some author activity: Caple, Earl, Press, Johnstone, Archer, + Saklikar,

Chaudiere Books' 5th annual National Poetry Month feature has begun, featuring new poems by above/ground press authors including Natalee Caple and Amanda Earl and K.I. Press; Matthew Johnstone has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie; Sacha Archer is interviewed at Touch the Donkey; and Renée Sarojini Saklikar is interviewed by Read Local BC.

some author activity: Johnstone, Polyck-O'Neill, Smith, Rosenthal, Sharp + Brockwell,

Matthew Johnstone has some new work in the final issue of interrupture ; Julia Polyck-O'Neill is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Jessica Smith, Sarah Rosenthal and forthcoming author Travis Sharp (etcetera) all have work in the third issue of DREAM POP JOURNAL; and Stephen Brockwell has a new poem up at NewPoetry.

Greg Bem reviews Matthew Johnstone's ( kiln ) (2017)

Our pal Greg Bem is on a roll lately, it seems, providing yet another review; this time, he's posted the first review of Matthew Johnstone's ( kiln ) (2017) at Goodreads. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

Johnstone has crafted a phantasmagoric book with (kiln ). The language moves in an out of etherea, often appearing cinematographic but then moving into something remotely personal, reflective, from within. This blend between the external and the self paints a lucid picture for the reader. Dare I say it feels representational of what the seems and fabrics of the daily reality appear to us to be?

Amanda Earl reviews four 2017 titles: Matthew Johnstone's ( Kiln ), Natalee Caple's The Appetites of Tiny Hands, Philip Miletic's Marginal Prints and Sarah Fox's Invisible Wife

As an acknowledgment of the press' twenty-fifth anniversary [see my 'by the numbers' piece here], Ottawa poet, publisher and above/ground press author (here) Amanda Earl was good enough to review four different above/ground press 2017 titles over at her blog, providing first reviews for Matthew Johnstone's ( Kiln ) and Natalee Caple's The Appetites of Tiny Hands: Twentieth Anniversary Edition, a second review of Philip Miletic's Marginal Prints (after Eleni Zisimatos' review) and a third review of Sarah Fox's Invisible Wife (after Rebecca Banks' review and Greg Bem's review). Thanks so very much! You can see Amanda's glorious and generous review here.

new from above/ground press: ( Kiln ), by Matthew Johnstone

( Kiln )
Matthew Johnstone
$5

A line does not change, stripped out net for grate, 

there is no country shapes fahrenheit

hollow for, shell, in the wound, is, irrational,

witnesses color moved by another color, lives like place

is,

that heat beaded the accent off, this opposites, we

are poor objects, names out front.

Some clipped by certain pay cloud kept their line for

and to begin others, that years before

were a series of disorientations, my father is hint for years,

deafening, putting iron down the land mapper, that

without considering drunks in the hot ocean.

That a seductive light appears

to feature one appears too.

Hours form an intentional place which an expansive keeping

takes, the arrangement each made each killer of veins.

Once fine through but through fragmentary, them

converge onto augment, branded, wet callus, stay I noise.

Movement is necessarily described as folds

are, the profanity unmuted, peels atop everything, is,

is kiln,

that there is a wound does not move.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Matthew Johnstone is author of the collection Let’s be close  Rope to mast  you, Old light (Blue & Yellow Dog, 2010), and the chapbooks o n e (Inpatient Press, 2015), Note on Tundra (DoubleCross Press, 2016), and Eater, of mouths (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2017). He co-edits 'Pider (pidermag.com) and hosts the E t A l. Poetry Readings, both of Nashville, Tennessee.

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