report: Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair 2026

This past Saturday, above/ground press participated, once more, in the Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, which was pretty cool. I mean, I've been there a few times [see my report on the 2022 fair here], but this is my first visit since Star Trek: Discovery filmed part of an episode in this space, which made it far cooler (naturally). They've been holding small press fairs in the space every two years or so since 2013, and I think this either my third or fourth fair, after the first, the 2022 event and now (I think I also attended the 2015 fair, but I can't find a record for such).

The fair leans into more letterpress works, so publishers such as myself have been invited on more of a rotating basis, given the space is only so large, but this time around, the first floor space was held as an overflow, featuring more of the small chapbook presses, including myself, Knife Fork Book [above], Anstruther Press [above] and Proper Tales Press (Gap Riot Press had been scheduled, but they were unable). The main floor, below us, held many of the usual suspects, including Flycatcher Press, Book*hug Press, Wesley Bates, Grayweathers Press/The MacOdrum Library Book Arts Lab at Carleton University, George A. Walker and Coach House Books.

There was even Jason Dewinetz [above; above/ground press author of a quarter century back] of Greenboathouse Press, who I hadn't seen in person in some two decades-plus, so that was quite nice.

It was good to see above/ground press author Ken Norris (one of the most published authors through the press, at this point; his new title is forthcoming momentarily) and Toronto writer, artist and lawyer Kate Sutherland [above], who I hadn't seen in a while. Poet and critic Bruce Whiteman came by, briefly, as did Canadian poet Sheila Stewart, Victoria writer/editor Kathryn Mockler, former Ottawa-based poet Barâa Arar, above/ground press authors Cary Fagan and Lillian Nećakov and Mark Goldstein and plenty of others. It was far busier than I might have thought, given the small press material was a bit of a side-bar for the letterpress publishers, but there was a consistent crowd most of the day. above/ground press author Conal Smiley (with a new title with Anstruther, by the way) came by to introduce himself, which I appreciated. Always good to actually meet my own authors, face to face. Although it was rather odd to have a couple of tour groups float through, twenty-plus circling our tables, taking photos of the space. Keep moving, keep moving. But an impressive day, all in all.

[Jay MillAr, Book*hug] A young person floated through, introducing themselves as the partner of above/ground press author Noah Sparrow (I didn't catch his name), in Toronto for two years for school; we ended up in a half-hour long conversation on late 1980s Montreal punk bands, which was cool. As well, Brendan Allen introduced himself as a long-time admirer of the press, having been mentored by above/ground press author Megan Kaminski in Kansas, as well as spending time at Temple University, interacting with such as Philadelphia poet Pattie McCarthy and above/ground press author Kevin Varrone, among others. Clearly this fella, in Toronto studying digital poetics, has some very good taste in mentors.

some author activity: Zhang, Hausner, Sparrow, Melançon, Davis + Adams,

Elena Zhang has work in the Spotlight series; Beatriz Hausner is now part of the Canadian Poets Series at Peripety and/or Tronies; Noah Sparrow has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; Jérôme Melançon is featured in a mini-interview over at Amanda Earl's substack; Jordan Davis has an essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Hypertext mag posts a conversation between Carrie Olivia Adams and Nathan Hoks.

some author activity: Barwin, Tierney, Strang, Mc Donnell, Sparrow, Swensen, Johnson + Earl,

Doreen Nicoll interviews Gary Barwin for the Small Change Podcast; Orchid Tierney has new work in petrichor; Catriona Strang has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Conor Mc Donnell, Noah Sparrow, Cole Swensen and Chris Johnson; and Amanda Earl is part of an assemblage of translations of John Keats over at Asymptote, as curated by Johanna Drucker.

new from above/ground press: SPECTACLE/SPECTATOR, by Noah Sparrow

SPECTACLE/SPECTATOR
Noah Sparrow
$6

Meditations During my Hair Emergency

Every Wednesday 
an hour of my day 
is filled 
like the bucket 
right by my socks

The soap gradually 
climbs further 
into nailbeds,
the floor 
washed in
a weekly
showering

And to make it 
all better,
I’m wearing
a hair-mask from
Sephora, from
a kind of
buy-something
get-something-else
sort of deal, 

And now this room
is stripped of bad air,
refilled from 
all kinds of soap of 
floor beneath me 
Stripped of a dusting
to make room
as I prepare
to my sanity to roll out
like an overly commanding
carpet, waiting to 
be stepped on
and kind of wanting it 
to be that way

This kind of removal of
dust and crumbs
would be borderline 
excessive anywhere else
but here

And an hour ago 
I saw a man
unhoused,
washing somebody 
else's car

A car holds
little-to-no
boundaries on where
it can move and
if you don’t believe 
me, just look at
the commercials,
Look at the men
rolling through forestry,
framed by the evergreens,
the occasional bear

If I tried to clean off
that mans floors, 
it would take a
million hours and a
million buckets and all 
the borders 
would collapse behind us

If you look behind 
the car, 
you’ll hear
more and more honking
until the driver
speeds through,
until the bubbles of soap 
forfeit clinging onto wrists,
until seasons change
and the floor
turns into ice

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

Noah Sparrow is a Montreal-Tiohtià:ke based writer. His chapbook Here I am Dying at an Average Pace is forthcoming with Cactus Press in 2026. He won the Gabriel Safdie Poetry Award, was a finalist for the 2024 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2025 International Metatron Poetry Prize. Check out his work in The Fiddlehead, Scrivener Creative Review, or find more at noahsparrow.com

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