some author activity: Armantrout, hanna, Boyle, Levy + Pakdel,

Rae Armantrout was recently interviewed by Parker Menzimer, now posted online at the Poetry Society of America website; Rusty Priske highlights an above/ground press title by natalie hanna as part of his ongoing reading list; Frances Boyle has a new poem online at The New Quarterly; John Levy is interviewed over at talking about strawberries all of the time ; and you saw Saba Pakdel is launching her latest above/ground press chapbook in Vancouver on November 15, 2024 as part of the Simon Fraser University Fall Poetry Salon, hosted by above/ground press author Geoffrey Nilson?

Rusty Priske writes on rob mclennan's It's still winter (2017)

Our pal, Ottawa poet Rusty Priske, was good enough to provide a short review for rob mclennan's It's still winter (2017) over at his blog. Thanks so much! This is actually the second review of It's still winter, after Amanda Earl wrote of such as part of a group review over on her own blog. You can see Priske's original review here.

It may seem odd to read a chapbook called ‘It’s still winter’ in August, but hey, that’s just the way it is.

I have said before that while I really like rob, I don’t always ‘get’ his poetry. I don’t mean it is bad – it is absolutely not – I just mean I can’t find my way in.

I mention that because this chapbook it the exact opposite of that. I FELT the words right from the first poem and all the way through. The first poem (‘My daughter is in New York City’) captured a feeling and I never lost it. This book also happens to have my favourite rob poem that I have ever read (though I have read it before), ‘Sentences my mother used’.

Thanks for the book, rob. It was very good. Well done.

some author activity: Greenstreet, Abel, mclennan, Graham + The Peter F. Yacht Club,

Kate Greenstreet has new poems in BOAAT PRESS: Jordan Abel is interviewed on the Eden Mills Writers' Festival Podcast; rob mclennan has three new poems up at Vending Machine Press; and two different issues of The Peter F. Yacht Club get some love over at Rusty Priske's blog, in which he highlights work by (among others) Lea Graham!

Pearl Pirie's sex in sevens (2016) is featured in Rusty's Reading List 2016

Pearl Pirie's most recent above/ground press chapbook, sex in sevens (2016) is featured in Rusty Priske's ongoing Rusty's Reading List 2016. Thanks much! As he writes:

I have been known to say that I am not a big fan of ‘sex poetry’. What I really mean is that I am not generally a fan of ‘erotic poetry’, though there have been exceptions.

This is the former without being the latter. The sex is there, but it certainly does not mean to titillate, rather… illuminate? Causing you to ruminate?

Or maybe just enjoy. This is a very good chapbook by a very good poet. Thanks to rob mclennan for passing this beauty my way. Thanks to Pearl for writing it.

rob mclennan's King Kong (2016) makes Rusty Priske's Reading List

Ottawa poet Rusty Priske was good enough to mention rob mclennan's King Kong (2016) as part of a recent reading list, as well as a short write-up on why it took "so long" for mclennan to be inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. Thanks much! And of course, copies of the chapbook are still very much available.

some author activity: McFadden, Earl, Christie, Massey, Robertson + Armantrout,

Rusty Priske posted a lovely response to David W. McFadden's recent Ottawa appearance at VERSeFest (which was incredible, by the way); Amanda Earl has some visual work published over in the UK; Jason Christie has some new work up in the fourth issue of N/A; Karen Massey has an erasure poem posted online at Silver Birch Press; Lisa Robertson interviews Etel Adnan for BOMB Magazine; and there is an interview with Rae Armantrout over at the Writeliving's blog.