some author activity: Cone, Tardi, Barwin, Reid + Flemmer,

Jon Cone has an essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Mark Tardi; Gary Barwin has new work up at The Pi Review; Monty Reid has some poems via Discordia Review; and Kyle Flemmer responds via the '12 or 20 questions' interview.

new from above/ground press: The Thought Lawn, by Mark Tardi

The Thought Lawn
Mark Tardi
$6

Cztery Kwartety


1.
As close as 
we are I 
don’t remember 

what you look like


2.
Calm 
does not come 
every day

Lamps are calm


3.
Even if I’m no longer 
sure what 

Craig meant 
by “life raft in Hell”


4.
Wiosna lato jesień 

zima part 
blue sky part 

cretaceous coyote

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover art by Małgorzata Myk, from Duration Series (2024).  

Mark Tardi is a writer, runner, and translator whose awards include a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Grant and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Translation fellowship. His translations include Viscera: Eight Voices from Poland (Litmus Press, 2024), Unsovereign by Kacper Bartczak (above/ground press, 2024), The Squatters' Gift by Robert Rybicki (Dalkey Archive, 2021), and Faith in Strangers by Katarzyna Szaulińska (Toad Press, 2021). Recent writing and translations have appeared in Conjunctions, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, MAYDAY, Ilanot Review, Denver Quarterly, Interim, Cagibi, Full Stop, and elsewhere. His newest book, Recapitulation in the Wrong Key, is out from BlazeVOX Books. He is on faculty at the University of Lodź.

This is Tardi’s second title from above/ground press, after his translation of Kacper Bartczak’s Unsovereign (2024).

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: Davis, Flemmer, Armantrout, Bartczak + Tardi,

Jordan Davis has ten poems posted at The Fortnightly Review; Kyle Flemmer is interviewed via The Miramichi Reader; Rae Armantrout writes on Fanny Howe for The Fortnightly Review, and has four new poems up at Granta, and a further poem via the website for the Poetry Foundation; and Kacper Bartczak has a new poem up at Poetry Northwest, as translated into English by Mark Tardi.

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: Unsovereign, by Kacper Bartczak (trans. Mark Tardi

Unsovereign
Kacper Bartczak
translated from the Polish by Mark Tardi
$5

Hybrid engine triptych


1.

in singing the song all freight

migrates synthesizing a mineral loss

imparts the viscosity of light



2.

biometric sculpture a direct inject

vacuum emission in a unit

a buoyant mouth squishes a piston

spewing a party of grease light



3.

listen on the fora for all sorts of crash

see the algaesphere ionizing

expediting a party of sinking light

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

cover image: Agnieszka Kowalska-Owczarek
A watercolor from the series Wibracje – Linie z Niekończoności [Vibrations – Infinity Lines]

KACPER BARTCZAK is a Polish poet, scholar, and translator. Recent volumes include Czas Kompost [Time Compost] (2023), Widoki wymazy (2021), Naworadiowa [Radionaves] (2019), Pokarm suweren [Food Sovereign] (2017), and Wiersze organiczne [Organic Poems] (2015), which was nominated for two major awards in Poland. He has translated and published volumes of selected poems by Rae Armantrout, Charles Bernstein, and Peter Gizzi. as well as the work of many other poets into Polish. In English translation, recent poetry of his has appeared in Poetry, ANMLY, Denver Quarterly, Interim, MAYDAY, and Berlin Quarterly. His awards include two Fulbrights––at Stanford and Princeton, respectively––and a fellowship from the Kościuszko Foundation at Florida Atlantic University. He is an associate professor and department chair at the University of Łódź.

MARK TARDI is a writer and translator whose recent awards include a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Grant and a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Translation fellowship. He is the author of three books, most recently, The Circus of Trust (Dalkey Archive Press, 2017), and his translations of The Squatters’ Gift by Robert Rybicki (Dalkey Archive Press) and Faith in Strangers by Katarzyna Szaulińska (Toad Press/Veliz Books) were published in 2021. Recent writing and translations have appeared in Poetry, Conjunctions, Guernica, ANMLY, Full-Stop, Interim, Cagibi, Denver Quarterly, and in the anthology The Experiment Will Not Be Bound (Unbound Edition Press, 2023). Viscera: Eight Voices from Poland will appear with Litmus Press in September 2024. He is on faculty at the University of Łódź.

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