some author activity: Walker, Berlatsky, Niespodziany, Markotić, Archer, Ebbitt + the Indie Lit Market!

Laura Walker has new work up at Astrolabe; Noah Berlatsky has three poems in the new issue of Ranger; Benjamin Niespodziany has two new poems up at HAD; Nicole Markotić is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Sacha Archer has four pieces up at A-Minor; Katie Ebbitt has new work at talking about strawberries all of the time; and don't forget the Indie Lit Market in Toronto on November 2nd!

some author activity: Manery, Markotić, Doller, Straumsvåg, Heroux, Fagan, Barwin, Reid + Solomon,

forthcoming author Sandra Doller is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Dag T. Straumsvåg and Jason Heroux's collaborative chapbook gets a nice mention by Cary Fagan over at his review blog; Gary Barwin has an archived poem up at The Walrus; Monty Reid is reviewed by Dawn Macdonald; and Misha Solomon has new work up in the Spotlight series.

Robert Kroetsch 2020 tributes: Lea Graham, Dennis Cooley, Robert Hogg, Frank Davey, Nicole Markotić, rob mclennan + Amanda Earl

A gathering of tributes to the late poet, critic, editor and novelist (and above/ground press author) Robert Kroetsch (1927-2011) have begun to appear online at The Typescript under the heading "Robert Kroetsch 2020," and includes poems by a variety of other above/ground press authors such as Robert Hogg (see his poems here), Dennis Cooley (see his poems here), Frank Davey (see his poems here), rob mclennan (see his poem here), Nicole Markotić (see her poems here) and Lea Graham (see her poems here). The feature even includes an updated version of Amanda Earl's above/ground press chapbook The Sad Phoenician's Other Woman (originally published in 2008 and copies are still available), as well as a new essay by Earl on composing the original sequence.

the Vancouver launch of Rob Manery's SOME magazine, June 23, 2019 w Stephen Collis, Nicole Markotić etc

above/ground press authors Stephen Collis and Nicole Markotić read along with Michael Barnholden, Ted Byrne, Louis Cabri, Clint Burnham and Catriona Strang in Vancouver on Sunday, June 23, 2019 as part of the launch of the debut issue of Rob Manery's new poetry journal, SOME magazine. Further details on where and how to pick up an issue once that becomes available.

Robert Kroetsch Conference this weekend : Anstee, Baker, Cooley, Markotić, Hall etc

In case you weren't aware, the 2017 Canadian Literature Symposium at the University of Ottawa is this weekend: Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet. Running from April 27-30, 2017, presenters include a variety of above/ground press authors (and non-authors), including panelists, presenters and chairs Nicole Markotić, Jennifer Baker, Rudy Wiebe, David Eso, Cameron Anstee, Claire Farley, Dennis Cooley, Aritha van Herk, Robert Stacey, Phil Hall and others. I even have a couple copies left of Robert Kroetsch's above/ground press chapbook, as well as the memorial chapbook we put together for him, if such appeals. Apparently the public is more than welcome to attend, and you can see the full schedule for the conference here.

And: I took this photo of Robert Kroetsch during our shared University of Alberta Press on-campus book launch, April 2010.

Jeff Low reviews Nicole Markotić's Ins & Outs (2015) in Broken Pencil

Jeff Low was good enough to provide the first review of Nicole Markotić's Ins & Outs (2015) in Broken Pencil. Thanks much! You can see the review here. As he writes:

Flip the page (literally); search for an alternate point of entry; without a handle, a door is just a wall: frustrated and feeling somewhat inadequate, I stumbled through Ins & Outs without a clue. I must be missing something. Or maybe it’s good at hiding. Regardless, you really have to investigate (or “stigate”) to coax meaning out of Markotić’s vertical poetics.

But frustration and feelings of incompletion run rampant throughout this zine. And, true to the nature of such things, there’s no self-affirming claim to meaning. Murmured clauses pool at the centre, arranged somewhat arbitrarily like the pull of gravity itself: “Who at this quisition deems non-stop sults as sufferable? / yes please”; “sung to the meld of orable banking / uh-huh, the candleabra’s plicable blue tremis / wait, don’t wander (save for haustible times)”. Too many speakers, or too many thoughts left unspoken, unclarified and subsequently meandering without ownership. The poems are arranged with respect to the reader’s experience during intake: negative space and stark alignment frustrates the potentiality of the pure white page, much like poetry’s insatiable promise of truth. Clarity offers little perspective. Confidence is often thwarted.

I’m a glutton for punishment and nit-picking, so Ins & Outs is an absolute treat. And I anticipate that this review holds all the same frustrations as the mumbling text itself. Another satisfying and characteristically complex read from above/ground press.

micro-presses in Canada : above/ground press as part of Brick Books' ongoing Celebration of Canadian Poetry

above/ground press has a short write-up (with plenty of links) as part of a list of micro-presses in Canada, compiled by Kitty Lewis as part of Brick Books' ongoing Celebration of Canadian Poetry. Thanks so much! Other presses on the list also include presses by a number of former and current above/ground press authors, including Amanda Earl's AngelHousePress, Cameron Anstee's Apt. 9 Press, derek beaulieu's NO Press, Kemeny Babineau's Laurel Reed Books, Pearl Pirie's phafours, Stuart Ross' Proper Tales Press, Meredith and Peter Quartermain's Nomados Literary Publishers, Gary Barwin's serif of nottingham and Nicole Markotić's Wrinkle Press.

Nicole Markotić chapbook launch, September 27, 2015 (Windsor ON

Nicole Markotić launches her chapbook Ins & Outs (2015) in Windsor, Ontario as part of The Windsor Thrill: Triple Chapbook Launch | Sunday 27 Sept | 1:00 PM | Common Ground, alongside Simina Banu (launching where art) and Melanie Janisse (launching Scrim Poems)‏. If you can't make it, you can always order a copy of Markotić's title here.

new from above/ground press: ins & outs, by Nicole Markotić

ins & outs
Nicole Markotić
$4

dulge me

eh [?]

(ex)it stage

left

how to habit one more clinic for curables

wind about the adequacy of going

cognito. ahem

ponential posure leads

(out-there) to here

stigate (again and again) any volution

that luges and lutes, that bites, chews, wraps-around

as festations flects to the left

transigent telligensia: add a twirl, toe another footnote

she advertently paged through the bingo vincibles

 
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2015
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Nicole Markotić’s books include Bent at the Spine and Scrapbook of My Years as a Zealot. She has published in numerous literary journals in Canada, the USA, Australia, and Europe. She edits the chapbook series, Wrinkle Press, has worked as a freelance editor, and is on the NeWest Press board. She teaches Literature, Creative Writing, and Disability Studies at the University of Windsor, and is editing a collection of essays (for Guernica Press) on Robert Kroetsch.

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

some author activity: Abel, Hajnoczky, Markotić, Schmaltz, eckhoff, Lea, beaulieu + Reid,

Jordan Abel, Helen Hajnoczky, Nicole Markotić, Eric Schmaltz and kevin mcpherson eckhoff each have new work in The Capilano Review webfolio #11, co-edited by Brook Houglum and Daniel Zomparelli; N.W. Lea has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at dusie; an article on derek beaulieu appeared in the University of Calgary's U Today; and a new interview with Monty Reid on VERSeFest is now online.

some author activity: Abel, Hancock, Markotić, Cooley, Graham, hastain, Barbour, Murphy, eckhoff + Pirie,

Jordan Abel is interviewed in the "Six Questions" series for the sake of his inclusion on the 2014 Gerald Lampert Award shortlist; Brecken Hancock has four poems up on Lemonhound; both Nicole Markotić and Dennis Cooley have new poems up at Atticus Review, as well as a short introductory essay on their work by Lea Graham; j/j hastain, as well as Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy, have new work in the second issue of Posit; there's a new interview with kevin mcpherson eckhoff up at Poets Touching Trees; and Pearl Pirie participates in the "My Writing Process: Blog Tour" meme.

some author activity: Pirie on Hawkins, Markotić, McElroy, McNair, Brockwell, Gelèns and Lindner, + an interview with Butler,

Pearl Pirie was good enough to post some reports on William Hawkins being one of the first inductees into the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour, as well as the recent Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest lecture by Gil McElroy and Nicole Markotić; and even post a whole slew of photos from the event, with all the above, as well as Christine McNair, Stephen Brockwell, rob mclennan, Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner; and there's a new interview with Jenna Butler on Connotation Press, alongside some new poems.

Some author activity: MillAr, Poe, Hancock, Lindner, Markotic + Paige

Jay MillAr has a new poem up at Stuart Ross' The Week Shall Inherit The Verse; Deborah Poe has two new poems up at Shampoo #40; Brecken Hancock interviews Sue Sinclair, CWILA Critic-in-Residence; Erik Lindner writes a column in Dutch on the Poetry International website referencing Nicole Markotic's use of the term "prairie poetry"; and Vermont's Times Argus has a short article on Abby Paige's upcoming one-woman show in Montpelier, Vermont.

above/ground press @ VERSeFest: a small report (with pictures): Markotić, McElroy, McNair, Hawkins, Dolman, Lindner + Gelens,

On Saturday, March 16, The Factory Reading Series hosted its annual lecture series as part of VERSeFest 2013, with readings and talks by Nicole Markotić and Gil McElroy. The text of each of their talks will be posted online in the next issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.Previous poets in the series (most of whom have already had their pieces posted online) include Monty Reid and Marcus McCann [see my report on such here], Barry McKinnon and Paige Ackerson-Kiely [see my report on such here], and Stephen Brockwell, Pearl Pirie and Cameron Anstee.

Windsor, Ontario poet, writer and critic Markotić's talk was a response (in part) to a recent piece by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, "On Poetry and Accessability." Gil McElroy's talk (which also launched his chapbook Twentieth) was far more informal, talking about chance and accident, astronomy and other threads.  

The talks were lively and compelling, and triggered an interesting question-and-answer period, with contributions by jwcurry, David Currie, Steven Price and Rod Pederson.

Markotić and McElroy are easily two of my favourite poets. I first heard Markotić read in Ottawa at The Manx Pub back in 1994, around the time I first started reading the work of Gil McElroy. I'm pretty sure that this event was McElroy's first reading in Ottawa.

above/ground press author and press favourite Christine McNair did a reading at The Dusty Owl event from her trade book, Conflict (BookThug, 2012), as well as a couple of new poems, finished just in time for the reading. Below is a picture of her in all yellow, reacting somehow to the light in the space.

At the 7pm event, VERSeOttawa inducted William Hawkins and Greg "Ritalin" Frankson into its first annual VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour. There was something oddly soothing about the regular sigh of Hawkins' oxygen tank through the sound system that a number of the audience noticed, and mentioned to me after the event. 

Despite looking a bit frail, William Hawkins [see his updated website here] was his usual sly self, and gave perhaps one of the finest readings I've heard in some time. Pearl Pirie was good enough to post some photos of such online.
 

Dutch poets Hélène Gelèns and Erik Lindner closed our third annual festival, with a brief opening reading by Ottawa poet Anita Dolman, who is also the translator of their new above/ground press chapbook, Two Dutch Poets.  

Dolman published a chapbook through above/ground press way back in 2004, and we've all pretty much decided she requires a trade book soon. Lindner, who has read in Ottawa previously through the ottawa international writers festival, read his poems in Dutch alongside David O'Meara (left), who responded with the same poems in English translation.

Hélène Gelèns gave an utterly charming reading from her work, performing a call-and-response in Dutch and English. Here she is reading from their chapbook, which was produced for the sake of making their work available in English translation. It's great to have the opportunity to produce a work by the two of them, but why hasn't someone else long produced a book each of their works in English?

Some author activity: Stewart, Robertson, Markotic + Wilkinson; and McElroy, McNair + Markotic at VERSeFest!

Fenn Stewart, Lisa Robertson and Nicole Markotic read with Susan Holbrook in Toronto on Friday, March 8, 2013, hosted by the Toronto New School of Writing; and Joshua Marie Wilkinson has a new essay, "On Poetry & Accessibility," over at The Volta, and a review-essay over at West Branch Wired. And don't forget Gil McElroy, Christine McNair and Nicole Markotic (and many others) at this year's VERSeFest!

The Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest: Nicole Markotić and Gil McElroy, March 16, 2013

The Factory Reading Series
as part of the third annual VERSeFest poetry festival

The Factory Reading Series Lecture Series, two talks and readings by:

Nicole Markotić (Windsor ON)
and Gil McElroy (Colborne ON)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,
Saturday, March 16, 2013
FREE ADMISSION!
1:30pm at The Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward Market Square, Ottawa
check the VERSeFest link for the full schedule of events!
March 12-17, 2013

Nicole Markotić is a poet, critic, and novelist in Windsor, Ontario. She has published three books of poetry: Connect the Dots, Minotaurs & Other Alphabets (Wolsak & Wynn), and Bent at the Spine (BookThug). She has published two novels: Yellow Pages (Red Deer Press) and Scrapbook of My Years as a Zealot (Arsenal Press), edited a collection of poetry by Dennis Cooley: By Word of Mouth (Wilfrid Laurier University Press), and co-edited (with Sally Chivers) an anthology concerning representations of disability, The Problem Body: Projecting Disability on Film (Ohio State UP). She has published her poetry in numerous literary journals in Canada, the USA, Australia, and Europe. Currently, Nicole Markotić teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, where she also edits the poetry chapbook series, Wrinkle Press.

Gil McElroy is a poet, independent curator, art critic, and visual artist. He has published four books of poetry, most recently Ordinary Time (Talonbooks, 2011), and numerous chapbooks that include Ordinary Time: The Merton Lake Propers (Baseline Press, 2012). He is also author of Gravity & Grace: Selected Writing on Contemporary Canadian Art (Gaspereau Press, 2001) and the memoir Cold Comfort: Growing Up Cold War (Talonbooks, 2012). McElroy writes about visual art for publications in Canada and the United States, and is a regular correspondent for Akimblog. As a practicing visual artist, he has recently been collaborating with Halifax-based artist Peter Dykhuis on a series of site-specific gallery exhibitions based on abandoned Cold War military installations in Canada.

He lives in the village of Colborne, Ontario with his wife Heather.

At this event, he will be launching the chapbook Twentieth (above/ground press, 2013).

Support the VERSeFest '13 : Indiegogo campaign!

VERSeFest ’13, Ottawa’s annual international poetry festival, starts on 12 March. We need your help to make the festival even better than last year!

VERSeFest is Ottawa’s annual international poetry festival.  It is managed by a collective of Ottawa poetry groups called VERSe Ottawa.  The festival is going into its third year and has been a great artistic success.  Last year’s festival brought spoken word poets of the calibre of C.R. Avery and Ursula Rucker, and written word poets such as Philip Levine and Rae Armantrout.  We’re looking forward to VERSeFest ’13, which will feature poets from Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands.  The Factory Reading Series' annual lecture this year will be by Canadian poets Gil McElroy and Nicole Markotic. The festival promises to be even better than its predecessors.  But we need your help.

Staging an international poetry festival is a much more expensive operation than ‘keeping it Canadian’.  Travel costs are very much higher, as you might imagine; even the costs of accommodation and hospitality rise above those for Canadian nationals.  We have sought and obtained some funding from several Canadian funding agencies, but it isn’t enough to offset costs.

We need $5,000 to break even on VERSeFest ’13.  If we don’t manage to raise that amount, we will have to start cancelling international and Canadian poets.  We need $2,500 to bring two Irish and three Dutch poets to Ottawa, and we need $1,500 to bring Canadian poets from western Canada.  A further $1,000 will go toward accommodations and hospitality for other festival participants.

Your contributions will go directly to funding the artists’ appearances.  VERSeFest is run completely by volunteers, so 100% of every donation goes toward making the festival happen.  Please give what you can.

You can help even if you can’t contribute financially.  Please pass the word about our campaign to friends and acquaintances.  Make some noise about VERSeFest and Indiegogo.  Use the Indiegogo share tools to get the word out.

Thank you!

some author activity: The Peter F Yacht Club, Martin, MillAr, mclennan, Markotic + Poe,

For the first time in years, we actually had a meeting of The Peter F Yacht Club! Pictured left to right are Pearl and Brian Pirie, Vivian Vavassis and Gwendolyn Guth, listening intently to an unseen (by the camera, at least) Laurie Fuhr; others in attendance included rob mclennan, Stephen Brockwell, Danica Brockwell and Christine McNair.

Camille Martin has a collage essay over at Talking Writing, and Jay MillAr is interviewed over at Canadian Poets Petting Cats; rob mclennan's "Daily Offerings: a note on 'Songs for little sleep,'" is now online at Branta, anticipating his newest trade poetry collection; Nicole Markotic has some new poems over at Numero Cinq, along with an afterward on her poems by Tammy Armstrong; and there's a new interview with Deborah Poe over at womens quarterly conversation.

Also, copies of Hugh Thomas and Michael Blouin/Elizabeth Rainer's bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlisted titles will be available at Toronto's Meet the Presses, as at the ottawa small press book fair on Saturday!

some author activity: mcpherson eckhoff, Weaver, Markotić, Cooley, Reid, Bowering, Hall + mclennan,

kevin mcpherson eckhoff [pictured] was in Ottawa over the weekend, where he launched his new chapbook, and even posed for a number of other pictures; Douglas Barbour has been editing TRUCK over the month of October, and including various above/ground press authors, including Andy Weaver, Nicole Markotić, Dennis Cooley, Monty Reid + George Bowering; Phil Hall is doing a lecture at Queen's in November, as part of a series he's started; and I even have a new poem up at Halvard Johnston's On Barcelona.

Rob Manery's Vancouver launch of Richter-Rauzer Variations (above/ground), with Nicole Markotic,

Rob Manery launches Richter-Rauzer Variations (above/ground) alongside Nicole Markotic launching Bent at the Spine (BookThug) at Vancouver's People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive, on Friday, July 27, 2012 at 7:30pm.