questions on their collaborations at Touch the Donkey; forthcoming author Meghan Kemp-Gee has work in Columba Poetry; and both Michael e. Casteels and Sacha Archer have new visual work up at utsanga.

some author activity: Kaplan, Simpson, Boyle, eckhoff + Rosenthal,

Genevieve Kaplan is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Natalie Simpson is video-interviewed via Gap Riot Press; Frances Boyle has a new poem up in the poetry pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new comedy album, available here; and Sarah Rosenthal is interviewed by Heidi Van Horn for The Brooklyn Rail.

some author activity: O'Reilly, Boyle, mclennan, Williams, eckhoff, Pirie + fitzpatrick

Nathanael O'Reilly responds to the '12 or 20 questions' interview; Frances Boyle has new work up at long con magazine and Sheila-Na-Gig, a YouTube reading of three poems included in Dreich, as well as work in the second issue of n-o-b-o-d-y alongside rob mclennan, Julia Williams, kevin mcpherson echkoff, Pearl Pirie, ryan fitzpatrick and multiple others.

some author activity: O'Reilly, fitzpatrick, eckhoff, Johnson + Novak,

Nathanael O'Reilly has some new work posted up at Literati, Melbourne Culture Corner #6 and The Elevation Review; ryan fitzpatrick has some new work plus statement posted as part of the Spotlight series; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new poem posted in the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; Chris Johnson is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; and forthcoming author JoAnna Novak is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

poetry pause : the league of canadian poets

Thanks to The League of Canadian Poets' "poetry pause" series for helping celebrate twenty-seven years of above/ground press! The series allowed me to curate ten authors for recent slots, all of whom are Canadian (and/or Canadian-based) authors with 2020 above/ground press publications. Most of the poems included in the series are reprinted from their collections, but a few even provided new poems! Here are the authors' names, with the links to their "poetry pause" poems: Dani Spinosa, George Stanley, Khashayar Mohammadi, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Sarah Burgoyne, Lance La Rocque, J.R. Carpenter, Leesa Dean, Razielle Aigen and Dale Tracy. Can you believe we're twenty-seven years deep? What might the rest of the year bring? We are so close to thirty!

new from above/ground press: dieting Herb Wit, by Kevin McPherson Eckhoff

dieting Herb Wit
kevin mcpherson eckhoff
$5

EEL AROUND THE FOUNTAIN


I, the sparkling sloth,
initiate the stranger’s
rafter. School
before schism, practice.
He kissed chard.

Slips to lisps,
harp teeth tore sheep teeth.
Ass ritual.

Yay from the gong.
I wouldn’t watch
fearsome acrostics clothe sloths.
Honest practice.

The note:
I’d shit at the top of the bleachers,
trying to stink into their wood,
watching pee glands glistening towards a joke.

*

I shave dreams of water.
I shave dreams of fire.
I dream of bloomed
ham. All of these things

infer I, ever marrowy.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

kevin mcpherson eckhoff is a writer, editor, actor, and comedian. His book their biography (Book*hug) was described by The Globe & Mail as “wide-ranging” and “incredibly playful,” while Michael Dennis called his chapbook Circadia (Gaspereau Press) “scatalogical gold”. When not writing, kevin acts in films, like Nuptials and Recon; when not acting, he teaches essay demolition and creative wording at Okanagan College; when not teaching, he manages our teeth, a micropress dedicated to making small, odd bookish objects; when not micropressing, he daddles and hubbubs in a log home on 16 acres within traditional Splats'in territories.

This is Eckhoff's third above/ground press title, after dissections from their biography (2012) and faux foe (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

new from above/ground press: faux foe, by kevin martins mcpherson eckhoff

faux foe
kevin martins mcpherson eckhoff
$4

RARE PRICK


full, kind
glass

stark men
grunt
on
expedition
motion:
    overall
gem

studs
offer
dragon
bland
barn dog fart

bad
fog

bra, slut
on par

I
ax
or
fin

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

kevin martins mcpherson eckhoff equals: co-won the 2016 Robin Blaser Award; thank you BookThuggers 4 publishing their biography; played the lead in Sean Braune’s forthcoming feature film, Nuptials; used to perform stand-up comedy jokes; lives on Splats’in Territory with a Laurel and 2 boyos; might be dead; currently reading Anne Tardos.

This is eckhoff’s second above/ground press chapbook, after dissections from their biography (2012).

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: eckhoff, Earl + Abel,

kevin mcpherson eckhoff is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey, and again over at the Chaudiere Books blog for his inclusion in The Calgary Renaissance; Amanda Earl appears on the blog for Vallum magazine twice, included as part of Vallum 2016 Year in Poetry and as their first Poem of the Week for 2017; and Jordan Abel has a new poem in the "Indigenous Perspectives" issue of The Malahat Review, as well as an interview on their website.

some author activity: Armantrout, eckhoff, Bök + Turner,

Rae Armantrout has a new poem up at The Nation; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new essay in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Christian Bök is interviewed over at Ashberyland; and Michael Turner presents his musical tribute to Vancouver's west side over at Q.

some author activity: Earl, Christie, eckhoff + Kronovet,

Amanda Earl has new work up at h&; Jason Christie has some new work and a statement featured at Drunken Boat; kevin mcpherson eckhoff is interviewed over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and parts of Jennifer Kronovet's above/ground press title are reprinted over at Carrie Etter's Sudden Prose.

some author activity: Earl, eckhoff, Hajnoczky, Schmaltz + mclennan,

Amanda Earl has a new poem posted at h& (as does kevin mcpherson eckhoff) and Earl is featured in the "spotlight" series over at the Drunken Boat blog; Helen Hajnoczky has a new poem posted at the vehicule press blog; Eric Schmaltz is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and rob mclennan discusses his desk over at Real Pants.

some author activity: mclennan, Landman, eckhoff, Armantrout + beaulieu,

rob mclennan has two new poems up at NOÖ Journal; Seth Landman has a new poem up at Jellyfish; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new piece up at h&; there's a new Q+A with Rae Armantrout at the University of California's The Guardian; and derek beaulieu is interviewed by Christopher Berg over at deconstruct magazine.

Amanda Earl : A Celebration of Canadian Visual / Concrete Poetry : Brick Books

Amanda Earl's expansive two-part post, A Celebration of Canadian Visual / Concrete Poetry, is now online [see part one here and part two here] as part of Brick Books' ongoing Celebration of Canadian Poetry. As part of her post, she features statements and work by an array of above/ground press authors (and not-yet-authors), including: Chris Turnbull, Jordan Abel, Gary Barwin, Derek Beaulieu, Michael e. Casteels, Judith Copithorne, Helen Hajnoczky, Donato Mancini, Billy Mavreas, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, gustave morin, michèle provost, a rawlings, Shane Rhodes, Eric Schmaltz [above: his “Desire — an extract from The Assembly Line Babel”] and Eric Zboya.

some author activity: Graham, Ball, Best, MacLeod + eckhoff,

Lea Graham has four new poems up at milk magazine; Nelson Ball has a new poem up at One Sentence Poems; Ashley-Elizabeth Best has some new poems up at Glasgow Review of Books; and the audio of three poems from Kathryn MacLeod's mouthpiece (1996) are now online at Our Teeth, as read by kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

some author activity: eckhoff, Abel, dueck, Robertson + mclennan,

kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new piece up at NewPoetry; Jordan Abel is interviewed over at the podcast Can't Lit; nathan dueck is interviewed over at The Town Crier; The 2015 Leslie Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics, delivered by Lisa Robertson at UC Berkeley on April 24th 2015, is now online: "A Form of Sentences: Speaking with the Dead or Grammar is Not Abstract" (A talk on Leslie Scalapino's Defoe, and sentences generally); and rob mclennan has a new poem up at Monday Night Lit.

some author activity: Abel, Hajnoczky, Markotić, Schmaltz, eckhoff, Lea, beaulieu + Reid,

Jordan Abel, Helen Hajnoczky, Nicole Markotić, Eric Schmaltz and kevin mcpherson eckhoff each have new work in The Capilano Review webfolio #11, co-edited by Brook Houglum and Daniel Zomparelli; N.W. Lea has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie; an article on derek beaulieu appeared in the University of Calgary's U Today; and a new interview with Monty Reid on VERSeFest is now online.

2014 ReLit Shortlists : eckhoff, Rogal + Brockwell,

Congratulations to the three above/ground press authors, along with all else, who made it onto the 2014 ReLit Awards Shortlist: kevin mcpherson eckhoff (Forge, Invisible), Stan Rogal (Love's Not the Way to, BookLand) and Stephen Brockwell (Complete Surprising Fragments of Improbable Books, Mansfield).

above/ground press author Jason Christie's Government (2013) on the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award‏ shortlist!

Congratulations to new Ottawa resident Jason Christie for making the shortlist to the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award! Thrilled to see, also, two other above/ground press authors--Christine McNair and Phil Hall--on the shortlist for further titles. Congratulations, all!

This is above/ground press' third and third annual appearance on the bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist, after Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) made last year's list, and Hugh Thomas' Opening the Dictionary (2011) and Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin's let lie/ (2012) were shortlisted the previous year.

Looking forward to this year's Meet the Presses (our first appearance at such) to hear the winner! The press release for such is below:

Meet the Presses Announces bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist and Doubling of Award Purse

TORONTO (10 October 2014) — Meet The Presses announced today that, beginning this year, the prize purse of the bpNichol Chapbook Award will double from $2,000 to $4,000, thanks to the generosity of its Anonymous Donor. Meet the Presses is a volunteer collective that organizes public events showcasing books and chapbooks, magazines, recordings and broadsides produced by independent publishers of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction,

This year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist consists of six poetry titles:

Government: Jason Christie (above/ground)

Life Savings: Mat Laporte (Odourless)

pleasantries and other misdemeanours: Christine McNair (Apt. 9)

a fist made and then unmade: matt robinson (Gaspereau)

Oilywood: Christine Leclerc (Nomados)

X: Phil Hall (Thee Hellbox)

The winner of this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award will be announced at Meet the Presses’ fifth Indie Literary Market, on Saturday November 22, at the Tranzac Club in Toronto. The Market is an invitational event focused exclusively on things literary. It provides an opportunity for the public to meet independent literary publishers and purchase publications that may not be readily available (or available at all) in bookstores and other commercial outlets. The collective came together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses events begun 29 years ago in Toronto by Stuart Ross and Nick Power.

*

The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. This year’s judges are Kevin McPherson Eckhoff and Sandra Ridley. The author now receives $4,000 and, thanks to the largesse of writers Brian Dedora and Jim Smith, the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

For more information, write meetthepresses@gmail.com or phone 709.738.6702.

Meet the Presses

Gary Barwin, Paul Dutton, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Hazel Millar, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, Stuart Ross, Eric Schmaltz and Jess Taylor.

[Founding Members Emeritus: Maria Erskine, Maggie Helwig]

some author activity: eckhoff, Kaminski, Hancock, Barwin, Irwin + Stewart,

kevin mcpherson eckhoff emerges from the west to perform in Toronto on August 21 as part of "poems to be performed by kevin mcpherson eckhoff (with or without a green elfin mask)"; Megan Kaminski has a new poem up at Finery; Brecken Hancock answers the Canadian Poetries questionnaire; Gary Barwin has a "Red Letter Day" over at 49th Shelf; and Marilyn Irwin and Christine Stewart both have new work in the tenth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.