new from above/ground press: Dark Matter, by Rosío Céron; translated/etranslated by Sonja Greckol

Dark Matter 
—Sonja Greckol translation

Materia Oscura 
—Rosío Céron 

Dark Matter – Diverted
—Sonja Greckol etranstranslation
$6

1. 

East wind and sistrum. Shrill song of the nuthatch. Aching brow announces the evanescent gesture to the world. Trills and somersaults. One who looks at the fire of the first star, its dense depth. One who looks. Turns or attends. The secret vein of the wind –tremor of air its sign– dances before the eyes.

_________________________

  
Levante y sistro. Agudo canto del herrerillo. Adoloridas sienes anuncian al mundo el gesto evanescente. Trinos y volteretas. El que mira el fuego de la primera estrella, su espesura de fondo. El que mira. Giro o concurrencia. La vena secreta del viento –su señal de temblor de aire– danza frente a los ojos.

_________________________
  
The blue tit’s soaring mundo gestures temple trill cartwheel ring fail density or destiny sequencing secret rotation levante signal trembling air dance in eyes veining their first star

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

cover image by Sharon Harris

Rocío Cerón (Mexico City), poet and artist, investigates forms of construction of memory, its hesitations, the suspensions of meanings (to create other meanings) and displacement as territories clash to create transmedia pieces. She has released the sound poetry albums MIIUNI (2022), Sonic Bubbles (2020) and published the poetry books Simultáneo sucesivo (Eolas Ediciones, 2022), Divisible Corpóreo (Tresnubes ediciones-UANL, 2022), Spectio (Tresnubes ediciones-UANL 2019), Materia oscura (Parentalia Ediciones, 2018), Borealis (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2016), Nudo vortex (Edición Proyecto Literal México, 2015), Diorama  4 editions: (UANL - Tabasco 189 México, 2012), (Diaz Grey Editores, NY Spanish/English 2103), (Amargord Ediciones, Madrid 2013), (Phoneme Media, Español e Inglés, 2014), Basalto (Editorial Casa Vacía, 2022) among others. Diorama was translated by Anna Rosenwong and won the 2025 Best Translated Book Award from the University of Rochester (United States). She has also been awarded with the 2000 Gilberto Owen National Literature Prize (Mexico) and the 2005 See America Travel Award (United States). Her poems have been translated into English and various European languages. Pieces of hers have been exhibited at international venues in Paris, London, Mexico, Berlin, and Stockholm. Cerón performs and lectures extensively internationally and her poems have been translated into multiple languages. 

Sonja Greckol (Tkaronto/Toronto Canada) has published No Hay Linea En EL Tiempo/No Line In Time translated by Eduardo Padilla (manofalsa editores, 2025), Monitoring Station (University of Alberta Press – Robert Kroetsch Series, 2023), No Line In Time (Tightrope, 2018), Skein of Days (Pedlar Press, 2014), and Gravity Matters (Inanna Press, 2008). Her long poem 'No Line In Time' won the 2017 Briar Patch Poetry Contest and No Line In Time was listed for the League of Canadian Poets Raymond P Souster Award in 2019. Monitoring Station was listed for the Book Publishers Association of Alberta Robert Kroetsch Prize (2024). Asymptote (Jan 2025) published an excerpt of her translation of Rocío Cerón’s Trances and La Presa (Spring 2017) published her e-transtranslation ‘Dark Matter - Diverted’ of Rocío Cerón’s ‘Materia Oscura’. Greckol edits poetry for Women and Environments International. 

'Dark Matter' was prepared in Erín Moure's translation workshop (2023-2025) with Lee Gould, Roman Ivashkiv, and Jaclyn Piudik who translated Spanish, Ukrainian and French poetry into English. 

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) 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: Rogal, Harris, mclennan, Saklikar, Siklosi, Koss + Mavreas,

Stan Rogal has a new poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as do Sharon Harris, rob mclennan, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Kate Siklosi and forthcoming author Zane Koss; a video of Billy Mavreas reading at the New Dominion Reading Series in Vancouver on April 13, 2019 has been posted on YouTube; and rob mclennan also has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal.

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.

above/ground press in Toronto : a report,

[Braydon Beaulieu, reading] above/ground press recently celebrated twenty-three years via an event in Toronto [don't forget the Ottawa event for same next week!] with readings and launches by above/ground press authors Braydon Beaulieu, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Sean Braune, Stephen Brockwell, Sharon Harris, Hugh Thomas and Aaron Tucker at The Steady Bar and Cafe. Thanks so much to all who participated!

[the crowd] The crowd was good, with a variety of Toronto writers (and non-writers, most of whom I didn't know) attending, including Ken Sparling, Dale Smith, Natalie Zina Walschots, Kateri Lanthier, Richard Greene, Stan Rogal, Hazel Millar, Shannon Bramer, Jay MillAr, Teresa Yang, m erskine, as well as poet Doyali Islam, who generously donated her time and energy to work both door and book table. The venue, of course, worked perfectly, with thanks to them, as well as to Aaron Tucker, who secured it for me.

[Stephen Brockwell] Stephen, of course, was good enough to speak briefly to the volume and enthusiasm of the press over the years, especially given how close the press is to eight hundred publications (a dozen or so, I'd say, and still counting). Sometimes I'm even baffled by the amount of material I've produced through the press, although to me, the first decade is somehow the most impressive (that's when the struggle was far more than it has been since).

[Sean Braune] I was thinking back across the years, and this might have actually been the third above/ground press event I've organized in Toronto, and not the second. My records show an event from November, 1997 with myself,  Natalee Caple and Stephen Cain (both of whom were reading from recently-released above/ground press titles) along with Ottawa poet Jim Larwill, and my recollections suggest another event around the same period, with Una McDonnell and Stan Rogal (both of whom were reading from recently-released above/ground press titles; see his listed here) and Ottawa poet b stephen harding. Both of those events were held at the Imperial Library Pub on Dundas Street.

[Hugh Thomas] It almost makes me think I should be attempting anniversary events and/or general above/ground press readings in Toronto a bit more often. Although at least two in the crowd didn't understand, at first, that above/ground is an Ottawa-based publisher, and wondered why I'd pointed out the rarity of the Toronto above/ground press reading. Heck, at this point, I probably have enough authors around that I could easily do more than a couple of cities, whether Montreal, Vancouver or even an American city or two. The one time I did an above/ground press feature in New York, as part of the Boog City series in January 2004 (for the sake of the tenth anniversary anthology), we had to fly everyone in (Brockwell, myself and Clare Latremouille).

[Hazel, Shannon and Ashley-Elizabeth at the end of the evening] The high points were plenty and the performances great; the highlights would also include the fact that I hadn't actually heard Braune or Beaulieu (now that he's relocated from Calgary to Toronto) read before (both of whom are also reading at the Ottawa event), the stellar reading that Hugh Thomas gave, or even the fact that Shannon Bramer appeared (I've barely seen her in years; remember that chapbook I produced of hers, moons back?).

[myself with Dale Smith and Stephen Brockwell, pre-reading] A lovely bonus to the day was the fact that I was able to meet up for a pre-reading drink with Dale Smith at the Duke of York, a wee pub just close to our hotel. Stephen Brockwell met up with us later, once he'd arrived via rail.

the above/ground press 23rd anniversary (Toronto) reading! August 25, 2016

above/ground press presents readings and other such by an array of poets:

Braydon Beaulieu (Toronto)
Ashley-Elizabeth Best (Kingston)
Sean Braune (Toronto)
Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa)
Sharon Harris (Toronto)
+ Aaron Tucker (Toronto)
with the possibility of an unnamed (for now) special guest reader,

lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan
7:30pm, Thursday, August 25, 2016
The Steady Cafe & Bar
1051 Bloor St W.
www.TheSteadyCafe.com

$5 at the door; includes a copy of a recent above/ground press title

Braydon Beaulieu is a doctoral candidate at the University of Calgary where he studies creative writing, poetics, science fiction, and games. He lives in Toronto.

He is the author of the above/ground press chapbook ERASURE: A Short Story (2016).

Ashley-Elizabeth Best is from Cobourg and now lives and writes in Kingston. Her work has appeared in CV2, Berfrois, Grist, dusie, Ambit Magazine and The Literary Review of Canada. Her debut poetry collection Slow States of Collapse was shortlisted for the 2015 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and was published with ECW Press in April of 2016.

She is the author of the above/ground press chapbook Now You Have Many Legs To Stand On (2015).

Sean Braune’s theoretical work has been published in Postmodern Culture, Journal of Modern Literature, Canadian Literature, symplokē, and elsewhere. His poetry has appeared in ditch, The Puritan, Rampike, and Poetry is Dead, and elsewhere.

His first chapbook, produced by above/ground press, is the vitamins of an alphabet (2016).

Stephen Brockwell is an Ottawa poet and small business schlub. His poems are forthoming in Arc and Inwords. He is preparing workshops on poetry and philosophy for the Ottawa Public Library. His chapbook Where Did You See It Last? appeared in June with Ottawa's Textualis Press, and he has a new poetry title out this fall—All of Us Reticent, Here, Together—with Mansfield Press.

He is the author of four chapbooks from above/ground press: Images from Declassified Nuclear Test Films (2014), Excerpts from Impossible Books: The Crawdad Cantos (2012), Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment) (2010) and Marin County Poems (2001). He had work reprinted in the anniversary anthology Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 (Chaudiere Books, 2013).

Sharon Harris is a Toronto artist/writer whose poems have been anthologized in The Broadview Introduction to Literature, The Last Vispo, and Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry. She is the author of chapbooks from bookthug, In Case of Emergency Press, and above/ground, and her first full-length collection, Avatar, was published by The Mercury Press. She has written articles for Geist, The Globe & Mail, and Open Book Toronto;  is a past contributor to Torontoist and Word Magazine; and her work has been published in The National Post, dANDelion, The Capilano Review, Drunken Boat, The Volta, broken pencil, and Vallum. I Love You Toronto, her exhibition of photographs, appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television across Canada.

She is the author of the above/ground press chapbook LIKE (2014) and “More Fun With ‘Pataphysics” STANZAS #43 (2006). She had work reprinted in the anniversary anthology Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 (Chaudiere Books, 2013).

Aaron Tucker’s first full collection of poetry, punchlines, was published by Mansfield Press in Spring 2015. Additionally, he is one of the co-creators of the ChessBard (chesspoetry.com), an app that that translates chess games into poems. His collection of essays Interfacing with the Internet in Popular Cinema was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in July of 2014. By day, he is a professor in the English department at Ryerson University where he is currently teaching essay writing and digital literacy to first year students; by night, he is working on learning chess in between watching his beloved Raptors lose games. You can reach him atucker[at]ryerson[dot]ca.

He is the author of the above/ground press chapbooks punchlines (2013) and apartments, section three (2010). He had work reprinted in the anniversary anthology Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 (Chaudiere Books, 2013).

some author activity: McCann, mclennan, Trivedi, Harris, Maguire + Armantrout,

Marcus McCann has two new poems, as well as a short write-up by rob mclennan, now up at Jacket2; Amish Trivedi has some new poems in Alice Blue Review; Sharon Harris posts a short write-up of her most recent above/ground press title; Shannon Maguire has three new poems, as well as a short write-up by rob mclennan, now up at Jacket2; and Rae Armantrout has a new poem up at Poetry Daily.

STANZAS magazine, bibliography: 1993-2006

Perhaps I should finally admit that my long poem magazine STANZAS is in the past tense. I’d long been hoping that the journal would make it to fifty issues, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Although I haven’t given up the idea that I might produce one further, final issue as a trade anthology, keeping with the model the journal originally had of George Bowering’s twice a year IMAGO (1964-1974).

When I originally started above/ground press, I wanted to produce both magazine and chapbooks, and couldn’t imagine attempting to sell two different series; the idea was that if I had the journal as gratis, then it might help publicize the chapbooks, therefore the far larger print runs. I could mail a box of issues to anyone, anywhere (which happened far less than I would have liked, given the state of my finances) for distribution.

Over the past few months, thanks to our move last year into a house, I’ve been finally able to start digging through dozens of boxes, attempting to put together a single set of the whole run for possible inclusion as a perk for our big Chaudiere Books Indiegogo campaign (I’m hoping to add one or three items over the next week or so, to acknowledge the mid-way point of our current campaign). There are some issues I have a surprising number of copies of, still, and some that I have yet to locate. For the sake of interest, here is a rough bibliography of the entire run:

Volume 1, issue #1. edited by rob mclennan. 500 copies. November 1993. issue dedicated to George Bowering and IMAGO. “Garden I-V” and “Gardening Tips” by Clare Latremouille, “THE LAPIDARY 1-9” by Heather Ferguson (sic), “Where Once There Were 5 Million” by Joy Hewitt Mann, and “Brahms, 1993” for Henry Beissel by rob mclennan. distributed free. folded and stapled, 8 1/2 by 11. 12 pages.

Issue #2. 500 copies, January 1994. issue dedicated to Frank Zappa. “VIGIL” by Maggie Helwig. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #3. 500 copies, May 1994. issue dedicated to Roy Kiyooka. “DON JUAN ON HIS DEATHBED” by Henry Beissel. distributed free. 8 pages.

Issue #4. 500 copies, October 1994. “Sketches of Hands” by Shannon Cowan, “Forgotten Photographs” by Colin Morton, “hockey night in canada,” for patrick hunt, by michael dennis. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #5. larger print run, 750 copies, April 1995. Coast-to-coast issue. 650 sandstone covers for general distribution, 100 grey covers for the Spring Toronto Small Press Fair. “Echolocations” by Gil McElroy and “In Which Alice Meets Laura Palmer” by Stephanie Bolster. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #6. 750 copies, July/August 1995. issue gleefully dedicated to George Bowering’s IMAGO magazine from the 70’s. “stiltman” by C.J. Lockett, “love & the automatic bank teller” by Brian Burke. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #7. 750 copies, November 1995. “When” by rob mclennan & “REMEMBERING FRANK O'HARA” by Ken Norris. distributed free. 20 pages.

Issue #8. 750 copies, May 28, 1996. “The Big Fuck” by Judith Fitzgerald and “HOW TO SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME ALONE AND STILL WRITE CONVINCINGLY ABOUT SEX” by R.M. Vaughan. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #9. 750 copies, August 1, 1996. this issue mourns the loss of Coach House Press 1965-1996 and first saw light at the first National Conference of Canadian Small and Micro Presses in Sechelt, B.C., August 2-4, 1996. “MOUTH or PLACE NAMES” by Ian Whistle. His first solo publication. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #10. 750 copies, October 1996. “Crashing Out” by I.M. Wiley, a(n obvious) pseudonym from Winnipeg. the same piece (slightly altered) was also published at the same time under another name in Zygote magazine, Winnipeg. distributed free. 12 pages. 76.

Issue #11. 750 copies, February 1997. “Re: Crossing” by Colin Morton and “Ferries Taken” by Aidan Baker. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #12. 750 copies, April 1997. “BLONDES ON BIKES: 1-20” by George Bowering. distributed free. 28 pages.

Issue #13. 750 copies, June 1997. “inside     first floor         at the randomization factory” by meghan lynch (who later became Meghan Jackson). distributed free. 12 pages. cover image by Emily Whist.

Issue #14. 750 copies, September 1997. “A Medical History of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan” by Carla Milo (who later became Carla Barkman). distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #15. 750 copies, March 1998. “last leaves II” by rob mclennan. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #16. 750 copies, April 1998. “POEM BOOOOOOOK” by Gerry Gilbert. cover photos by the author. distributed free. 28 pages.

Issue #17. 750 copies, May 1998. “from COAST ALL JOURN ALL” by Jay MillAr. published in Ottawa (at Carleton University and at Gallery 101) and Fredericton (at Gallery Connexion). distributed free. 16 pages. cover illustration by the author.

Issue #18. 750 copies, September 1998. “TWELVE POEMS FOR HUMAN BUTTERFLIES” by Greg Evason. distributed free. 16 pages. cover illustration, “The Sacral Butterfly,” by Nicholas Power.

Issue #19. 750 copies, February 1999. “t sea ache” by Joe Blades. distributed free. 20 pages.

Issue #20. 750 copies, May 1999. “Eulogistics” by Victor Coleman. released in Winnipeg, May 8, 1999. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #21. 750 copies, October 1999. “this evidence against you” by Natalie Hanna. distributed free. 24 pages.

Issue #22. 750 copies, January 2000. “an unnatural history of the sexes” by Anne Stone. originally appeared in the Contemporary Feminist Baroque issue of Tessera. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #23. 1000 copies, March 2000 date, although not published until April 9. “cooleys key” by rob mclennan. “renga” page originally appeared in mo’ gumbo. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #24. 750 copies, May 2000. “Aequanimitas” by Chris McCreary. sections originally appeared in Lost & Found Times, Rhizome and COMBO. distributed free. 20 pages.

Issue #25. July 2001. “further revisions” by ryan fitzpatrick. cover artwork by Emily Whist. 16 pages. $4.

Issue #26. 750 copies, March 2001. “SYNONYMS FOR FISH” by Gary Barwin. three poems, “SYNONYMS FOR FISH”, “CRUMB FALL” and “THE LOOKOUT MAN”. cover image by Joe Blades, signed “for mclennan, the only poet I know whose name is in magnetic poetry 8, 15 NOV 1998.” distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #27. 750 copies, April 2001. “summations : travels through Italy” by Helen Zisimatos. two long poems, “rome” and “siena”. distributed free. 34 pages.

Issue #28. 750 copies, August 2001. “Strange Days” by Paul Hardacre. cover artwork collage by rob mclennan. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #29. 750 copies. “what exile   this” by nathalie stephens (now Nathanaël). distributed free. 28 pages.

Issue #30. 750 copies. “Continuations I-III” by Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy. distributed free. 24 pages.

Issue #31. 750 copies. “Meteor Showers” by Gil McElroy. distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #32. 1000 copies, “irregular heartbeats” by rob mclennan. distributed free. 12 pages.

Issue #33. 1000 copies, “The Museum of Perception” by Lisa Samuels. subtitled “American takeover issue.” distributed free. 16 pages.

Issue #35. 1000 copies, “Highway 99” by Meredith Quartermain. subtitled “10th anniversary issue.” distributed free. 8 2 x 7. pages

Issue #36. 1000 copies, “all sets go” by Daniel f. Bradley. distributed free. 20 pages.

Issue #37. 1000 copies, “Americasual” by Rob Budde. distributed free. 20 pages

Issue #38. 1000 copies, “calcite gours 1-19” by derek beaulieu. distributed free.

Issue #39. 1000 copies, “Dream Songs” by J.L. Jacobs. distributed free.

Issue #40. 1000 copies, “the naked & the nude” by Rachel Zolf. distributed free. 20 pages.

Issue #41. 1300 copies, “ottawa poems (blue notes)” by rob mclennan. distributed free.

Issue #42. 1000 copies, “personal peripherals 1-30” by Jan Allen. distributed free.

Issue #43. 1000 copies, “more fun with ‘pataphysics” by Sharon Harris. distributed free.

Issue #44. 1000 copies, “THE CELEBRITY RAG; Opá” by Stan Rogal. March 2006. distributed free.

Issue #45 (mis-numbered on cover as #44). 1000 copies. April 2006. “two poems” by Dennis Cooley. distributed free.

new from above/ground press: LIKE, by Sharon Harris

LIKE

Sharon Harris

$4

TWITTER LOVE SONG

I Will Follow

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down

Follow You Down

I Will Follow You Tonight

I Will Follow You in the Dark

Hell of an Act to Follow

Follow You, Follow Me

I’ll Follow my Secret Heart

No Mythologies to Follow

Follow Me

Follow Me Back Home

Follow My Mind

Follow Blind

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

May 2014

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Sharon Harris is a Person You May Know. She’s a Toronto artist/writer whose poems have been anthologized in The Broadview Introduction to Literature, Ground Rules, The Last Vispo, and Shift & Switch. She is the author of chapbooks from bookthug, In Case of Emergency Press, and above/ground, and her first full-length collection, Avatar, was published by The Mercury Press. She has written articles for Geist, The Globe & Mail, and Open Book Toronto; is a past contributor to Torontoist and Word Magazine; and her work has been published in The National Post, dANDelion, The Capilano Review, Drunken Boat, The Volta, broken pencil, and Vallum. I Love You Toronto, her exhibition of photographs, appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television across Canada.

Website :: sharonharris.ca

Twitter :: @hnitheuniverse

FB :: Sharon Harris and facebook.com/iloveyouworldgraffiti

This is Sharon Harris’ second above/ground press chapbook, after “More Fun With ‘Pataphysics” STANZAS #43 (2006).

[Sharon Harris launches LIKE in Ottawa at the A B Series on Sunday, May 11, 2014 with Christian Bök]

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

various above/ground press authors (and others) in a month-long display of visual poetry : beaulieu, Martin, Hajnoczky, Schmaltz, Betts, Pirie, Smith, Harris + Barwin,

T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivi
a month-long display of * visual poetry *
Official Opening / Reception / poetry reading / open mike
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
7:30 p.m. - doors open 7 p.m.
The Human Bean, King Street, downtown Cobourg, Ontario
FREE admission
T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivi
April is National Poetry Month
"lay your WORD down!"
moves to Tuesday from our usual Thursday
for April only because {poetry in Cobourg spaces}
opens this month-long display of * visual poetry *
our poetry open mike is part of this * official opening *
T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivi
Usually poetry is delivered by reading but
this is a *poetry show*
it is an art show.
It is a collection of graphics meant for wall display.
However, the show is all about reading.
Each piece is based on text.
T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivi
Angela Rawlings, Derek Beaulieu, Camille Martin, Bill Bissett, Helen Hajnoczky, Robert Zend, Lindsay Cahill, Mark Laliberte, Jenny Sampirisi, Eric Schmaltz, Angela Szczepaniak, Gregory Betts & Neil Hennessy, Pearl Pirie, Eric Winter, Jessica Smith, Ted Amsden, Sharon Harris, Cliff Bell-Smith, Mary McKenzie, Wally Keeler, Katriona Dean, Gary Barwin, Judith Copithorne, michael j. casteels, Alixandra Bamford, Em Lawrence and Dan Waber
T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivity T E X T ual A R T ivi

see the facebook invitation here.