some author activity: Tynes, Farina, Cone, Brockwell, Unsworth, Weaver, Christie, Shafer, Houbolt + Armantrout,

Jen Tynes, Laura Farina, Jon Cone, Stephen Brockwell (for Jason Christie), Lydia Unsworth and forthcoming author Emily Shafer all have poems on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month; Brockwell also has new work up at The Pi Review, as does Andy Weaver; Kyla Houbolt has work in eunoia review; and Rae Armantrout has a poem up at The New Yorker.

some author activity: Houbolt, Earl, Campos, Cannon + Niespodziany,

Kyla Houbolt gets a spotlight with some new poems via the SHINE international poetry series; Amanda Earl is interviewed by Kathryn Mockler for Send My Love To Anyone; Earl is also offering poetry mentorships (with scholarships available); Isabel Sobral Campos is running an in-person workshop on Baudelaire, weekly across May, in Somerville MA; Frances Cannon has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Benjamin Niespodziany wrote on Chicago's Test Reading Series for Zona Motel.

some author activity: Houbolt, MacEachern, Inniss, mclennan, Jirgens + Beaulieu,

Kyla Houbolt has a new poem up at The Pi Review, as does Jessi MacEachern; Scott Inniss is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; rob mclennan is interviewed by Jamie Tennant over at his podcast; and Karl Jirgens offers an homage to Aritha van Herk, Fred Wah and Derek Beaulieu as part of acknowledging thirty years of filling Station magazine via The Typescript.

some author activity: Ballard, Smith, Kaminski, Trivedi + Houbolt,

the livestream video for Kevin Opstedal and Micah Ballard's July 21, 2024 reading at Bird & Beckett Books, San Francisco is now online; Mahaila Smith is interviewed over at News & Press from The Future Fire; Megan Kaminski has poems from a new project forthcoming in Plant Perspectives; Amish Trivedi read some poems as part of the Disaster Research Center 60th Anniversary Workshop at the University of Delaware, now up on YouTube; and Kyla Houbolt has two new poems and a write-up newly posted at Moist Poetry Journal.

some author activity: Burgoyne, Houbolt, Downs + Mangold,

Kevin Heslop interviewed Sarah Burgoyne for The Miramichi Reader; Kyla Houbolt is interviewed via the Of Poetry Podcast; Buck Downs has a new poem up at HillRag; and Sarah Mangold has new poems up at Ghost Proposal, and is interviewed by Shriram Sivaramakrishnan for Poetry Northwest.

some author activity: Heroux, Houbolt, Banks, Flemmer, Armantrout, Campos + Nilson,

Jason Heroux has some poems up at anti-heroin chic; Kyla Houbolt has a new poem up for National Poetry Month at the Chaudiere Books blog, as does forthcoming author Chris Banks and Kyle Flemmer; Rae Armantrout has a poem up in The New Yorker; Isabel Sobral Campos has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series, and do you know what Geoffrey Nilson has been up to?

new from above/ground press: DAWN’S FOOL, by Kyla Houbolt

DAWN’S FOOL
Kyla Houbolt
$5
 

Dawn’s Fool

In the dawn window
above the night candle
I lift a curtain
to see silhouettes'
slow shift to color
and transparent utility.

Soon day reveals
its sacred flaws
but now sleep's
fugitive magic gentles
what remains shadowed

and there is the dove
who science knows
as a most foolish bird,
gilded now
with a moment's blush
of her ancient roles:
peace bringer, signal
of God's mercy.

I watch her trying
once again to build
a nest where a nest
won't hold
the way she does each year
exactly as I do here.

She will lay
her eggs and some
will hatch to become
more foolish birds
bringing the message of hope
deferred and peace
yet to come.

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

cover photo: David Fedor-Cunningham

Kyla Houbolt writes poems and occasional reviews, and takes care of two goats. https://kylahoubolt.us/

Dawn’s Fool was originally published by Ice Floe Press, in 2020.

This is Houbolt’s second above/ground press title, after But Then I Thought (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: Barwin, Robertson, Armantrout + Houbolt,

Gary Barwin is interviewed by Ali Hassan for CBC's The Next Chapter; Lisa Robertson and Kate Briggs are in conversation online at Granta; Rae Armantrout has two poems online at London Review of Books; and Kyla Houbolt is interviewed over at The Broken Spine

new from above/ground press: But Then I Thought, by Kyla Houbolt

But Then I Thought
Kyla Houbolt
$5

Ethics

Is it ethical to be a frog when the snow is on the ground? To be a frog in winter, in a sound mind and body of amphibious elegance? It isn't right! sing the bugs in their dens, we never got a chance to have amphibious elegance, we only got chitinous chic which is far far less groovy. The bugs grouse among themselves, crowding the rotting tree trunks, clicking and whirring and taking committee votes. But the unconcerned frog, who is not hungry for bug at the moment, casts no stones. There is no call to fiddle with all them bugs! thinks the frog to itself, preening in its winter mudhole. Meanwhile, Creator, in the form of Raven, listens in with amusement. None of these creatures know what's to come, or how blessed their lives are. Though that smug frog might need to be taken down a peg or two, he thinks. Maybe it's time to send in the crows. And of course the poets are listening to all this, and each one is writing notes, and all the notes are different. This is the blessing and the curse of poetry: that it never agrees and that it never agrees. Ethics? Maybe in the spaces between.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2023
as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

I read Kyla Houbolt’s poems with excitement — where else am I going to hear about spam farms, heron language, wish onions, and other statistically improbable but poetically inevitable concepts? Who else can find complete and shapely stories to go with those words? What happens next? Something we wouldn’t guess, I think.
        Jordan Davis, author of Noise and Yeah, No

cover artwork by the author

Kyla Houbolt has been writing poems all her life, and began publishing in 2019.  Her first chapbook, Dawn's Fool, was published by Ice Floe press and is sold out; her second, Tuned, was published by CCCP Chapbooks + Subpress. Surviving Death, from Broken Spine, is her third. But Then I Thought is her fourth.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Sublunary Review, Barren, Janus, Juke Joint, Moist, Neologism, Ghost City Review, and Saginaw. Most of her online work can be found on her Linktree: @luaz_poet | Linktree Her current social media presence is on BlueSky Social (still in beta as of this writing), here: @luaz.bsky.social, facebook.com/kyla.houbolt/ and on Instagram @kyla_luaz. https://kylahoubolt.us/

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!

some author activity: Reid, Logan, Higdon, Houbolt + Munson,

Monty Reid is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Nate Logan has new work up at Otoliths, as well as Leavings; Hailey Higdon wrote an article on mothering for Nashville Scene; forthcoming author Kyla Houbolt has a prose poem up at Idle Ink; and Jed Munson answers the '12 and 20 questions.'

some author activity: mclennan, Boyle, Johnson, Houbolt + Armantrout,

rob mclennan, Frances Boyle and Chris Johnson, along with Sadiqa de Meijer and Katia Grubisic, join Susan Johnston on CKCU to discuss Arc Poetry Magazine #100; forthcoming author Kyla Houbolt has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" via the dusie blog; and Rae Armantrout is part of a round-table conversation, "On Poetry and Complexity: A Conversation at the Interface of Art and Science" at Rungh, alongside Madhur Anand, Roald Hoffman, Sarah Tolmie and Osheen Harruthoonyan.

some author activity: Earl, Houbolt + Melançon,

Amanda Earl features at David O'Meara's Plan 99 Reading Series in Ottawa, alongside Gillian Sze and Adam Sol on Saturday, April 15, 2023; forthcoming author Kyla Houbolt has a new piece up at Sublunary Review, and another in IDLE INK; and Jérôme Melançon has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog to open this year's National Poetry Month.