some author activity: Babineau, Earl, fitzpatrick, Konchan, Carr, Perry, Blunt Research Group + mclennan,

Kemeny Babineau writes about the late Asphodel Books in Cleveland over at Medium; Amanda Earl, ryan fitzpatrick, Virginia Konchan, Emily Carr, Paul Perry and Blunt Research Group, among many others, have work in the winter volume of Action, Spectacle, an issue guest-edited by more than a dozen contemporary poets and editors, including rob mclennan.

some author activity: Beaulieu, fitzpatrick, Quartermain, Perry + Armantrout

; Derek Beaulieu once again offers his annual "Most Engaging Books" list; ryan fitzpatrick was recently interviewed on Jonathan Ball's podcast; Meredith Quartermain is interviewed by The Malahat Review; Paul Perry's 'best of 2020' poetry list is now up at The Independent; he also now has a "poetry clip" included online as part of the archive of John Hewitt Society Contributors; and Rae Armantrout has some new work up at The Brooklyn Rail.

new from above/ground press: BLINDSIGHT, by Paul Perry

Blindsight
Paul Perry
$5

Love is a Decision


I was determined not
to be tricked into

using words.

He hit me:
what do I feel?

I was about to say pain,
but said nothingness.

The days went on.
I avoided the others,
stopped laughing.

At times, it drove me crazy
rattling in my brain
not allowed to think

of anything else.

I jump up and throw it out.

Other times,
I go down.
Down.
Down with it,
down beneath words

where my breath is gentle.

It’s like looking up
through a lake
and the surface is a sentence -


what it reads is nothingness.

What it says is love.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Paul Perry is the author of 5 full length collections of poetry including Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected Poems. A recent recipient of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship, he is also a novelist. He directs the Creative Writing Programme at UCD in Dublin, Ireland.

This is Perry’s second above/ground press chapbook, after The Ghosts of Barnacullia (2019).

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Perry, Pirie, Ross, La Rocque, mclennan, Burdick, Dennis + Hogg,

Paul Perry has a new essay in the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Pearl Pirie writes on her writing space for The New Quarterly; Jenya Stashkov asked Stuart Ross to gather poems by fifteen Canadian poets to translate those poems into Russian, and to create a drawing inspired by them, which are now online, including translated poems by Lance La Rocque, rob mclennan, Alice Burdick, Michael Dennis, Robert Hogg and Ross himself; Robert Hogg has two further poems posted as part of the "Robert Kroetsch 2020" up at The Typescript; and Lance La Rocque is being interviewed over at poetry mini interviews.

some author activity: Perry, Pirie, Gurton-Wachter + Archer,

Paul Perry has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; Pearl Pirie has an essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Anna Gurton-Wachter participates in the "12 or 20 questions" interview series, and writes on one of her poems via The Poetry Society of America; and Sacha Archer is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal.

some author activity: Ross, Claxton, Baus, Johnson, Gold + Perry,

some of Stuart Ross' poems have been translated into Russian; Dana Claxton has won the Hnatyshyn Foundation's $25,000.00 prize for outstanding achievement by a Canadian mid-career artist; Eric Baus is interviewed over at Neon Pajamas; Chris Johnson has a short poem, after Artie Gold, with a couple of interview questions, online at Canadian Literature; and Paul Perry has an article in the Irish Times on writing a children's novel.

some author activity: Archer, Armantrout + Perry,

Sacha Archer has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; there is a short interview with Rae Armantrout in the Herald Net for a reading she's doing tomorrow in Everett, Washington; and Paul Perry reads a poem from his above/ground press chapbook as part of the Irish poetry podcast Words Lightly Spoken.

new from above/ground press: The Ghosts of Barnacullia, by Paul Perry

The Ghosts of Barnacullia
Paul Perry
$5

To a Ghost

We sit in the room. We talk. It is my life you describe.
You say it is your own. Tell me again how it was.

The rain is lashing. Your handwriting uneven.

The other details you maintain are unimportant.

Talk about the moonlight then. In your childhood. It was thin as blood.

It was never there.

So sleep – whose kiss is this on your hot forehead?
Whose kiss?
So sleep –

There is a noise from downstairs. Imagine your mother baking.
It is not her. Or your father singing.

It is not him.

Downstairs, while you sleep or try to sleep, is something else.

It matters what you call it.

It matters that you can. So speak to me again of your life.
It is mine as well.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
in part for the author’s participation in the TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space conference at University College Dublin, Ireland, April 25-27, 2019.
https://textsoundperformance.wordpress.com/
April 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover image: Bláithín de Poire

Paul Perry is the author of 5 full length collections of poetry including Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected Poems, and two pamphlets of poetry. A recent recipient of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship, and co-author to 4 Karen Perry best-sellers, including the Penguin published The Innocent Sleep. He is Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at UCD. 

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Perry, Mavreas, Dreiblatt, Iijima, Reed + Gray,

forthcoming above/ground press author Paul Perry answers the "12 or 20 questions" interview; Billy Mavreas is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; Ian Dreiblatt is now a columnist for The Believer; Brenda Iijima introduces the late Marthe Reed's Arc Hive via Tupelo Quarterly; and Evan Gray has a poem up in the Tuesday poem series via the Dusie blog.