Jérôme Melançon: 30 Years Above Ground: The Aesthetics of above/ground press : Arc Poetry Magazine #101

Regina poet, critic, translator and above/ground press author Jérôme Melançon was good enough to compose the essay "30 Years Above Ground: The Aesthetics of above/ground press" which was recently published in Arc Poetry Magazine #101! You should pick up a copy at your local/favourite magazine shop, or order a copy directly from them here! Thanks so much!

some author activity: Unsworth, Earl, Tierney, mclennan + Spinosa/Siklosi,

Lydia Unsworth has some new work up at Tentacular; Amanda Earl offers some nice words for the above/ground press anniversary (and a visual poem!) over at her blog; Orchid Tierney has some recent work up at Ethel; Jenya Stashkov asked rob mclennan for an interview and a poem, both of which appear here in English, as well as translated into Russian; Dani Spinosa and Kate Siklosi answer the "ottawa small press book fair : home editions" questions over at the ottawa poetry newsletter.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Marilyn Irwin

This is the thirty-seventh 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.

above ground press: a quarter century of community and paper cuts

It is hard to consider above/ground press without considering the man who created it and has kept it the well-oiled machine it has been for 25 years now.

The first time I heard about rob was at a book store in Alexandria, Ontario, about 12 years ago. I randomly picked up one of his books off the shelf in the poetry section after a five year hiatus from writing post-high school. The cashier gushed how rob was from the area and looked just like he did in the photo on the back of the book. I bought the book.

The first time I met rob was at a reading of his when I first moved to Ottawa in 2007. He was launching his novel white and about to move out west for a year as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta. I purchased a copy of his book and someone (Ottawa poet Amanda Earl?) told me he would be happy to sign it. I was (still can be) debilitatingly shy but managed to approach him. He inscribed it as follows: “for Marilyn, who I do not know”. As he was packing up the book table, he handed me “a thing,” as he put it. Truth be told, I don’t remember if it was a broadside or a chapbook but it was an above/ground press publication. After the reading, a handful of people went out for drinks at the Dom (Dominion Tavern); Amanda, husband Charles, Pearl and Brian Pirie, Max Middle, Joshua Massey, rob and me. It would be the first of many shenanigans centred around poetry, around this person, a personified nexus, who seemed to know everyone in the local and farther reaching community and who had the stories to prove it. Soon after, rob started handing me envelopes at literary events stuffed to the gills with above/ground press goodies. This was how I came to know the Ottawa poetry community and beyond.

I have lost count of the number of Factory Reading Series events rob has organized in the 10ish years I’ve been going to them but they are usually like family reunions. rob brings people together. rob has and continues to make things easy for us all to find one another – even in this digital age – to trade or buy each other’s books and, often, has been the catalyst for new acquaintances, friendships and lovers (for better or worse). Without rob’s efforts; his publishing, events, encouragement/coaxing of new, emerging and established poets to put new work out into the world, without his workshops (which I’ve taken a few times and totally recommend) and the ottawa small press book fair and reviews and essays, etc., etc., etc., the Ottawa and Canadian poetry communities would look very differently. Personally, my knowledge of the literary landscape would be much less informed. And he has made it all look easy, though I can only imagine how many long-armed staplers he’s been through in the past quarter century or how many paper cuts he’s had or grocery bills he’s tightened to subsidize putting poetry goodness into the world.

rob was kind enough to reprint my first (self-published) chapbook in 2010, shortly after he invited me to read at a Factory event – my first official reading alongside stellar poets Marcus McCann and Cameron Anstee. I have since had seven more chapbooks, two published through above/ground, in no small part due to his gentle nagging for new work from me.

I owe a debt of gratitude to you, rob, for helping me get this far despite my mountains of reservations. So, thanks, rob, who I know, for all that you do and congratulations on such a fine achievement!

I have often heard rob say something to the effect of “I enjoy what I do so why would I stop?” Here’s hoping he continues to enjoy doing what he does; I can’t wait to see what the next 25 years bring.

Shortlisted for the 2016 bpNichol Award and winner of the 2013 Diana Brebner Prize, Marilyn Irwin’s [photo credit: John W. MacDonald] work has been published by Apt. 9 Press, Arc Poetry Magazine, bywords.ca, In/Words, Puddles of Sky, and The Steel Chisel, among others. north, her eighth chapbook, and third published by above/ground press, was released in 2017. She runs shreeking violet press in Ottawa.

Irwin’s three chapbooks through above/ground press include for when you pick daisies (2010), flicker (2012) and north (2017).

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Renée Sarojini Saklikar

This is the thirty-sixth 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.

above/ & grounded: looking back on a fine press

When did you first hear of and/or interact with the press?

XRSS:  Somewhere back in 2009/2010, enrolled in the Writer’s Studio, I attended a presentation by Anne Stone: we were up in the Diamond Lounge on the third floor of SFU Vancouver, the light from the harbour drifting in on a June evening.  We exchanged stories about making little books of poetry and Anne said something like, “if you are ever in Ottawa, look up a guy called rob mclennan” and that’s how it all started. Once I graduated from the Studio, immersed in the wayward path that become the process that became my first book length poem, children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2018), I would visit all the “rob” websites: I spent lots of time online, fascinated onlooker, situated on The Outside, peering longingly Inside, to the world of small presses, all those poets, their work. I learned so much and still do by reading the poets published by above/ground press: all the ways a poem can be and become―

What did it mean for you to have titles through the press?

XRSS: Oh, everything! As if a door in a stone gate, locked for years, slowly swung open. Tribe/less, and as always, not really feeling too comfy with that word, and nevertheless wanting to belong to a cadre, a circle, a network of poets, from Outside to Inside, that helped me gain confidence in writing. I should have liked, looking back, to have not been needy for Belonging and yet—and so, when above/ground published After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees, a sequence of poems from my much larger work, THOT-J-BAP (a sci-fi epic), and the chapbook: sweet yellow paper—

―that was restorative, because the generation of those poems happened during the summer of 2013, a difficult time in my life. I remember writing After the Battle of Kingsway the bees, out of grief, and despair, the taste of aloes in my mouth. To see the book then bring delight to others: I am smiling my slow slant smile as I type these words—

Have you a story of something around the press? An event that was particularly good?

XRSS: Ottawa. Summer, circa 2014: Factory Reading Series. Upstairs in “The Tavern”.  With rob and the late Marthe Reed, both generously interested in seeking out and publishing those of us on the Outside, bringing us Inside. And Marthe invited me to submit work for DUSIE. These invitations by above/ground press, leading to other invitations, vital to a long poem writer, helping to keep me on the path of the epic, following that thread that pulls—I still cannot believe Marthe is gone, at least from this planetary orbit.

How did you see the press comparing to what else was around when you first heard of it?

XRSS: Everything that Jason Christie says!! There’s this sense of community, of work made on the margins, for the love of what is in us to make, to bring forth, despite seeming indifference from anyone else. Outside of the low misery of grasping for achievement, there abides the makers: crafting, stitching, folding, stapling, paper between our thumbs. Fragments pressed to our lips.

Renée Sarojini Saklikar recently completed her term as the first Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, British Columbia. Her latest book is a B.C. bestseller: Listening to the Bees (Nightwood Editions, 2018). Renée’s first book, children of air india (Nightwood Editions, 2013), won the 2014 Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry. Renée co-edited The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (Anvil Press/SFU Public Square, 2015,) a City of Vancouver book award finalist. Renée’s chapbook, After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees, (above/ground press, 2016), was a finalist for the 2017 bpNichol award. Her poetry has been made into musical and visual installations, including the opera, air india [redacted].  Renée was called to the BC Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor, served as a director for youth employment programs in the BC public service, and now teaches law and ethics for Simon Fraser University in addition to teaching creative writing at both SFU and Vancouver Community College. She curates the popular poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU and serves on the boards of Event magazine and The Capilano Review and is a director for the board of the Surrey International Writers Conference.   Renée belongs to the League of Canadian Poets and The Writer’s Union of Canada (TWUC) and is active on the TWUC Equity Committee. She is currently working on an epic-length sci-fic poem that appears in journals, anthologies and chapbooks.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Kyle Flemmer

This is the thirty-fifth 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.

I only met rob mclennan in person recently, but that is not to say we haven’t interacted since being put in touch by a mutual friend. Our relationship has been characterized by a steady exchange of emails, publications, and social media love. Never have I encountered a man with so many irons in the fire, nor someone so willing to collaborate or spread the good word. That he has been behind above/ground for a quarter century is both humbling and makes total sense. He gives off a contagiously conspiratorial, even brotherly, vibe, even in emails.

When rob mailed author copies of the first chapbook above/ground published on my behalf, he included dozens and dozens of chapbooks by a wildly diverse range of authors. Unpacking that box, I knew instinctively the unspeakable amount of work and care that must go into the press, the dedication and love which this trove of chapbooks represented.

Since then, rob has involved me in at least a half dozen other initiatives, some with above/ground, some not, including interviews, email blasts, anthologies, another chapbook, and more. He recommends calls for submission, asks me to consider and explain my projects in ways I hadn’t thought of yet, to review and engage with writing beyond my usual scope, sharpening me to the kind of discourse expected of poets and publishers. He shines a light on work which might otherwise be ignored, overlooked, or underserved, championing emerging writers in a way few publishers can claim, all while continuing to sustain established writers.

Incidentally, the magazine I edit is also celebrating its twenty fifth year in operation, so I think I know a little something about what rob has gone through to make above/ground so enduring … just kidding, I’ve only been a literary type for a few short years and am continually floored by the herculean feats of publishing he seems capable of performing with ease. While I make no claims to a full understanding of the history of the press, the couple of years I have been receiving above/ground publications have been about as deep an immersion in the literary currents of our time as I ever expect to find in an indie press.

Finally, I got to meet rob the weekend of the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market in Toronto this November. Though I’ve tabled at several small press and zines fairs before, this was my first time traveling for a market, and unlike other markets in this vein, MtP has a distinct ‘family reunion’ vibe about it. Without surprise you will learn that rob was among both the welcoming and farewell gatherings, so I was able to get to know him a bit over the weekend, but the image I took away of the man behind above/ground was of him at the market, stationed across the aisle and a couple spots down from me, table loaded with a rainbow sea of chapbooks, him beaming and waving and in his element, and I could feel the contagious enthusiasm radiating off him all day.

Kyle Flemmer founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Company in 2014 as an outlet for his writing and to build a community of emerging Canadian artists. He is currently the Managing Editor of filling Station magazine, were he served as Associate Poetry Editor for two years. Kyle graduated from Concordia University with a double-major in Western Society & Culture and Creative Writing, where his poem White Dwarfs was a finalist for the 2016 Irving Layton Poetry Award. Kyle has released several recent poetry chapbooks, including Coronagraphic (2018) and ASTRAL PROJECTION (2017) from above/ground press, and Lunar Flag Assembly Kit (2017) from no press.

above/ground press 25th anniversary essay: Sacha Archer

This is the thirty-fourth 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.

25^th words

When I think of above/ground press it is not first and foremost the publications which come to mind, but rob himself. I have only met rob once in person, but, connected to him via social media and occasional emails, and of course through the above/ground publications themselves, an impression is shaped of this individual who is so devoted to the Canadian small press community.

While I myself am rather isolated in my (writing) life, and admittedly find it fairly difficult to make connections with the enviable ease of some others, rob’s unmistakable generosity is a point of optimism, I would think, to a great many writers who might otherwise never encounter each other’s work. It is this broadness of consideration which one finds in the non-stop flow of publications from across Canada and beyond that leads me back, every time I receive a stack of chapbooks, to imagining rob reading the solicited and unsolicited manuscripts that find their way to him. When I picture rob reading, I come to understand the value of an attitude (and I might be off the mark here, but I don’t think so) situated somewhere between an intense seriousness (after all, how could such a project as above/ground have continued without serious devotion?) and a casual faith in the potential of the writers and texts he encounters.

The publications are not made to be beautiful objects. They’re not meant to be. One reads in the mostly homogenous design of simple stapled booklet a priority: text in hand. Those who submit a manuscript to above/ground know exactly what they’re getting into in terms of production/result. Of course, what writers consistently like is—circulation. Isn’t it nice that somebody, and a few more, will read your work? But of course, we all know, it doesn’t end there. rob is always reaching out with opportunities, solicitations, interviews, mags… kind words and optimism (in succinct emails of one to two sentences that never lack in presence and the open ear). All that is the energy of one who knows how to embrace. Thank you rob, for that embrace which is above/ground—a social embrace which does not reveal a community, but creates it.

Sacha Archer is a writer that works in numerous mediums as well as being the editor of Simulacrum Press (simulacrumpress.ca). His work has been published internationally. Archer has two full-length collections of poetry, Detour (gradient books, 2017) and Zoning Cycle (Simulacrum Press, 2017), as well as a number of chapbooks, the most recent being TSK oomph (Inspiritus Press, 2018) and Contemporary Meat (The Blasted Tree, 2018). His visual poetry has been exhibited in the USA, Italy, and Canada. Some of that work, among other things, can be found on his website, sachaarcher.wordpress.com. Archer lives in Burlington, Ontario.

Sacha Archer is the author of two above/ground press chapbooks, including upROUTE : The Language of Plates (2017) and the forthcoming Autopsy Report (2018).