some author activity: Bolster, Paige, Cortese, Downs + Ackerson-Kiely,

Stephanie Bolster has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; Abby Paige has a poem included in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; Franco Cortese has a poem and short interview online at Canadian Literature; Buck Downs is interviewed at DCPL Radio; and Paige Ackerson-Kiely has a poem up at The Millions.

some author activity: Earl, Greenstreet, Ackerson-Kiely, MillAr, Brockwell, Clarke + Higdon,

Amanda Earl reviews the recent Factory Reading Series event featuring Kate Greenstreet, DJ Dolack and Paige Ackerson-Kiely over at her blog; Jay MillAr has some new poems up at The Puritan; both Stephen Brockwell (poems) and George Elliott Clarke (reviews) have new work posted in issue #17 of Maple Tree Literary Supplement; and Hailey Higdon contributes an essay to the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

A.E. Watkins reviews Paige Ackerson-Kiely's A Book About A Candle Burning in a Shed (2011)

American poet and critic A.E. Watkins's impressive and lengthy review of Paige Ackerson-Kiely's above/ground press chapbook, A Book About A Candle Burning in a Shed (2011), "Investigations in Absentia," is now online at Jacket2. This is the second review of her chapbook, after Amanda Roth discussed such in dead (g)end(er).

Don't forget Ackerson-Kiely's next Ottawa reading on Monday, October 21, 2013 (her birthday!) with D.J. Dolack and Kate Greenstreet as part of The Factory Reading Series.

The Factory Reading Series : Kate Greenstreet, Paige Ackerson-Kiely + D.J. Dolack, October 21, 2013;

with readings by:

Kate Greenstreet
Paige Ackerson-Kiely
+ D.J. Dolack

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Monday, October 21, 2013;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Kate Greenstreet’s [pictured] third book Young Tambling is new from Ahsahta Press. Her previous books are case sensitive and The Last 4 Things, also with Ahsahta. For more information, visit her site at kickingwind.com.

Paige Ackerson-Kiely is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, In No One’s Land, and My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer, and other works of poetry and prose (including a chapbook from above/ground press). She lives in rural VT ad works at a homeless shelter.

DJ Dolack’s work has appeared in journals including The Denver Quarterly, Handsome, Salt Hill and Diode. His chapbooks have been published by Eye For An Iris Press (12 Poems, 2010) and Greying Ghost Press (No Ser No., 2012), and his first full length collection, Whittling a New Face in the Dark is forthcoming from Black Ocean (August 2013). DJ has also written for Coldfront Magazine, where his video series Tourist Trap, NYC is a popular feature. He teaches writing at Baruch College, CUNY and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens.

some author activity: Ackerson-Kiely, Poe, Smith, Earl, Wilkinson

Paige Ackerson-Kiely is on the "23 People Who Will Make You Care About Poetry in 2013" list over at Flavorwire (and keep an eye out for her next Ottawa reading: October 21 at The Carleton Tavern as part of The Factory Reading Series, alongside Kate Greenstreet and D.J. Dolack); Deborah Poe and Jessica Smith each have short essays as part of the "Women Looking at Vispo" section of The Volta, guest-edited by Nico Vassilakis; Amanda Earl is interviewed for an article on Bywords.ca for Jam Jar Words; and Joshua Marie Wilkinson has two short films posted up at Omniverse, the blog of Omnidawn.

some author activity: Anstee, Betts, Bradley, Brockwell, beaulieu, Armantrout, Martin, Robertson + Ackerson-Kiely,

poet and publisher Cameron Anstee now has a blog; AngelHousePress' NationalPoetryMonth site has works by above/ground press authors Gregory Betts, Jamie Bradley, and Stephen Brockwell; and The Toronto Quarterly, also for poetry month, posted new works by derek beaulieu and Stephen Brockwell; there's a new Rae Armantrout poem on the Poetry Foundation website (did you see her recently as an answer in the New York Times crossword?); Camille Martin posts a report (with photos!) from her recent reading in Chicago with Mark Goldstein; Sina Queyras writes on Lisa Robertson for Harriet, the blog of the Poetry Foundation; and Paige Ackerson-Kiely talks of birds and survival, and even recommends...

Amanda Roth reviews Paige Ackerson-Kiely’s Book About a Candle Burning in a Shed (above/ground) on the dead (g)end(er) blog;

a review of Paige Ackerson-Kiely’s Book About a Candle Burning in a Shed (above/ground press, 2011) by writer and dg associate Amanda Roth (see the original post here). Thanks, Amanda!

Book About a Candle Burning in a Shed is just that, but also so much more.

Paige Ackerson-Kiely, currently of Vermont, has authored the poetry collections My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer (Ahsahta Press, forthcoming), and In No One’s Land (Ahsahta, 2007)—which won the Sawtooth Poetry Prize—and a limited edition art folio/collaboration, This Landscape (Argos Books, 2010).

Ackerson-Kiely’s first chapbook from above/ground press is a collection of prose poems which combine to produce a memoir dealing with the death of a girl in a small town, and an authority figure’s pursuit of justice amongst internal struggles of his own. It is with fervor and beauty that the author weaves together individual scenes to provide a unique display the whole storyline.

The immediacy of the title bleeds through the pages of this chapbook, displaying context with a certain severity:

Thicket of weeds upon which her body ballooned. Dark dirty water I had to drink once. / There was nothing else around that I could see.

And yet, there are touches of the sporadic and perplexing tendencies of an overactive mind. This inner conflict is a reoccurring theme throughout the collection.

You’re cold again. Her delicate finger pointing to the hall that touches me some nights until I shivered. You’re so far away. You’re an iceberg in the ocean and you will melt and be forgotten.

The intensity of the narrator’s thoughts is overwhelming and enthralling. It is only by understanding each piece of the puzzle arranged by Ackerson-Kiely in this collection of poems that the audience is able to witness the greater narrative within.

Some author activity: Armantrout, McKinnon, Ackerson-Kiely + Hall at VERSeFest (some reports);

Now that the second annual VERSeFest is behind us, there are notes and reports popping up in various corners of the accumulated activity at our newest poetry festival (Pearl Pirie has a whole TON of photos here). For above/ground press authors Rae Armantrout, Barry McKinnon and Paige Ackerson-Kiely, these were their first appearances in Ottawa, making a series of rare occasions that much more impressive. Perth, Ontario poet Phil Hall, on the other hand, returned after numerous readings around Ottawa over the past decade as the most recent winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry for Killdeer (BookThug, 2011).

American poet Rae Armantrout [here a photo of Armantrout and McKinnon at lunch] gave a magnificent reading from recent work, including her chapbook Custom (above/ground press, 2012), which was, unfortunately, the only title of hers available throughout the week. See here, a photo Pearl Pirie posted from the event, as well as a report on the evening generally, and Armantrout specifically. Here, two days earlier, a photograph she took of Barry McKinnon. See here, Amanda Earl's report on the event.

As The Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest, Barry McKinnon and Paige Ackerson-Kiely presented informal lectures/talks to a packed crowd at The Mercury Lounge in the Byward Market, both articulating various aspects of recent work and how it had been created, informed and structured. Ackerson-Kiely spoke of her second trade collection, My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer (Ahsahta Press, 2012), and McKinnon spoke of an ongoing project translating fragments of Dante’s Inferno, parts of which have appeared as the chapbook Into The Blind World (above/ground press, 2012) and in The Peter F. Yacht Club #16. McKinnon even distributed copies of his talk as a self-produced chapbook of twenty-six copies through his long-standing Gorse Press, When “I” Left the Stage: A Realm of Intention (January 2012). A small fraction of the essay reads:

When I started writing at the age of 16, I wrote fast, filling boxes with quickly scribbled lyrics dashed off with a sense of excitement and risk. I never know what I was about to say or where the page was to take me. Now I’m 67 and the energy and pleasure of the writing process hasn’t really changed, but I wait much longer between poems. I’ve had to learn patience. Much writing and thinking for me is practice in preparation for the event when the poem arrives.

I’ve also learned to live with another paradox of its activity: The poem simultaneously identifies its writer to the world, but only comes into being when the writer, so to speak, is out of the way. What a strange occupation and process that requires obliteration of self at the same time that it reaffirms it. I think I knew this early on.

The event concluded with a lively (albeit brief, for the sake of time) question and answer session. Both pieces will appear later on this year in the fifth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics. See Pearl Pirie's magnificent report on the reading here.

Phil Hall, reading at the final event of the festival, the “Summit Reading,” shared the stage with American poet Philip Levine and Mexican poet Pura López-Colomé. For his opening set, the collage of Hall’s poetry was blended into a single, extended piece specifically structured for the sake of his performance at this event, with these two particular writers, and was one of the finest readings, and perhaps one of the finest works, of his career to date. How does Hall manage to keep surprising after all of these years? See Amanda Earl's report here on both The Factory Reading Series and The Summit.

A new chapbook, a collaboration between Hall and Western Australia poet Andrew Burke, will be available in a matter of days.

some author activity: Young, Carr, Martin, Armantrout + Ackerson-Kiely;

See what some of our authors are doing! Deanna Young was interviewed over at Open Book: Ontario, in anticipation of her chapbook launch on Friday; Emily Carr's Conversation Hearts for the Chinese New Year: A California Lyric, a photo essay/love poem, is live & online at www.ifshedrawsadoor.com; Collage: An interview with Camille Martin is now online at Amanda Earl's AngelHousePress; Rae Armantrout discusses her work and poetics in an interview over at PBS; and Paige Ackerson-Kiely posts this book trailer for her second trade poetry collection, just in time for her appearances at AWP and VERSeFest!

new from above/ground press: The Peter F Yacht Club #16: VERSeFest special!

The Peter F Yacht Club #16: VERSeFest special!
edited by rob mclennan
[see the link here for information on the previous issue]
[see the link here for a history of the publication]
$6

With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars and irregulars, as well as a number of VERSeFest participants, including Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Cameron Anstee, Rae Armantrout, Stephen Brockwell, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Laurie Fuhr, Lea Graham, Gwendolyn Guth, Marilyn Irwin, Ben Ladouceur, Tim Lilburn, Barry McKinnon, rob mclennan, Christine McNair, James K. Moran, Sean Moreland, Pearl Pirie, Monty Reid, Shane Rhodes, Janice Tokar and Fred Wah.

Produced as part of Ottawa’s second annual VERSeFest poetry festival, which runs from February 28 to March 4, 2012.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2012
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

The Factory Reading Series @ VERSeFest: Paige Ackerson-Kiely + Barry McKinnon, March 4, 2012

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

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

Paige Ackerson-Kiely (Vermont)
and Barry McKinnon (Prince George BC)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,

Sunday, March 4, 2012
FREE ADMISSION!
4:30pm at The Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward Market Square, Ottawa
check the VERSeFest link for the full schedule of events!
February 28-March 4, 2012

Paige Ackerson-Kiely‘s first collection, In No One’s Land, was chosen by DA Powell and published by Ahsahta Press in 2007. Her second book, My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer (Ahsahta, 2012)  began as a response to Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s memoir Alone, and is concerned with exploration, leave-taking and thwarted journeys. Paige has also published a chapbook of prose poems, Book About a Candle Burning in a Shed (above/ground 2011) and a letterpress art folio, This Landscape (Argos, 2010).  Her poems have appeared widely in journals here and abroad, and have been translated into several languages. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships for her work from such organizations as Poets & Writers, The Jentel Foundation, Vermont Arts Council and others.

Currently Paige lives in West Addison, Vermont where she is employed at a homeless shelter in a neighboring town. In her spare time she co-edits the poetry annual A Handsome Journal, a subsidiary of Black Ocean (Cambridge, MA.) She is working on a second novel, Made to Lie Down in Green Pastures, a third collection of poetry, and a lyrical comic book illustrated with medium format photographs and centered around the life of Kate Marsden, particularly her time spent in Siberian leper colonies.
http://www.versefest.ca/poets/paige-ackerson-kiely/

Barry McKinnon was born in 1944 in Calgary Alberta, where he grew up.  In 1965, after two years at Mount Royal College, he went to Sir George Williams University in Montreal and took poetry courses with Irving Layton.  He graduated in 1967 with a B.A. degree.  In 1969, he graduated with an M.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and was hired that same year to teach English at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George where he has lived and worked ever since.

Barry McKinnon’s The the was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 1080.  Pulp Log was the winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award for the B.C. Book Prizes in 1991 and Arrhythmia was the winner of the bp Nichol Chapbook Award for the best chapbook published in Canada in English in 1994. His chapbook Surety Disappears was the runner-up for the bp Nichol Award in 2008.

McKinnon's latest trade collections:
In the Millennium. Vancouver: New Star, 2009.
The Centre:  Poems 1970-2000. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2004.
http://www.versefest.ca/poets/barry-mckinnon/

Maguire, Ladouceur, Cooley + Ackerson-Kiely (+ mclennan) make Amanda Earl's favourite chapbooks of 2011 list

Ottawa literary maven Amanda Earl has posted a list of "favourite chapbooks of 2011," and she includes titles from an array of literary presses, including Apt. 9 Press, Pooka Press, BookThug and various others, highlighting four titles by above/ground press: Book About a Candle Burning in a Shed, by Paige Ackerson-Kiely; have you learned / nothing kroetsch, by Dennis Cooley; Lime Kiln Quay Road, by Ben Ladouceur; Vowel Wolves & Other Knots, by Shannon Maguire (all of which are still available). For a list of other recent chapbooks, click here! And then of course, subscriptions...

She was even nice enough to mention my own C. (little red leaves, Textile Editions). Thanks, Amanda!

new from above/ground press: Paige Ackerson-Kiely’s A Book About A Candle Burning in a Shed

A Book About A Candle Burning in a Shed
by Paige Ackerson-Kiely
$4

:

They called me down and I went down and arrived. My uniform was basically clean; a life alone makes the need for external demonstration almost disappear, but not fully. One thing I hate is when you get there and it’s all over. Like felled trees after a storm you have to cut up and drag them off the road. But not really the same thing. I knew it would be an important day when someone first hollered help in my direction. Mostly it is small jobs, unlocking cars and checking on the elderly. Sometimes they think I am their son and cry when I leave. Other times they are pretty much dead and I call the paramedics. None of the situations is good. I was north of town when the dispatcher crackled to me. Her clothes found in the river, hung up on some rocks, probably she got taken in the storm—but I was still uneasy, even though nature is out of my hands, which should be a relief like it is to be a child and not a man. Beside the river there was an old mattress and a woman’s swimsuit, the kind that was in style 5 years ago, with ties on either side of the leg openings that you cinch or relax, depending on company. Water’s high and full of silt, and it smelled like squash bugs and my ex-girlfriend’s neck when she worried about money. There was never enough of anything but I guess I got used to it. She was still beautiful from a distance and always in my memory delivered on a soft cloud. I didn’t make a grab for her shirt as it drifted away, there on the banks, sun as bright as I’d ever seen it. I was afraid to be pulled under.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2011
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod Street, Ottawa ON Canada K2P 1A6, or simply drop $ on paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Paige Ackerson-Kiely [see her 12 or 20 questions here] authored the poetry collections In No One’s Land (Ahsahta, 2007), My Love is a Dead Arctic Explorer (Ahsahta, forthcoming) and a limited edition art folio/ collaboration, This Landscape (Argos Books, 2010). Paige lives in rural Vermont, edits the poetry annual A Handsome Journal, and works at a homeless shelter.

above/ground press' end-of-summer sale!

Celebrating (so far, at least) eighteen glorious years (1993-2011)

poetry chapbooks: 3 for $10 / 6 for $20 / 9 for $30 / 12 for $40 (until September 1, 2011)

Given eighteen years of publishing [thanks to Amanda Earl for the image, from a lovely blog post a couple of years back], it means parts of the warehouse are overflowing, so I'm clearing out some backlist in anticipation of forthcoming titles by derek beaulieu, Dennis Cooley, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Ken Norris, Hugh Thomas, Shannon Maguire and others. Watch here for updates.

Some of the titles available include: Robert Kroetsch, Further to Our Conversation (2011), Julia Williams, MY CITY IS ANCIENT AND FAMOUS (2004), Donato Mancini, @phabet (2003), Jessica Smith, Shifting Landscapes (2006), Phil Hall, Verulam (2009), Amanda Earl, The Sad Phoenician's Other Woman (2008), Emily Carr, & look there goes a sparrow transplanting soil (2009), Matthew Holmes, SHORTS, BRIEFS and curlies (2005), Josh Auerbach, in/form/al measures (2002), Marcus McCann, Town in a long day of leaving (2010), Nelson Ball, Scrub Cedar (2003), Artie Gold, THE HOTEL VICTORIA POEMS (2003), Lea Graham, Calendar Girls (2006), Gwendolyn Guth, Good People (2010), rob mclennan, 16 Yonge (2010), Alessandro Porco, Autobiographia Cinematica (2005), K.I. Press, FLAME (2002), rob mclennan, Some Forty (2010), George Bowering as “Ellen Field,” A, You're Adorable (2^nd printing, 2004), Gregory Betts, the curse of canada (2008), Helen Hajnoczky, A history of button collecting (2010), Marilyn Irwin, for when you pick daisies (2010), William Hawkins, the black prince of bank street (2007), rob mclennan and Lea Graham, metric (2010), kath macLean, ten: ways to skin a cat (2003), Shauna McCabe, land over time (2005), Gil McElroy, (The Work of Art) In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2005), Ken Norris, SONGS FOR ISABELLA (2000), Douglas Barbour, It's over is it over: Love's Fragmented Narrative (2005), Larry Sawyer, A Chaise Lounge in Hell (2003), D.G. Jones, standard pose (2002), bpNichol, KON 66 & 67 (for jiri valoch (2002) and The Peter F. Yacht Club #15, VerseFest Ottawa special (2011).

Inquire for titles not listed here, at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com. In Canada, add $2 for postage; outside, add $4; paypal now available (via rob mclennan's blog), or send cheques c/o rob mclennan, 858 Somerset Street West, main floor, Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7.