Publishing-in-Transit: Cole Swensen zoom-interviewed Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan + Misha Solomon on above/ground press for Brooklyn Rail: recording now online,

It was such a good conversation! Check out the full hour-plus conversation with myself, Misha Solomon and Jennifer Baker on and around above/ground press, conducted by the brilliant Cole Swensen and hosted by Brooklyn Rail, either here through their site or via their YouTube channel. We talked about VERSeFest, we talked a brief history of above/ground press, we talked about Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] (and hear the legend of how the donkey got its name) and even the “Tuesday poem” series. You can order Misha Solomon’s above/ground press titles here (and his new book over here), Jennifer Baker’s above/ground press titles here, and my above/ground press titles here (or the chapbook I read from, even). Cole Swensen even has an above/ground press title! But you know she has a new book as well, yes? Thanks to everyone who made this thing happen!

Cole Swensen zoom-interviews rob mclennan, Misha Solomon + Jennifer Baker May 20th on above/ground press for Brooklyn Rail,

Publishing-in-Transit: above/ground
Featuring Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, Misha Solomon

Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

REGISTER HERE

Poets Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, and Misha Solomon join Rail contributor Cole Swensen for a conversation on Zoom on above/ground press (which turns thirty-three years old this summer, by the way). 

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Teaching Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of four chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021/reissued by above/ground press, 2023), Memento Mishka (co-authored with David Currie, Apt. 9 Press, 2023), and Wee Walk (above/ground press, 2026). Her work has been featured in Groundwork: Best of above/ground press (2023), Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, Canadian Literature, Dusie, and the Delisted project. 

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of some fifty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles include On Beauty: stories (University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collections the book of sentences (University of Calgary Press, 2025) and edgeless (Caitlin Press, 2026), and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). The current Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he founded above/ground press, a publisher of chapbooks, journals and other ephemera, way back in July 1993. He also spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

Misha Solomon is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His work has appeared in journals across Canada and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2024, 2026, and 2027 (Biblioasis) and in On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House Books). He is the author of three chapbooks, including FLORALS and Misha Solomon's BIODÔME: A Bestiary after Stephanie Bolster (above/ground press), and one full-length collection, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet (Brick Books). He has a BA from Columbia University, an MA from Concordia University, and he is currently a student in Concordia’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program.

Cole Swensen [see her above/ground press title here] is the author of twenty volumes of poetry, most recently And And And (Shearsman Books, 2023), which was long-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a collection of critical essays, Noise That Stays Noise. A book of hybrid poem-essays, Art in Time, was published by Nightboat in 2021. A former Guggenheim Fellow, she has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Award and has been awarded the Iowa Poetry Prize, the SF State Poetry Center Book Award, and the National Poetry Series. She has also translated over twenty volumes of poetry, prose, and art criticism from French and won the 2024 ALTA National Translation Award and the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Translation Award.

some author activity: Ballard, Berlatsky, mclennan, Boughn, Clayton + Barwin,

Micah Ballard has a new piece in The Brooklyn Rail, as part of "In Memoriam: A Tribute to Neeli Cherkovski"; Noah Berlatsky has a poem up at Memoir Mixtapes, and is interviewed in the '12 or 20 questions' series; rob mclennan is interviewed by Cara Waterfall for Archipel; Michael Boughn has new work in the Spotlight series; Conyer Clayton has a poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; and Gary Barwin is interviewed by Rina Barone over at Stories from the Pink House.

some author activity: Witek, Armantrout, Burdick, Dardis + Campos,

forthcoming author Terri Witek has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Rae Armantrout has five new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Alice Burdick has two new poems and a statement in the Spotlight series; forthcoming author Colin Dardis also has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; and Isabel Sobral Campos has new work up at Black Sun Lit.

some author activity: Moseman, Deutch, mclennan, Notley + Archer,

Lori Anderson Moseman has a poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series; Amanda Deutch has new work up at The Brooklyn Rail; rob mclennan has a new poem up at Pinhole Poetry, and is interviewed over there as well; Alice Notley has a new poem up at The New York Times Magazine, as selected by Anne Boyer; and Sacha Archer reads soon at Toronto's Type Books as part of the milk magazine reading series!

some author activity: Eleftherion, Hunter, Waldrop, Trivedi, Mohammadi + Melançon,

both Melissa Eleftherion and Carrie Hunter have new work in the bisexual issue of Hot Pink Magazine; Rosmarie Waldrop is interviewed on the Between the Covers podcast via Tin House by David Naimon; Amish Trivedi has four new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Khashayar Mohammadi has new work up at Iterant, and Jérôme Melançon reads in October at the Festival International de la Poésie, Trois-Rivières.

some author activity: Kaplan, Simpson, Boyle, eckhoff + Rosenthal,

Genevieve Kaplan is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Natalie Simpson is video-interviewed via Gap Riot Press; Frances Boyle has a new poem up in the poetry pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new comedy album, available here; and Sarah Rosenthal is interviewed by Heidi Van Horn for The Brooklyn Rail.

some author activity: Atkins, Burdick, Boyle + Ross,

Tim Atkins has some new work up at The Abandoned Playground; Alice Burdick has some new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Frances Boyle has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; and Stuart Ross has posted an essay on death on his blog.

some author activity: Spinosa, Siklosi, Beaulieu, Swensen, Smith, Ross + Schmaltz,

Dani Spinosa writes on Kate Siklosi for Open Book, Kate Siklosi also has some new work up at Poem Atlas, as does Derek Beaulieu; Cole Swensen has new work up at The Brooklyn Rail, as does Dale Smith; Stuart Ross has a new poem online as part of National Poetry Month at the Chaudiere Books blog; and Dani Spinosa writes on Eric Schmaltz for Open Book.

some author activity: Downs, Butler, Christie + McElroy,

Buck Downs has some poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Jenna Butler has a new essay posted in the "On Writing" series; Jason Christie is interviewed over at the Chaudiere Books blog for The Calgary Renaissance (2016); and Gil McElroy is featured over at Drunken Boat.