some author activity: Archer, Barwin, Spinosa, Dachsel, Betts, MacEachern + Vitkauskas,

Sacha Archer has some visual work up at Arnold McBay's mOvement, as does Gary Barwin, once or twice, and Dani Spinosa; Marita Dachsel has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Gregory Betts is interviewed at The Ethically Immoral Podcast; Jessi MacEachern is featured in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

new from above/ground press: ashes, by Marita Dachsel

ashes
Marita Dachsel
$5

We live on the top floor of one of those big old houses
in Victoria. Our suite has a wood stove and the first few years
we lived there, we didn’t use it, as we didn’t trust our toddling
daughter, but we’ve had six winters with wood heat.
The best heat.

As a child, my autumn weekends were spent hunting.
If my parents didn’t kill an animal,
we’d get some firewood. Hours of packing and unpacking
the truck. I hated it then, but remember it fondly. That strike slip of memory.

Crisp fall air. Mint tea and liverwurst sandwiches.
The sweet scent of a fresh cut tree. Sap.
Complaining crows. Scolding squirrels.
The quiet of the forest after the roar of the chainsaw.
The cracking of breaking branches as the tree comes down.

* * *

In 2019, Andrea MacPherson invited me to the Fraser Valley Literary Festival which took place in Abbotsford, BC, on traditional, unceded Stó:lō Territories on September 13 and 14 of that year. I was commissioned to write on the theme “The Terrible and the Sublime: From Monsters to Saints” which I was to share during the panel of the same name, with panelists Doretta Lau, Jónína Kirton and Danny Ramadan. “Ashes” came from that commission.

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

Marita Dachsel is the author of the poetry collections There Are Not Enough Sad Songs, Glossolalia, and All Things Said & Done. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry, and the ReLit Award. With Nancy Lee, she co-edited Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life. Her play Initiation Trilogy was nominated for both a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script and The Critics’ Choice Innovation Award. She has created interactive poetry-based installations for festivals and conferences in Victoria, Edmonton, and Toronto. She lives with her family on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia where she teaches in UVic’s Writing Department and knits on the sly at any opportunity

This is Dachsel’s third above/ground press title, after learning to breathe (1996) and divination (2022).

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

new from above/ground press: Divination, by Marita Dachsel

Divination
Marita Dachsel
$5

I can see you.

Can you see me?

In the mirror, you don’t see how you really look, you see how you want to look.

No way, you’re saying. You’re saying you know all your faults. You wish you didn’t
have them. You look in the mirror and you see your drooping eye or the weird shaped mole or how your nose is too big or too small or too flat or too pointed. The only person who ever liked her nose was Anne of Green Gables.

But all those faults you see, only you are seeing them. They are yours. You’re projecting. Most people can’t see them at all.

And don’t call them faults.

If I were your auntie, I’d remind you that they are signs of character.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Marita Dachsel is the author of the poetry collections There Are Not Enough Sad Songs, Glossolalia, and All Things Said & Done. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry, and the ReLit Award. Her play Initiation Trilogy was nominated for both a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script and The Critics’ Choice Innovation Award. She has created interactive poetry-based installations for festivals and conferences in Victoria, Edmonton, and Toronto. She lives with her family on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia where she teaches in UVic’s Writing Department and knits on the sly at any opportunity.

This is Dachsel’s second above/ground press title, after learning to breathe (1996). A third is forthcoming.

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

above/ground press authors MacLean and Dachsel make the Robert Kroetsh Award shortlist!

Congratulations to all who have made the Robert Kroetsch Award shortlist: Kathy Mac, Kath MacLean, Michael Nardone, Laura Broadbent, Nathan Dueck, Marita Dachsel and Jeremy Stewart.

Kath MacLean's above/ground press chapbook, ten: ways to skin a cat (2003), is still available for $3, but, unfortunately, Marita Dachsel's Learning to Breathe (1996) is long out of print. Still, other items of hers are still available here and here.

Looking forward to seeing the finished book by the winner, and perhaps, a few others as well.