new from above/ground press: Microbial Soup Kiss, by Sean Braune and Émilie Dionne

Microbial Soup Kiss
Sean Braune and Émilie Dionne
$5

dance—like strings or sifflets
our heads strike
twigs: i heard
within the hour, we’d be
standing further than
two metres apart
with masks sewn
like love between
our smiles, our hope,
our fingers in our eyes
piercing through
ice

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Sean Braune is the writer of the poetry book Dendrite Balconies (University of Calgary Press, 2019) and the philosophy book Language Parasites: Of Phorontology (Punctum Books, 2017). His first feature-length film, Nuptials, has just screened at the Cyprus International Film Festival (2021).

Émilie Dionne is a health researcher, sociologist, political theorist, writer and visual artist based in Quebec (Montreal & Quebec city). She’s been writing since she was 10, wrote three novels, five plays, many short stories and collections of poetry. Her writing has been published only once before, Secrètes Immortelles (1999), and her visual art is available online. She’s a runner, lover of animals and nature.

This is Braune’s fourth above/ground press chapbook after the vitamins of an alphabet (2016), The Cosmos (2018) and FACE PORTRAITS and AUTHOR COPS (2018).

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

some author activity: Braune, Brenza, Barwin, Etherin, Boyle + Rogal,

Sean Braune is interviewed over at Talking about strawberries all of the time, as is forthcoming author Andrew Brenza, where Gary Barwin also has some visual poems; Gary Barwin also writes on grant writing as part of his writer-in-residence blog via Sheridan College; Anthony Etherin has two new poems up at The Pi Review; Frances Boyle has three new poems up at Floodlight Editions; and Stan Rogal has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal.

some author activity: Turnbull, Mavreas, Clayton, Barwin, Eleftherion + Braune,

[accidental blueberry damage to a stack of Chris Turnbull chapbooks, during one of my weekends away on the farm] Billy Mavreas and Conyer Clayton, among others, have new work in the twelfth issue of Amanda Earl's experiment-o; Gary Barwin has some poems online at Granta; Melissa Eleftherion has three new poems up at Burning House Press; and Sean Braune is interviewed in the '12 or 20 questions' series.

Amanda Earl reviews six 2018 titles: Adrienne Gruber's Gestational Trail, Gary Barwin and Tom Prime's gravitynipplemilk, Gary Barwin and Alice Burdick's Pleasure Bristles, Alice Notley's UNDO, Sean Braune's The Cosmos and kate siklosi's po po poems

For the second year in a row, the esteemed and muchly generous poet, editor, publisher and reviewer (and above/ground press author) Amanda Earl reviews her favourite above/ground press titles of the past year (see her 2017 lists here, here and here), providing a first review of Adrienne Gruber's Gestational Trail, a first review of Gary Barwin and Tom Prime's gravitynipplemilk, a first review of Gary Barwin and Alice Burdick's Pleasure Bristles, a first review of Alice Notley's UNDO, a third review of Sean Braune's The Cosmos (after Greg Bem reviewed such at Goodreads and Esther Chen reviewed such at PRISM International) and a first review of kate siklosi's po po poems. Thanks so much! You can see Amanda's full review here.

Esther Chen reviews Sean Braune's The Cosmos (2018) online at PRISM International

Esther Chen reviewed another above/ground press title online at PRISM International! This time, it was Sean Braune's The Cosmos (2018). Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. This is the second review of Braune's The Cosmos (after Greg Bem reviewed such over at Goodreads). And of course, copies of this (as well as his other two (one, two) above/ground press chapbooks) are still very much available.

The Cosmos – Sean Braune
above/ground press

An experience in itself, reading Sean Braune’s The Cosmos feels like walking through a beauty and cosmetics section in a department store. The chapbook is part of a larger project and gives the reader a glimpse of what he calls “accelerated reading”, a practice that the author says is “essential to the experience of living in the bluster of 21st Century capitalism”. Indeed, the list-like stream of consciousness that makes up the content of The Cosmos is as strange as it is familiar. One section reads: “argan oil lasting sleek / garnier fructis style / prime first for nonstop sleek pre-styling primer / spot the latest coppertone”. The tone feels frantic—the lack of punctuated full stops leaves the reader breathless, as if trying to read out loud the words that pop into one’s mind at every waking moment. As the author explains in his statement on the piece, the variety of texts that surround us read as disembodied—their agency lost in selling a product. By rearranging the selected phrases with creative intent and enjambment (The Cosmos was partly written with the assistance of a stack of Cosmopolitans from 2015), Braune injects voice into washed-up ad copy. “now learn / more dolce & gabbana” the last stanza urges, “we’re light / blue”.

some author activity: Barwin, Braune, mclennan, Polyck-O'Neill, Boisvert + Dennis,

Gary Barwin has some new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time, as do Sean Braune, rob mclennan and Julia Polyck-O'Neill; Jon Boisvert is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey, and Amy Dennis had some work up at Stuart Ross' the week shall inherit the verse.

new from above/ground press: FACE PORTRAITS and AUTHOR COPS, by Sean Braune

Face Portraits and Author Cops
Sean Braune
$5

irreverse the throat
conduit

wipe the flighty
inverse

skirmish—obdurate and
faceless

the sample
tumult


is a
tulip

appropriate exposé
turn

up the

*

Face Portraits and Author Cops was the result of a lyrical conceptual practice of what I call “accelerated reading.” It is an attempt to regain some degree of agency—indeed authorial agency—in the 21st Century through the slightly underemphasized (in contemporary culture) practice of reading. It is the result of a frenetic engagement with all of the text that exists around me—text that I read, overhear, think, experience, imagine, erase, relocate, and reassemble. 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Sean Braune’s first book of philosophy, Language Parasites: Of Phorontology, appeared in 2017 from Punctum Books. His poetry has appeared in The Puritan, Rampike, Poetry is Dead, and elsewhere.

This is Braune’s third above/ground press chapbook, after the vitamins of an alphabet (2016) and The Cosmos (2018).

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

poemeleon : the Canadian issue : Anstee, Braune, Christie, dueck, Earl, Graf, hanna, McCann, Pirie, Polyck-O’Neill, Saklikar, Siklosi, etc

A whole slew of above/ground press authors (and not-yet-authors) have been included in the Canadian issue of the American online poetry journal poemeleon!

Including: Cameron Anstee, Juliane Okot Bitek, Sean Braune, Jason Christie, nathan dueck, Klara du Plessis, Amanda Earl, Claire Farley, Kerry Gilbert, Adele Graf, natalie hanna, Emily Izsak, Sonnet L’Abbé, Michael Lithgow, Canisia Lubrin, Marcus McCann, Annick MacAskill, Sarah MacDonell, Pearl Pirie, Julia Polyck-O’Neill, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Rebecca Salazar, Kate Siklosi, Sennah Yee and Suzanne Zelazo.

Check out the issue here. Enjoy!

some author activity: Trivedi, Collis, Braune, Ladouceur + Ayer,

Amish Trivedi has an excerpt of a current work-in-progress, along with a note on the project, now up at Jacket2; Stephen Collis has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal, as does Sean Braune; Dayne Ogilvie winner Ben Ladouceur is interviewed over at Open Book; and forthcoming author Beth Ayer has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog.

some author activity: Polyck-O'Neill, Braune, Deen, Syersak, Schmaltz + Tokar,

Julia Polyck-O'Neill, Sean Braune, Faizal Deen and Jake Syersak etc all have new work in the sixth issue of where is the river; Eric Schmaltz is interviewed at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Janice Tokar is shortlisted for the 2018 Far Horizons Poetry Award, via The Malahat Review.

Greg Bem reviews Sean Braune's The Cosmos (2018)

Our pal Greg Bem was good enough to provide the first review for Sean Braune's The Cosmos (2018) at Goodreads. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

This list poem, which embodies Braune's "accelerated reading" form, is quite enjoyable and about as absurd as you'd imagine any representation of the 21st century. I look forward to seeing the larger work that Braune is working on play out into a book form. For now, I will keep this collection close to my heart--and my face--as its superficial allusions would encourage.

some author activity: Gurton-Wachter, Tucker, Braune + Jarvis,

Anna Gurton-Wachter has a new poem up at The Poetry Project; Aaron Tucker has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; Sean Braune is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and forthcoming author Jenna Jarvis has two new poems up at Canadian Writers Abroad.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Sean Braune

This is the seventeenth in a series of short essays/reminiscences by a variety of authors and friends of the press to help mark the quarter century mark of above/ground. See links to the whole series here.

On above/ground press as it turns 25

Poetry was supposed to be some kind of vanguard. Someone told me this at some point. I’m not sure who it was, but someone told me that. In an alleyway. A long time ago.

When one starts off “being” a poet or going to work at the poetry factory or whatever else, one expects some sort of linguistic subterfuge—to be in it and also a cause of it. Maybe. Ideally? Is this impulse the political in the poetic? Sometimes. I guess it depends.

Poetry is about community or should be and sometimes it isn’t, but the best presses and reading series create communities around them. They induce a sort of communal experience of support and creativity (or they should). Again, this can happen in the best of circumstances and against some of the more awful, patriarchal and misogynistic impulses of CanLit.

Here we all are, standing around the dumpster fire. My feet are cold. Actually, nothing is warming up. In light of all that is negative about CanLit nowadays, there are some bastions of “hope” or whatever in the abyss.

rob mclennan’s above/ground press is one of these bastions. He has fought tirelessly (and I use that word intentionally) to publish adventurous and exciting poetry without reprieve for 25 years.

above/ground was, for me, like some of the more exciting presses when I first got into Canadian poetry a decade ago: presses like BookThug and Coach House and Wolsak and Wynn, etc.; and some chapbook presses like derek beaulieu’s own 13-year-old no press or the wonderful (and far too short-lived) Ferno House Press. rob doesn’t stop though. He’s a poetry machine. And he’s fighting the good fight. And poets notice.

I like above/ground because it hasn’t lost being a bit under/ground and it maintains that most exciting aspect of poetry, which, for me, is finding some new, wonderful gem (of a poem, poetry book, or poet) on a shelf in a bookstore or hearing about an old poet or poem that I hadn’t known about or learning about some new work recently published. above/ground is a kind of laboratory of poetry that keeps pressing out fantastic poetry and it is, 25 years after its inception in 1993, a shining beacon in the darkness of the dumpster fire… 

Sean Braune’s first book of philosophy, Language Parasites: Of Phorontology, appeared in 2017 from Punctum Books. His poetry has appeared in The Puritan, Rampike, Poetry is Dead, and elsewhere. He is currently in the process of editing his first feature-length film called Nuptials.

Braune is the author of two above/ground press chapbooks, including the vitamins of an alphabet (2016) and The Cosmos (2018). A third is scheduled for release this fall.

new from above/ground press: The Cosmos, by Sean Braune

The Cosmos
by Sean Braune
$5

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joint elite rewards

lancome paris vapor-distilled water,

inspired by the clouds

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take two

up up up

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get superpowered at covergirl.com

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outlast natural glow

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you may expect results up to those shown here

all-day moisture plus luminosity,

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new 2x stronger hair strength

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Author’s note:
This is part of a larger project of what I call “accelerated reading”; a form of reading that is endemic and naturalized (I could say “essential”) to the experience of living in the bluster of 21st Century capitalism. In modernity, text is everywhere and the only agency to be found (sometimes) is in the rebirth of the author through a frenetic reading practice of the text that is everywhere and all around us, all the time. Books await. The Cosmos was partly written with the assistance of a stack of 2015 issues of Cosmopolitan.

Sean Braune’s first book of philosophy, Language Parasites: Of Phorontology, appeared in 2017 from Punctum Books. His poetry has appeared in The Puritan, Rampike, Poetry is Dead, and elsewhere.

This is Braune’s second above/ground press chapbook, after the vitamins of an alphabet (2016).

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: Pirie, Tucker, Burgoyne, Braune + Notley,

Pearl Pirie is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews, as is Aaron Tucker; Sarah Burgoyne has three sonnets up at Lemonhound 3.0; Sean Braune has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Alice Notley is interviewed by Ottawa's artsfile.

some author activity: Whistle, Harris, Braune, mclennan + Earl,

Ian Whistle wrote on Judith Copithorne for many gendered mothers; Sharon Harris has a new poem up as part of National Poetry Month on the Chaudiere Books blog, as does Sean Braune; and rob mclennan is interviewed by Nathaniel G. Moore in his new Roaring Nineties series, as is Amanda Earl.

some author activity: Braune, Smith, Beaulieu + Barwin,

Sean Braune has a new essay posted as part of the "On Writing" series at the ottawa poetry newsletter; Jessica Smith is part of a new group publication, RADIO 11.8.16, recently posted by Essay Press; Braydon Beaulieu and Natalie Zina Walschots have started hosting Full Hearts, a podcast "about love and gaming"; and Gary Barwin answers five questions for IFOA.

Klara du Plessis reviews Sean Braune's the vitamins of an alphabet (2016) in Broken Pencil

Klara du Plessis was good enough to provide the first review of Sean Braune's the vitamins of an alphabet (2016) in Broken Pencil. Thanks much! You can see the review here. As she writes:

the vitamins of an alphabet starts in medias res. There is no title page. There is no title for the first poem. In fact, the first word of the first poem isn’t even capitalized, although the other poems in the collection abide by this convention. Sean Braune’s chapbook of poems launches itself as if it weren’t really the beginning, but rather an “alphabetic terrarium” – the poems are kept safe inside the physical form of this little book, but they exist equally off of the page and out in the real world. As Braune inquires: “Do the letters or languages live? / Do they exists beyond this typing.”

Braune enlivens language. Words grow organically (perhaps enriched by the “green, leafy / vegetable / vitamins / of an alphabet”) into each other based on sound or the concrete shape on the page rather than meaning: “a lattice work, but the lettuce effects no nourishment because a cause is a use of being a caucus of tic tac toe cacti / causus belli.” the vitamins of an alphabet is a playful treatise on the arbitrary nature of orthography. Indeed, in the section “Four Variations on the Signifier,” Braune further explores the conflict between the abstraction of language and the empirical world with a set of images labeled as modifications of the word “signifier,” such as “Signifire” or “Signifrier.” Now serious linguistic terminology evokes images of sausages on a grill. Braune’s poems are an equal mix of theory and jokester.

some author activity: Higdon, mclennan, Downs + Braune,

did you know that Hailey Higdon has a blog? ; rob mclennan is now a monthly blogger for Ploughshares; Buck Downs is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Sean Braune has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog.

above/ground press in Ottawa: a report,

[Braydon Beaulieu, reading] As you most likely know, this past Saturday was the above/ground press twenty-third anniversary event at Black Squirrel Books in Ottawa, held not long after a similar event in Toronto [see my report on such here], with readings and launches by Braydon Beaulieu, Sean Braune, Pearl Pirie and Stephanie Bolster. Thanks so much to all who participated!

[Sean Braune, reading] Now that I've heard two different readings by Beaulieu and Braune in a short period, I'm getting a better sense of what either of them are doing (Braune's reading really stood out, of the four authors), and might be capable of (and am further intrigued). Beaulieu also has work forthcoming in The Calgary Renaissance (Chaudiere Books), an anthology edited by myself and Derek Beaulieu.

[Pearl Pirie, reading] The crowd was small, but worthy, and included a variety of above/ground press authors past and present, including Cameron Anstee, Amanda Earl, Stephen Brockwell, Michelle Desbarats and Colin Morton, as well as Ottawa poet Chris Johnson, who generously donated his time and energy for the sake of the door/book table (did you know he has a chapbook forthcoming with Frog Hollow Press?). What became curious, in hindsight, was realizing that the four readers read in reverse order of how long I've known them, having first interacted with Stephanie Bolster back in the mid-1990s, and publishing her first item back in 1996 (newly reissued, and discussed here).

[Stephanie Bolster, reading] For Pearl's reading, she made a point of wearing Vulcan ears, to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Star Trek (she wore them unrelated to the reading in any way). Another highlight included the fact that Stephanie came by the house a few hours early for the sake of a visit, and to meet our latest edition, nearly five-month-old Aoife. And after the reading, a small mound of us went out for drinks and an extended period of stellar conversation.

While I may be a bit behind on a couple of publications (and mailouts) (our newborn and toddler are rather distracting), the next few weeks should see new chapbooks by George Bowering, Geoffrey Young, Carrie Hunter and John Barton, as well as the 11th issue of Touch the Donkey, among other possibilities.

As well, I'm most likely announcing 2017 subscriptions around the end of the month, by the by. And what might 2017 bring? I'm not entirely sure yet, but, as per usual, I've a number of irons in the fire. Just keep watching.