some author activity: Sandhu, Sawyer, Vitkauskas, Weaver, Marlatt, Pirie, Logan + Shirley,

Mandy Sandhu has some poems up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Larry Sawyer and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas; Andy Weaver has a new poem up as part of National Poetry Month on the Chaudiere Books blog, as does forthcoming author Daphne Marlatt, and even Pearl Pirie; Nate Logan has new work up at Some Words; and Vik Shirley has new work up at And Other Poems.

Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series: A tribute to Larry Sawyer, March 7, 2026

Lit Balm : An Interactive Livestream Reading Series presents:
A Tribute to Larry Sawyer

Saturday, March 7, 5pm EST on Zoom: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/461603228
see the facebook event page here

Featuring Friends Reading and Reminiscing by:

Vincent Katz : Paul Hoover : Sheila Murphy : Dale Smith : Tony Trigilio : rob mclennan

With Lina Ramona Vitkauskas

Hosted by Jefrey Cyphers Wright
And the Lit Balm crew : Marc Vincenz, Cassandra Atherton, Jonathan Penton and Jon Wesick.

some author activity: Wells, Myles, Barwin, Sawyer, Solomon + Macdonald,

forthcoming author Christina Wells has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Eileen Myles has a new poem up at Discordia Review; a new interview with Gary Barwin is now up at the above/ground press substack; the late Larry Sawyer has a poem up at Poets.org; Misha Solomon has a wee essay, "Finding the Form," in The New Quarterly; and Dawn Macdonald has new work in -ette, as well as in the first issue of Journal of Experimental Practice.

some author activity: Boyle, Betts, Banks, Barwin, Sawyer + Barwin,

Frances Boyle has new work up at Bad Dog Mag; Gregory Betts has a poem up at NewPoetry; Chris Banks has a new poem and a short essay up at The Woodlot; Betts also appears with collaborators Lillian Allen and Gary Barwin via "Poetry in Utter Space," The Poet Speaks Podcast S10E7; Larry Sawyer has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Gary Barwin has a poem up in Paul Vermeersch's "In the Third Sleep" series.

some author activity: Tardi, Sawyer, Melancon, Gordon, Kemp + Naughton,

Mark Tardi writes on the late Larry Sawyer for the Poetry Foundation website; Jérôme Melancon appears in the Canadian Poets Series via Peripety and/or Tronies; a trio of videos of Nada Gordon reading in Manhattan, along with a short note, sit at the end of this substack post by Vladislav Davidzon; Penn Kemp has a series of poems for the late Barry Dempster now up at Public Reverie; and Katie Naughton has a poem up at Poetry Daily.

new from above/ground press: The Deaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding, by Lina Ramona Vitkauskas

The Deaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding
Lina Ramona Vitkauskas
$6

I have forgotten the world

And what I wanted in it
anyway love was what 
anyone wanted the way 
a mist or these myths
wanted the way love is or
I was that way or any mist
and you were my moss bed
and these birch ringing
out any myths of love,
made in these woods
and were green; I wanted, 
anyway, a home with you 
us there for moments and myths, 
and the moss of my love wanted 
a ringing green, birch and love
the way anyone wanted.

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

[Lina Ramona Vitkauskas launches this title in Ottawa on August 7, 2025 as part of the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch at RedBird Live; tickets available]

cover drawing by Larry Sawyer, design by the author

Lina Ramona Vitkauskas is a Canadian-American-Lithuanian formerly from Chicago, living in Toronto. She is an award-winning, published poet and video poet. She was a 2020 recipient of a PEN America grant for her development of an experimental poetry collection that adapted poems from Vsevolod Nekrasov and Bill Knott. She was also the voice of George Maciunas’ mother in the documentary, GEORGE (directed by Jeffrey Perkins) screened at MoMA and in Vilnius. Her work has been most recently featured in/at: Film Video Poetry Society (Los Angeles); Octopus Film Festival (Gdansk, Poland); John Gagné Contemporary Gallery (Toronto): Post-Future Era with Kunel Gaur, Justin Neely, and Confusions (Ben Turner); Poetic Phonotheque (Denmark); MOCA Toronto (public installation); SIFF (Moldova); Newlyn Film Festival (UK); Festival Fotogenia (Mexico); Midwest Poetry Fest (US); Vienna Video Poetry Festival (Austria); and the International Migration & Environmental Film Festival (Canada). Her website is linaramona.com.

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

Larry Sawyer (1970 - February 28, 2025) : (plus fundraiser,

Sad to hear, through Mark Goldstein and Lea Graham simultaneously, that Toronto-based poet, editor and organizer Larry Sawyer died the other night in Toronto. An active and community-minded poet, publisher and reading series organizer, he authored a small mound of book and chapbook titles, founded and edited milk magazine and spent fifteen years running the Myopic Books Poetry Reading Series in Chicago before relocating to Toronto with his partner, the poet Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, during the first Tr*mp Presidency. If such might be possible, there's currently a fundraiser going on, to help raise funds to hold proper memorials for him in Chicago, Fairborn and Toronto.

above/ground press produced his small chapbook A Chaise Lounge in Hell (2003), and I originally connected to him and his work through his online poetry journal milk magazine (begun as a print journal back in 1998). It wasn't until they'd moved north that I had a chance to meet him, once he'd started the milk magazine reading series over at Type Books on Queen Street, and I read there at least twice, including in 2022 [see my note on such here]. According to his Facebook page, he signed a contract with Guernica Editions back in May, 2024 for The Blue Butterfly (2026). It would have been nice for him to have seen that publication through. Tony Trigilio posted a note on him here, with another tribute offered by Mark Lamoureaux here. Larry was a good fella, and huge supporter of poetry. He will be missed.