founded July 1993 : CELEBRATING THIRTY-PLUS YEARS OF CONTINUOUS ACTIVITY + MORE THAN 1400 PUBLICATIONS TO DATE! Ottawa-based poetry chapbook + broadside publisher; publisher of The Peter F. Yacht Club (a writer's group magazine) + Touch the Donkey (a small poetry magazine) + G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] + periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, as well as home of The Factory Reading Series (founded January 1993); edited/published/curated by rob mclennan
Showing posts with label The Peter F. Yacht Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Peter F. Yacht Club. Show all posts
The Peter F Yacht Club #36 2026 VERSeFest Special lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan, $6
With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2026 participants, including Gwen Aube, Frances Boyle, Melissa Powless Day, Michelle Desbarats, Amanda Earl, Lucia Farinon, Jen Jakob, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Margo LaPierre, T Liem, D.A. Lockhart, Karen Massey, Emma McKenna, rob mclennan, Pearl Pirie, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Monty Reid, Declan Ryan, Robyn Sarah, Misha Solomon, Grant Wilkins, Lydia Unsworth + Jumoke Verissimo;
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
lovingly hosted by rob mclennan, The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading
at Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, Ottawa Saturday, December 27, 2025 doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including: Jennifer Baker, Frances Boyle, Conyer Clayton, David Currie, Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Claire Farley, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, Christine McNair, James Moran, Lee Parpart, Colin Quin, Mahaila Smith, Grant Wilkins and Chuqiao Yang (and possibly others,
The Peter F Yacht Club #35 2025 VERSeFest Special lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan, $6
With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2025 participants, including Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, Susan J. Atkinson, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, Michelle Desbarats, Em Dial, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Cara Goodwin, Phil Hall, Jessica Hiemstra, Rebecca Kempe, Laurie Koensgen, Margo LaPierre, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, Pamela Mosher, Salem Paige, Terese Mason Pierre, Pearl Pirie, Monty Reid, stephanie roberts + Grant Wilkins;
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
The Peter F Yacht Club #34 2024 Holiday Special lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan, $6
With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars and irregulars, including Frances Boyle, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Jason Christie, David Currie, Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, Laura Farina, ryan fitzpatrick, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, Karen Massey, rob mclennan, James K. Moran, Pearl Pirie, Colin Quin, Monty Reid, Joan Rivard, Stuart Ross and Grant Wilkins!
published in Ottawa by above/ground press December 27, 2024 ; as the final above/ground press item of 2024! [launching tonight at our annual holiday reading/regatta! you should come out!] a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy 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
lovingly hosted by rob mclennan, The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading
at Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, Ottawa Friday, December 27, 2024 doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, nina jane drystek, Laura Farina, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, James Moran, Lee Parpart, Wanda Praamsma, Colin Quin, Joan Rivard + Grant Wilkins (and possibly others, WITH A NEW ISSUE OF THE PETER F YACHT CLUB TO LAUNCH AS WELL
The Peter F Yacht Club #33 2024 VERSeFest Special lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan, $6
With new writing by a host of Peter F Yacht Club regulars, irregulars and VERSeFest 2024 participants, including Jennifer Baker, Manahil Bandukwala, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, nina jane drystek, Klara du Plessis, Amanda Earl, Anita Lahey, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, James Moran, Pearl Pirie, Jaclyn Piudik, Monty Reid, Sandra Ridley, Marjorie Silverman, Madeleine Stratford, D.S. Stymeist, Derek Webster and Grant Wilkins,
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
The Peter F Yacht Club #32 2023 VERSeFest Special lovingly hand-crafted, folded, stapled, edited and carried around in bags of envelopes by rob mclennan, $6
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
published in Ottawa by above/ground press January 2023 as part of above/ground press’ thirtieth anniversary a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
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
We had a small gathering of readers, including Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, myself, Stuart Ross, D.S. Stymeist, Chris Turnbull and Grant Wilkins! AJ Dolman, James Moran (who has a new collection of short stories, apparently) and Margo LaPierre were scheduled, but life circumstances kept each of them from attending, although I did manage to convince (with little prompting) nina jane drystek to read, which was fun. Given the holiday chaos, between the occasional child-cough and the pre-Christmas storm that came through, Christine and our young ladies were away with family (a bumped visit), with a variety of other PFYC regulars also sending their regrets.
Frances Boyle
I've always enjoyed the idea of a holiday party between Christmas and New Year's, given how (obviously) half the readers might be busy with other activities, but those who are able are desperate to get out of the house (there aren't usually readings between, what, the first week of December and the second week of January?). The crowd at this particular event was small (given Covid, weather and other stresses), but mighty: including folk such as Steve Zytveld, Cathy McDonald-Zytveld, Christine Sung (who brought homemade cookies!) and (for the first time in attendance!) Sara Jamieson.
Jason Christie
D.S. Stymeist
Grant Wilkins
Obviously it was so good to hear from everyone! After so long, also. Some of the highlights included Stuart Ross reading a short poem for the late Michael Dennis [see my obituary for him here], Chris Turnbull reading two poems by the late Robert Hogg [see my obituary for him here], Grant Wilkins' remarkable sound poetry performance, and even Stuart and nina jane performing an improvised sound poem collaboration on the spot! Oh, had I only taken some further photos.
lovingly hosted by rob mclennan; The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading
at The Carleton Tavern (upstairs) 233 Armstrong Avenue (at Parkdale Market) Tuesday, December 27, 2022 doors 7pm, reading 7:30pm
with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, AJ Dolman, Margo LaPierre, rob mclennan, James Moran, Stuart Ross, D.S. Stymeist and Grant Wilkins (and possibly others,
Kimberly Quiogue Andrews is a poet and literary critic. She is the author of A
Brief History of Fruit, winner of the Akron Prize for Poetry from the
University of Akron Press, and BETWEEN, winner of the New Women’s Voices
Chapbook Prize from Finishing Line Press. She teaches creative writing and
American literature at the University of Ottawa, and you can find her on Twitter
at @kqandrews.
Susan J. Atkinson : “Reading Palms,” “The Dining Room Poem by another Poet”
and “Interpreting Rothko”
Susan J. Atkinson’spoems have won a number of awards, most recently
first prize in the 2019 National Capital Writers Contest and chosen as a
Notable Mention in the 2020 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse. She has new work
in Grain Magazine and The Queen’s Quarterly. Her first full-length
collection, The Marta Poems was published by Silver Bow Publishing
in 2020 and her chapbook The Birthday Party, The Mariachi Player and
The Tourist came out in Spring 2021 with Catkin Press. Visit www.susanjatkinson.com
for more information.
Frances Boyle : “The whole tall world” and “Abbey”
Frances Boyle is the author of two poetry books, most recently This
White Nest (2019). She has also written Tower, a Rapunzel-infused
novella (2018), and Seeking Shade, a short story collection (2020) which
was a first-place winner of the Miramichi Reader’s Very Best! Awards, and a
finalist for the Danuta Gleed Award and the ReLit Award. Her writing has been
selected for the Best Canadian Poetry series, nominated for the Pushcart
Prize and Best of the Net, and published throughout North America and
internationally. Frances’s third book of poetry is forthcoming in fall 2022
with Frontenac House Press. www.francesboyle.com
Jason Christie : “Slow death”
Jason Christielives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of Canada
Post (Invisible), i-ROBOT (Edge/Tesseract), Unknown Actor
(Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). His most recent chapbooks
are: Bridge and Burn (above / ground) and Heavy Metal Litany
(Model press). He is looking for a home for a new manuscript of poetry he wrote
with the help of several Python scripts.
Conyer Clayton : “Family Dinner” and “Intruder,” both from But the
sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves (Spring 2022, A Feed Dog
Book by Anvil Press).
Conyer Clayton is a writer, musician, editor, and gymnastics coach
living on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. Her debut collection, We Shed
Our Skin Like Dynamite (Guernica Editions, 2020), won an Ottawa Book Award
and was a Relit Award finalist. She's released 2 albums and many chapbooks;
recently, Towers (Collusion Books, 2021) by VII, of which she is a
member, and Sprawl (Collusion Books, 2020) written with Manahil
Bandukwala, shortlisted for the bpNichol Award. Her second book, But the sun,
and the ships, and the fish, and the waves (A Feed Dog Book, Anvil Press)
is forthcoming Spring 2022.
Laurie Anne Fuhr : “applicable skills of the military brat #1” and “applicable
skills of the military brat #2,” from night flying (Frontenac House
2018).
Laurie Anne Fuhr, ex-Ottawan, current Calgarian, is author of night
flying (Frontenac House 2018), which was shortlisted for the Robert
Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry 2016 in ms form. Fuhr had work in several
anthologies in 2021, including Uncommon Grounds: poems by the Espresso Poetry
Collective (epcpress 2021); Wonder/Shift 40th Anniversary Anthology
(AWCS Press 2021); and The Stroll of Poets Anthology (2021), and had a
poem on a tall can with Blindman Brewing's Session Stories series (ed. Jason
Lee Norman). Her poem mixed media was shortlisted in the Freefall Magazine
poetry contest 2020 (Judge Gary Barwin). Her work has been published in an
above/ground chapbook and in many periodicals like This Magazine, Journal
of Literature and Aesthetics (India), Bywords, and Prairie Journal.
Fuhr is a poetry instructor with alexandrawriters.org; its poetry workshops are
now open to all on Zoom.
natalie hanna : “keep moving / keep sleeping” and “to learn of
making”
natalie hanna is a queer, disabled, feminist, Middle Eastern,
Ottawa-born lawyer. She runs battleaxe press, and has authored thirteen
chapbooks, including three titles with above/ground press, Baseline Press
(2020), and collaboratively with Liam Burke, machine dreams, from Collusion
Books (2021). She is working on her first full length poetry collection. Her poetry,
interviews, and commentary have been published in Canada and the U.S. Learn
more: https://nhannawriting.wordpress.com.
Robert Hogg : “The Poem that Starts in the Night”
Robert Hogg was born in Edmonton, Alberta, grew up in the Cariboo
and Fraser Valley in British Columbia, and attended UBC during the early
Sixties where he was associated with the Vancouver TISH poets, co-edited
MOTION - a prose newsletter, and graduated with a BA in English and
Creative Writing. His books include: The Connexions, Berkeley: Oyez,
1966; Standing Back, Toronto: Coach House, 1972; Of Light,
Toronto: Coach House, 1978; Heat Lightning, Windsor: Black Moss, 1986; There
Is No Falling, Toronto: ECW,1993; and as editor, An English Canadian
Poetics, The Confederation Poets – Vol. 1, Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2009. He
recently published several chapbooks: from LAMENTATIONS, Ottawa: above/ground,
2016; two Cariboo poems, Ranch Days – The McIntosh from hawk/weed press
in Kemptville, ON; Ranch Days—for Ed Dorn from battleaxe press (Ottawa
2019); A Quiet Affair – Vancouver ’63 (Trainwreck, May 2021); and in
August 2021 a chapbook titled From Each Forthcoming (above/ground). In
December 2021, a chapbook will be released from Hogwallow Press, called The
Red Menace, and another from Apt 9 Press in Ottawa, called Apothegms.
Margo LaPierre : “A Video of You, Laughing” (first published in Mineral
Lit Mag), “Hysterosonogram” (forthcoming 2022 in Sable Books’ disability
anthology The Ending Hasn’t Happened Yet) and “Air Show” (first
published in Train Journal)
Margo LaPierre is a freelance editor and author of Washing Off
the Raccoon Eyes (Guernica Editions, 2017). She serves as newsletter editor
of Arc Poetry Magazine and is a member of poetry collective VII. She is
the winner of the 2021 Room Poetry Contest and the 2020 subTerrain
Lush Triumphant Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2021 Fiddlehead
Creative Nonfiction Contest. She is completing her MFA in Creative Writing at
UBC. Find her on Twitter @margolapierre.
Gil McElroy is reading three new poems from his ongoing project, The Julian Days.
Gil McElroy is a poet currently living in Colborne, Ontario.
rob mclennan : “Autobiography of green,” “Coordinates” and “Burning
the dead grass”
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
more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most
recent poetry title, the book of smaller (University of Calgary Press,
2022), is now available for pre-order. In spring 2020, he won ‘best pandemic
beard’ from Coach House Books via Twitter, of which he is extremely proud (and
mentions constantly). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as
writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.
Christine McNair : “Déjà Entendu” and “Déjà vu”
Christine McNair has published two books of poetry with Bookhug – Conflict
(2012) and Charm (2017). Her most recent manuscript is a hybrid
non-fiction poetry manuscript focused on preeclampsia, illness, and disability.
She works as a book doctor in Ottawa.Also
– she recorded this last year for Canthius but it may have been lost in
the ether, much like she was lost in the Christmas tree.
Pearl Pirie : “Daily you detail weather” & “time scales
mountains” are from the tentatively titled, “Well-Behaved Thistle.” If you’re a
potential publisher, ask for it by name.
Pearl Pirie’s fourth poetry collection is footlights (Radiant
Press, 2020). rain’s small gestures (Apt 9 Press, fall 2021) is
minimalist poems. Mudflaps for Short Dogs is out from Trainwreck Press
(July 2021). Interact with her at Instagram or Patreon at Pearlpiriepoet.
Stuart Ross : “A Stephen Crane Christmas,” “Sixty-Two” and “Razovsky
On The Volga”
Stuart Rossis a writer, editor, and writing teacher, the author
of 20 books of fiction, poetry, and essays, and countless chapbooks and ephemera.
He received the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize and the 2021 James Tate Poetry
Prize. Stuart’s work has been translated into Nynorsk, French, Spanish, Estonian,
and Russian. His most recent book is 70 Kippers, written with his
dearest friend, the late Ottawa poet Michael Dennis. Stuart’s hybrid poem/essay
The Book Of Grief And Hamburgers, dedicated to Michael, comes out this
spring from ECW Press. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.
Renée Sarojini Saklikar : from the Perimeter sequence in Bramah and The Beggar
Boy
Renée Sarojini Saklikar is a poet and lawyer who lives in Vancouver on the unceded
traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples. She is the author of four books,
including the ground-breaking poetry book, children of air india, about
the bombing of Air India Flight 182 which won the Canadian Authors Association
Poetry Prize and is the co-author, with Dr. Mark Winston, of the poetry and
essay collection, Listening to the Bees, winner of the 2019 Gold Medal
Independent Publishers Book Award, Environment/Ecology. She is currently
working on Book 2 of the THOT J BAP series, an epic fantasy in verse.
This poem is from the
Perimeter sequence in my epic fantasy in verse, Bramah and The Beggar Boy
(Nightwood Editions, 2021).
An early version of this poem,
one of the first in my long poem series, https://thotjbap.com/, first appeared in
a beautiful hand made chapbook by the late Marthe Reed, to whom I was introduced
by rob mclennan at the Factory Reading Series in Ottawa.
Other poems from the sequence
also appeared in Kathryn Mockler’s The Rusty Toque.
With gratitude for these, past
and present, who support/supported long form poetry.
D.S. Stymeist : Big Ride: Passage 1” and “Tonic.”
D.S. Stymeist’s debut collection, The Bone Weir, was published
by Frontenac in 2016 and was a finalist for the Canadian Author’s Association
Award for Poetry. He continues to publish widely in both academic and literary magazines.
Alongside fending off Crohn’s disease, he teaches creative writing and crime
fiction at Carleton University. He’s the former president of VERSe Ottawa,
which organizes VERSeFest, Ottawa’s international poetry festival.
On special assignment: Cameron
Anstee, Stephen Brockwell, jwcurry, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, Lea Graham, Marilyn
Irwin, Chris Johnson, Janice Tokar, Roland Prevost, Sandra Ridley and Chris Turnbull.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press December 2020 a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
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
The Peter F Yacht Club #28 VERSeFest 2020 (10th anniversary!) special [ c a n c e l l a t i o n / p o s t p o n e m e n t i s s u e ] edited by rob mclennan $6
published in Ottawa by above/ground press March 2020 a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
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
What
was interesting, also, was that Craig
Carpenter, a poet I haven’t seen or heard much from in some twenty years (since he left Ottawa for
parts unknown) appeared out of the ether to record the audio of the event. The
final editor of the late, lamented Carleton
Arts Review back in the late 1990s (not long after my own tenure as same),
he was in Ottawa throughout the 1990s in part as a student at Carleton
University, writing poems as a member of Jim Larwill’s informal writing group, the
OmniGothic NeoFuturists (you’ll have to find Jim to find out what he thought
that all meant). Apparently Carpenter is currently in Kelowna, British Columbia
at UBC, working with Karis Shearer,
and assisting in digital transfer of literary readings from dozens of archived cassette
tapes (etcetera).
Chris Johnson read two poems that
included raccoons. Is this a new theme, a new thread, emerging in his work? And
Margo LaPierre read some new poems
that sparkled. I’ve only heard her read a couple of times now, so clearly need
to hear further, to get a better sense of what it is she’s working on. I also
read a couple of poems, from my work-in-progress “Book of Magazine Verse” [some poems from the same manuscript live here], including one for Frank O’Hara’s
birthday (which I have already scheduled to post on my own blog in March, for O’Hara’s
actual birthday; watch for it).
Lee Parpart
Lee Parpart was in town from
Toronto, and read a couple of poems, which was fun, as did her American pal,
poet David A. Epstein, who not only
read a couple of curious poems, but offered an invitation to us Ottawa “Peter
F. Yacht Clubbers” to their Connecticut Yacht Club. Oh, the boating we could
do. And Monty Reid regaled us with a sequence around sex, constructed from stories heard and collected.
It
was a grand event! I am very pleased, and also, very exhausted. And then a group of us landed downstairs, for lengthy conversation and hijinks. How did I only
manage to get home at 1:30am?
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