some author activity: Bell, Boyle, Reid, Betts, Gordon + Ross,

Wade Bell has new work up at Public Reverie; Frances Boyle has two poems in the latest issue of Pinhole Poetry, where Monty Reid also has new work; Gregory Betts appears in the Canadian Poets Series over at Peripety and/or Tronies; Nada Gordon is featured in the Spotlight series; and Stuart Ross has four poems up at Relegation Books.

some author activity: Smith, Unrau, Bell, Myers + Ross,

Steve Ross Smith has a new song up at bandcamp; Melanie Dennis Unrau is interviewed via the "12 or 20 questions" series; Wade Bell has new work up at Public Reverie; Peter Myers has new work up at noir sauna; and Stuart Ross is interviewed by Tali Voron-Leiderman for The Ampersand Review.

some author activity: Banks, Campanello, Bell, Notley, Berlatsky + Olsen,

Chris Banks has new work and an interview up at Only Poems; Kimberly Campanello has an article up at The Guardian, on being diagnosed with Parkinson's; Wade Bell has some poems up at The Typescript; Anselm Berrigan reflects on his mother Alice Notley's life and legacy over at Interview magazine; Noah Berlatsky has a poem up at New Feathers Anthology; and Geoffrey Olsen is interviewed in the "12 or 20 questions" series.

some author activity: McNair, Hawes, Saklikar, Bell, MacEachern + Armantrout,

Christine McNair has added a rare new post to her blog; James Hawes has a poem up at SQUID; Renée Sarojini Saklikar is interviewed in the 5 Questions series by Finnian Burnett; Wade Bell offers his own piece on filling Station for The Typescript; Jessi MacEachern has new work up at the ex-puritan; and Rae Armantrout has a poem up at The London Review of Books.

some author activity: Unsworth, Weaver, Bell, Morton, Bowering, Hogg + mclennan,

Lydia Unsworth has a poem up as part of the Tuesday poem series; Andy Weaver is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Wade Bell, Colin Morton, George Bowering and others all have new pieces as part of the "Remembering Bob Hogg" feature at The Typescript; and rob mclennan answers one question for Hollay Ghadery at River Street Writing.

some author activity: Hawes, Ace, Williams, Coulton, Myers, Schapira + Bell,

James Hawes has a new poem up on the Chaudiere Books blog for National Poetry Month, as does Samuel Ace and forthcoming author Evan Williams, as well as Valerie Coulton; forthcoming author Peter Myers has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series via dusie; Kate Schapira has new work in Anomaly; and Wade Bell has new work up at The Typescript.

some author activity: Brown, Collis, Niespodziany, mclennan, Tate + Bell,

Simon Brown has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; Stephen Collis reads in Vancouver (with others) on April 6 as part of the first annual Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading; Benjamin Niespodziany has a new poem up at Booth; rob mclennan continues his work-in-progress "Lecture for an Empty Room" via substack, and was interviewed recently by Sam Szanto in her "20 Questions" series; Jillian Hess writes on Bronwen Tate's notebooks; and Wade Bell now has an author website, and a new short story up at The Typescript.

some author activity: Logan, Niespodziany, Pirie + Bell,

Nate Logan has a new poem up at The Indianapolis Review; Benjamin Niespodziany has new work up at Hex Literary; Pearl Pirie has a haiku included as part of David McMurray's online ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK at The Asahi Shimbun; and Wade Bell has some new fiction up at The Typescript.

some author activity: Bell, Maloukis, Reid + Mohammadi,

Wade Bell is interviewed via Chaudiere Books; Rose Maloukis has new work in long con magazine; Monty Reid has new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; and Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi is interviewed over at nothing/in particular.

new from above/ground press: Visions of Bolaño, by Wade Bell

Visions of Bolaño
Wade Bell
$5

     It probably was not him.
     On the slow, local train returning to my Catalan village after a weekend in Barcelona I take a moment from reading Henry Miller and jotting down observations in my journal to glance across the aisle and a row ahead where a man frantically writes in a large red notebook.
     I wonder what he’s writing. Something powered by intense emotion, I would guess from the speed with which he wields his pen.  
     It is spring, wet, the countryside green. The train’s windows are opaque sheets of emerald rainwater.
     He senses me staring and glances over. He is gaunt, in his forties. His sculpted features are ragged, more Giacometti than Leonardo. Behind wire rim glasses are eyes of a fanatic, or addict.
     After the seaside town of Arenys de Mar, the sun appears. To catch its warmth, I take my sandwich from my packsack and scrunch against the window.
     In front of village houses potted geraniums gleam red or white. Mimosa bushes sport the identical green and gold of the University of Alberta Golden Bears basketball team uniforms. Almond trees are robed in bridal white.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2022
as the sixteenth title in above/ground’s prose/naut imprint
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Wade Bell: Born in 1941 in Stettler, Alberta, and at the age of one week was moved by my mother to an Edmonton tenement where we lived in  wartime food rationed poverty. Joining the RCAF my father had left her pregnant. I went to Carleton University, wrote my first book in Ottawa and stayed in the city to work for the CRTC.
     Following a devastating marriage breakup, I quit the safe government job and went travelling.
     Back in Ottawa in need of money I drove taxi, the lone Anglo in a French crew stationed at the bus depot. I saved some money and I left to travel again.
    Through a series of fortuitous connection made in Ireland I was invited to spend three months in Spain. I went and stayed five years.
    Many of the stories in my three subsequent books are set in Barcelona or the Catalan countryside.
    With a Spanish bride and needing money I came back to Alberta to work in the oilfields, mostly in the wilds of the boreal forest.  
    I am now 81 and living in Calgary. In addition to my four books, I have published over 50 stories and poems in literary magazines, anthologies and text books in Canada, the US, Japan, Denmark and Italy.

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