some author activity: Gunnars, Mohammadi, Clayton, Hancock + O'Reilly,

[Khashayar Mohammadi, Amish Trivedi + rob mclennan during the recent VERSeFest/Factory Lecture Series event; photo by Pearl Pirie] Kristjana Gunnars participates in Turnstone Press' 2 Poem Tuesday alongside D.A. Lockhart; Khashayar Mohammadi participates in the "12 or 20 questions" interview series; Conyer Clayton has a poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; VERSeFest 2021 poet-in-residence Brecken Hancock does an interview for Rogers Ottawa; and Nathanael O'Reilly has a new poem in the latest issue of Backstory.

some author activity: Ross, Reid, Tate, Archer, Gunnars, Jirgens, Norris + Young,

Stuart Ross is a finalist for the 4th James Tate International Poetry Prize, for his full-length manuscript, "Cringe System"; Monty Reid is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; Bronwen Tate now has a newsletter you can sign up for; Sacha Archer has posted "an improvisation by Sacha Archer played on a broken stand-up piano that was found in a large dumpster in the downtown of Peterborough, Ontario c. 2007" via YouTube; and above/ground press authors Ken Norris, Karl Jirgens, Geoffrey Young and Kristjana Gunnars, among others, have new work in the latest issue of mouse eggs.

new from above/ground press: a moment in flight: essay on melancholy, by Kristjana Gunnars

a moment in flight
essay on melancholy
Kristjana Gunnars
$5

In the garden there is a bower for melancholy, a hidden garden where I can stay with sadness. Wisteria hangs overhead, lilacs emit their scent and birds wing past at extraordinary speed.


There are fragments of eternity in all passing things.


Saturn is still in the universe with all its moons, Artemis, goddess of the forest, still has green thoughts in a green space.


Tall pines lean slightly in the grey mist of distance, branches tangle with branches against a backdrop of haze, water, sky, overhanging rock.  


I now think love is a story that has failure in it, complexity, something foreign—a story I tell myself when I am at a loss for words.


When the smooth surface of sentiment cracks, love itself enters, through small openings that formed when things broke down into parts until I no longer recognize myself.  He says love took you away from your plans—you lost more than you can bring back.


That is the time you need to be willing to go under.


What you expect to happen is not what will happen. If you need to withdraw, he says, love is telling you, withdraw—

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
as the fifth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
November 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kristana Gunnars is a B.C. based writer and painter, author of several books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She was formerly Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Alberta and is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Iceland. Her last chapbook of poems was At Home in the Mountains from Junction Press, Ontario, 2018, and her last poetry chapbook with above/ground was Snake Charmers, 2016. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

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: Bowering, mclennan, Gunnars, Baker + Schapira,

[photo of George Bowering by Colin Browne] rob mclennan answers "The DevilHouse Six" over at Amanda Earl's DevilHousePress, and has a poem posted at Mad Crab; above/ground press author Kristjana Gunnars interviews Anne Campbell for Queen Mob's Teahouse; Jennifer Baker has a new piece posted as part of Stuart Ross' 2017 Inaugural Poem; and Kate Schapira posts "Three Alternate Histories from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth."

Eleni Zisimatos reviews Kristjana Gunnars' snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems (2016)

Eleni Zisimatos reviews Kristjana Gunnars' snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems (2016) over at the Vallum blog. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. Come out to hear Gunnars launch the chapbook tomorrow night in Edmonton!

Kristjana Gunnars’, “snake charmers: a cycle of twenty poems” is a rich body of poems strongly evocative of place and mysticism. Her writing style is fluid, with colourful description and emotional tenor:

There is that empty chair, forever.
I can almost hear it whisper:

alone in the middle of the ceramic
tile floor, the herringbone blue, white,
crossing forever, a tossing sea of earth
and a garden table with no cups
and no utensils or flowers, fanning
round in royal blue mosaic, a red
cushion slightly off center on the brown
wicker chair.

This is our courtyard
of existence: these are the things in it,

this dark chair, the pillow
askance, the warm air, heavy, still thick
with the trace of your shadow.

The entire book resonates with lines like these, and the reader is able to enter into an exotic landscape where not everything is as it seems. It is well-worth the read. /ez

some author activity: Earl, Moritz, Smith + Gunnars,

Amanda Earl has a new poem up at The Steel Chisel; Rachel Moritz is interviewed over at Speaking of Marvels; Pete Smith is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Kristjana Gunnars is interviewed as part of a series of interview with former writers-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

new from above/ground press: snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems, by Kristjana Gunnars

snake charmers : a cycle of twenty poems
Kristjana Gunnars
$4

liturgy of hours


a life where every moment has an Office
a duty just for this small measure of time

the placing of an olive-green bowl next
to another olive-green bowl, next to another

zigzagging along a blank acacia-wood table
bells of brass hanging on their strings of jute

legs carved like sawblades, rusted brown

at this moment I will remove the veil
from its pegs on the blind-arched wall

at this moment I will observe the lacework
its intricate anonymity, its seeing disguise

just then I will pour water from the rain-drum
pour into each and every green clay bowl

I will talk about purity and movement
I will say there is no obstruction or barricade

no grid or wall or smoke or misleading words

nothing you can put up to hold me in
       because the hour branches out like a rose

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kristjana Gunnars is a painter and writer, author of several books of poetry, short fiction and anti-fiction. She is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing and English at the University of Alberta, and now works out of her studio in B.C. Her web connection is: kristjanagunnars.com

[produced, in part, for a series of events at the University of Alberta, March 3-5, 2016, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their writer-in-residence program]

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