Touch the Donkey at a Zine Fair in Sherbrooke QC + at Jarvis Square Books, Chicago

If you are around Sherbrooke, Quebec this Saturday, check out the ZinK (zine + ink) zine fair, where there will be a small mound of copies of the two latest issues of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] for free! While supplies last, certainly. Should you be looking to pick up other things at the fair? Oh, yes, certainly. If you pick up a free copy or two or three of Donkey, would I welcome a donation, possibly? Oh, very much so, although it isn’t required. And if you live in or near Chicago, there’s also a small handful of copies for free distribution at Jarvis Square Books! A purchase isn’t required for a copy (again, while supplies last), but you should completely be looking through their fine selection to see what else their store might offer. It is a very fine store! And of course, if you wish to see above/ground press in person, we’re still working on curating our summer anniversary event in Ottawa, but already have plans to appear at the Fisher Small + Fine Press Fair on September 19 (at the Fisher Rare Book Room at the University of Toronto) and this fall’s ottawa small press book fair (our thirty-second anniversary!) at Tom Brown Arena on November 14th. So much exciting small press!

report: Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair 2022

So: this past Saturday above/ground press was in Toronto as part of the Fisher Small and Fine Press Fair, an event that has returned after a three-year (covid) hiatus! Plenty of (masked, mostly) fun was had by all, and I was even able to introduce the chapbook rack that Christine found a while back on one of her buy-nothing groups (honestly, it worked far more effectively than I might have considered, so expect to see it returning for future fairs). It was good to get the whole top row-plus of the festschrifts I've been putting together over the past year, able to actually sell copies of some of them, which is nice (oh, so that's what these are).

This was actually the fourth curated fair in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto (and a limited curation, given the physical limitations of the space), as librarian John Shoesmith originally founded the event around an exhibit of small press items from their collection that above/ground press happened to have items as part of (which is how I got invited). I was there for the first event (which Ryan Pratt was good enough to recap over at his blog), and even the second! Apparently the hopes is to curate a new version of the event every two years, so hopefully they can get back on that particular schedule for future events.

Ken Norris

Bruce Whiteman and Ken Norris

Christopher Patton (right) with his new above/ground press chapbook

Kirby, who radiates joy

And I was able to see so many folk I hadn't seen in moons! Why does Ken Norris (who lives in Toronto these days) look no different now than he did twenty years ago, when I last saw him? I mean, I've done numerous chapbooks of his lately (his tenth above/ground press title landed this past July), so it isn't like we haven't been in touch, but odd to think how long it's been since anything in-person. It was also good to see folk such as Aaron Tucker (with a new knife fork book title), Ralph Kolewe (who has a forthcoming Talonbook, the manuscript of which expands upon his above/ground press title), Christopher Patton (who I met for the first time, coming by to collect his copies of his new above/ground press title), Drew McEwen (should we do another chapbook? we should probably do another chapbook), Lindsay Zier-Vogel (honestly, I simply presumed we'd met years earlier at something, so it was good to finally correct that), Cary Fagan (who mentioned I'd published his stepson in an issue of Touch the Donkey, a connection I wasn't aware of), Bruce Whiteman, etcetera. So many people!

Should I mention I spent the afternoon pretending not to eat an egg and bacon English muffin? Probably not, given it was in a library, after all. Fortunately, I am very effective in my pretending. Other exhibitors included Aliquando Press, Alan Stein/Church Street Press, Art Metropole, Book*hug, Coach House Books, George A. Walker, Greyweather’s Press, JackPine Press, k|f|b, Liz Menard, Massey College Press, Natalie Draz, Nietzsche’s Brolly, Porcupine's Quill/DA, Shanty Bay Press and Wesley Bates.

Given the hour it took to drive in from Andy Weaver's house out in Burlington on Saturday morning, I secured the "final table" in the space, set between JackPine (doing some neat things I hadn't seen physical copies of for some time) and Massey College Press (college printer Kit MacNeil is clearly doing some interesting things worth paying attention to), who were doing some very cool things, including allowing the public to letterpress print upon wee postcards! I collected a small handful of publications, although not terribly much (Kirby exclaimed, when I went to check out the k|f|b table: Why are you looking? You have everything!), and even managed issue five of JUST LIKE CREAM BUT WORST that Daniel F. Bradley handed over when he wandered by (we traded publications, naturally), which includes a new interview he conducted with Alice Burdick (email him at fdriveshesaid (at) gmail.com if you might be interested in attempting a copy).

Tim Inkster explaining something to Jay MillAr, as the Right Honourable Marshall Hryciuk
prepares his own table in silence

And: sales were good enough, audience was good enough, most folk were masked, so that was all good.

Stephen Cain and Andy Weaver

And after: I even got to hang out with Andy Weaver and Stephen Cain. And the drive home? Hitting the Big Apple, of course, to collect nonsense as wee gifts for the children. I think I got them pens with different coloured inks, and some Pez. Who doesn't love the Big Apple? Scream until your mother stops the car, I say. Oh, and there's another small press fair I'm returning to Toronto for on the 24th, curated by Kate Siklosi as part of TIFA; and of course, the ottawa small press book fair in November. Might we see you at either of those?

above/ground press participates in the virtual SMOL Fair March 3-7, 2021

Yep, above/ground press is participating virtually in the SMOL Fair from March 3-7, 2021

WHAT IS THAT? Well, as their website offers:

SMOL Fair is an alternative, virtual book fair that will be 'live' from March 3-7, 2021. It is 100% free for presses to participate.

For readers, we are hosting a reading, a keynote address, and a mixer. We are coordinating an events calendar for that week featuring readings from participating presses as well as book give-aways and deals on work from your favorite authors.

That's pretty cool, yes? Reminiscent of last fall's Meet the Presses' Indie Lit Symposium, which virtually held a really interesting series of panels etcetera [all of which can still be found online, by the way]

Between now and March 7, 2021, above/ground press will be offering 50% off on any and all chapbook/issue orders (not including shipping). Just include the word SMOL when you send your order in (this runs out at midnight on Sunday, so if there's anything you were thinking of ordering, now just might be the time...)

above/ground press is also offering a handful of give-aways through the fair itself, including copies of the April 2021 issue of Touch the Donkey, katie o'brien's micro moonlight (2021), Jason Christie's Bridge and burn (2021), Amish Trivedi's The Universe in an Earth-Shaped Urn (2021) and Kristjana Gunnars' a moment in flight: essay on melancholy (2020), so check out their site to see how any of that stuff works. And they're even on twitter!

above/ground press at the Meet the Presses Indie Lit Symposium : this weekend!

Please join us this weekend for the virtual Meet the Presses Indie Lit Symposium! We're all hoping that next year we can do the fair (as well as the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair) in person again, but until then, the Meet the Presses collective has organized a whole slew of readings and talks from participants all across the country.

You can register at the link for the event here.

All events are free, with the option to donate if you wish. Please note that you only need to register once and we will send out a Zoom link to each event one hour before it begins. If you don't receive an email in your inbox, please check your spam and junk folders.

Meet the Presses is an all-volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events that showcase books, chapbooks, magazines, recordings, broadsheets, and ephemera produced by independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. The collective continues in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses events begun 30 years ago in Toronto by Stuart Ross and Nicholas Power. The collective consists of Gary Barwin, Paul Dutton, Beth Follett, Stuart Ross, Aaron Tucker, Jacqueline Valencia, and Tali Voron. The Founding Members Emeritus are Maria Erskine, Ally Fleming, Maggie Helwig, Leigh Nash, and Nicholas Power. You can learn more about the collective here.

Thursday, November 26, 2020
bpNichol Chapbook Award Shortlist reading and Winner Announcement, 7-8pm EST
shorlisted titles:
Tolu Oloruntoba, Manubrium (Anstruther Press)
Oubah Osman, Hereditary Blue (Anstruther Press)
Emily Lu, Night Leaves Nothing New (Baseline Press)
Nisa Malli, Remitting (Baseline Press)

Friday, November 27, 2020
The Roots of Small Press, 7-8pm EST
with above/ground press, Proper Tales Press, Book*Hug Press and Coach House Books

Saturday, November 28, 2020
The Future of Small Press, 12-1pm EST
with Metatron Press, Gap Riot Press, Anstruther Press and Knife Fork Book

Outlaw Presses: Pushing the Boundaries of Small Press, 2-3pm EST
with No Press, Noir Z, The Blasted Tree, Simulacrum Press, AngelHouse Press and Room 3o2 Books

Sunday, November 29, 2020
Magazines and Journals, 12-1pm EST
with CAROUSEL Magazine, Filling Station, These Days and Augur Magazine

Small Press and the Craft of Bookmaking, 2-3pm EST
with Baseline Press, Puddles of Sky Press and In Print Collective

above/ground press will be at Meet the Presses' Indie Literary Market in Toronto, Nov 16 2019!

above/ground press at IFOA's Small Press Market + Small Press, Big Ideas: A Roundtable, Saturday, October 26, 2019

Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 12 - 5pm
Special Event: 40th Festival Edition | Festivals | Free Events
West Bays, Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto M5J 2G8
Cost: Free

Join us for an afternoon in celebration of the small press and its roots as a driver for creative exchange! As part of the 40th anniversary edition of the Toronto International Festival of Authors, the Small Press Market will feature twelve of Canada’s most prominent independent presses:

above/ground press,

Augur Magazine,

Baseline Press,

Coven Editions,

Gap Riot Press,

Invisible,

NoirZ,

Proper Tales Press,

serif of nottingham editions

and Simulacrum Press.

Explore their collections of chapbooks, zines and more, to uncover the big ideas created by these small shops. Admission is free and registration not required.

FOLLOWED BY Small Press, Big Ideas: A Roundtable
Panel Discussion, Q & A: 40th Festival Edition | Festivals
Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto M5J 2G8
Cost: $18

Join us for a special presentation in celebration of the small press. We’ll learn about the strengths and challenges of the small press by hearing from some key members of the community, and exploring the roots of the chapbook and the zine as objects of creative exchange. Featuring rob mclennan, Stuart Ross, Dani Spinosa and Terese Mason Pierre. Event co-curated and moderated by Kate Siklosi, author and co-founding editor of Gap Riot Press.

above/ground press at Meet the Presses and the ottawa small press book fairs!

We know you love book fairs, and we know you love seeing above/ground press titles at book fairs, so why not take the opportunity to do such not once, but twice?

We'll be at Toronto's Meet the Presses event this Saturday, November 17th from noon till 5pm at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre (427 Bloor Street West, Toronto). See the link for further information here.

A week later, we'll be at the ottawa small press book fair, Saturday, November 24 from noon till 5pm at Jack Purcell Community Centre (room 203; 320 Jack Purcell Lane, Ottawa). See the link for further information here.

And both events are completely free to attend! Yahoo!

above/ground press at Canzine Ottawa / October 13

above/ground press will be exhibiting at Ottawa's first ever Canzine on October 13, 2018 at the Ottawa Art Gallery!

You should totally come out if you are able. Free to get in! Yay!

noon to 6pm
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Ottawa Art Gallery - Galerie d'art d'Ottawa
50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 0C5

All of this, of course, simply as build-up to the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair on November 24th, an event that will be celebrating (as you know) twenty-four glorious years!

above/ground press at Canzine Calgary! Saturday November 4, 2017

While I won't be there personally, a whole ton of above/ground press items (including Touch the Donkey) will be available tomorrow at Calgary's first ever Canzine! You should totally go check out what else might be there as well...

above/ground press at Toronto's Indie Literary Market, November 18

above/ground press will once again be participating in the annual Indie Literary Market, organized by Toronto's Meet the Presses collective for Saturday, November 18, 2017! See here for the Facebook invitation, and their website here, both of which even contain further information! Hoping to see you there! above/ground press has been producing an absolute ton of stuff lately...

above/ground press at Word on the Street, Toronto + Vancouver; September 24,

above/ground press will be represented at both the Toronto and Vancouver editions of this year's Word on the Street! Thanks much to WOTS, as well as The League of Canadian Poets, for their continued support:

Toronto: Head on over to The League of Canadian Poets booth, Writers Block Table 12, and pick up a copy of an above/ground press broadside! I really dug through the archives for this one, pulling out poems published throughout the past fifteen years, and there will be a whole mound of poems and authors to choose from, including poems old and new by derek beaulieu, Sandra Ridley, rob mclennan, Eric Schmaltz, Fred Wah, Gwendolyn Guth and a slew of others. Get them while supplies last!

Vancouver: Stephen Collis will be reading as part of the Vancouver launch of his chapbook FIRST SKETCH OF A POEM I WILL NOT HAVE WRITTEN! He, of course, will have copies of the chapbook on-hand for anyone interested.

above/ground press at Meet the Presses + the ottawa small press book fair

above/ground press will again be participating in Toronto's annual Meet the Presses INDIE LITERARY MARKET on Saturday, November 19, 2016, 11:30am-4:30pm, at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, Toronto as well as the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair on Saturday, November 26, 2016, noon-5pm, in room 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre, Elgin Street at 320 Jack Purcell Lane, Ottawa. Both events are free to the public! But you should totally bring a handful of cash...

Of course, there will be a TON of above/ground press items, including a couple things I haven't even told you about yet! Come by and say hello, if you can...

above/ground press participates in the (second) fisher fine and small press fair at the univeristy of toronto, sept 12, 2015

Given the success of their prior small press book fair, The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is holding a second small press fair in their space!

Come by and see what above/ground press (and numerous other publishers) have been up to lately.

FISHER FINE AND SMALL PRESS FAIR

Saturday September 12, 2015

Time: 10 am-5 pm

Location: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 120 St. George St. (corner of St. George and Harbord)

http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/fisher-small-press-fair

above/ground press at Meet the Presses' 2014 Indie Market!

Saturday, November 22, 11:30 am – 5 pm

The Tranzac Club, Toronto

The Meet the Presses collective presents the 2014 Indie Literary Market, where handpicked literary presses and magazines stand behind their work!

The Market will also feature the announcement of the winner of the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award! See the shortlist for 2014 here.


Participating publishers and mags tentatively include:
above/ground press (Ottawa) • Mansfield Press (Toronto) • Proper Tales Press (Cobourg) • Pedlar Press (St. John’s) • Rampike (Windsor) • Apt. 9 Press (Ottawa) • Porcupine’s Quill (Erin) • Cough (Toronto) • Baseline Press (London) • Serif of Nottingham (Hamilton) • Frog Hollow (Victoria) • Coach House Books (Toronto) • Laurel Reed Books (Mt. Pleasant) • Gesture Press (Toronto) • Thee Hellbox Press (Kingston) • BookThug (Toronto) • Taddle Creek  (Toronto) • Sunnyoutside Press (Buffalo) • Little Brother Magazine (Toronto) • Biblioasis (Windsor) • Wolsak and Wynn (Hamilton) • Underwhich Editions (Toronto) • Imago/Red Iron (Toronto) • Junction Books (Toronto) • Phafours (Ottawa) • words(on)pages (Toronto) • OutWrites (Toronto)

Facebook event page here.

above/ground press at the ottawa small press book fair!

We will once again be participating in the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair, which will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at the Jack Purcell Community Centre with plenty of items we haven't even told you about yet! (why miss out? subscribe!) Also, our own Jennifer Baker will be launching her chapbook, Abject Lessons (2014), as part of The Factory Reading Series' pre-fair event on the evening of November 7th!

above/ground press participates in the fisher small press fair at university of toronto, september 7, 2013

Fisher Small Press Fair

To celebrate the small and fine press publishers whose work is represented in the current exhibition A Death Greatly Exaggerated (including above/ground press), the Fisher Library is holding its first-ever small press fair. We're extending the exhibition for an extra week into September and holding the fair on the first Saturday of the month.

Featuring many of the publishers represented in the exhibition, the fair will provide visitors the opportunity to meet these talented and dedicated publishers, chat with them about their work, and to purchase their books and items. It will be a special event that you won't want to miss!

Confirmed publishers include: Coach House Press, Porcupine's Quill, Ewa Zebrowski, George A. Walker, Shanty Bay Press, Alan Stein/Church Street Press, above/ground, Greyweather's Press, Thee Hellbox Press, John Grande's Go If Press, Imago Press, Thomas Dannenberg, Pas de Chance, Lindsay Zier-Vogel's Puddle Press, as well as above/ground press and Chaudiere Books. Check this link for more information, and updates on more publishers as we confirm their participation.

Saturday September 7, 2013
10 am-5 pm
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 120 St. George St. (corner of St. George and Harbord)

new from above/ground press: The creeks, by rob mclennan

The creeks
rob mclennan
$4

The creeks:

            Mercy does not come from the sky
                     Norma Cole, Coleman Hawkins Ornette Coleman


Watershed. Stretched, a bend. Erupts. To be vulgar, coarse. Urban song, a thread of water. Spills. Underground, a Mohawk sky. We catch the rain. It snowflakes, tongue. Dark, manifold. So much a mirror, corner. Questions, held. Held up. This constellation, margin. Deeper than fulfilled, arthritic postures. We were not afraid. Thin, silent, mouths. Eye on you and then.


*


Search. We hold the river, down. This resolution, meets. Mouth to concentration, mouth. I can’t go. No stream made, out-of-print. Useless, feathered, goods. What drawn and twisted, space. Snow warrant. Thin portraits. A simple-minded function. What ritual, thing. The trees, the skimming moon. Bookstalls. A brittle, darkened room. The pavement, ear. Abyss. Tonal waves direct.


*


Atlantic, between. Heavy manner, a centred abyss. This battered dawn, bashed ancient stone. The remains of civilization. First thought, Ur-thought. Grotesque. The ocean’s subdivision. Tactless. Define a score, a roundabout, a hedge. A supernatural crescent. This heated, cooling effort. Passive, energized. History, become a mine. A gravel tendril. Soothe. You, who are large in our eyes.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Produced, in part, as a handout for the 7th annual Welcome to Boog City poetry, music and theater festival, August 2-5, 2013 in New York City. Thanks much to David Kirschenbaum and Adam Tobin for their help and support. See the facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/487315468023865/

The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, rob mclennan won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include the poetry collection Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012) and a second novel, missing persons (2009). The Uncertainty Principle: stories, is scheduled to appear in spring 2014. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

above/ground press at the ottawa small press book fair, june 15, 2013

above/ground press is gearing up for our involvement in the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair, featuring mounds upon mounds of publications, including the incredible amount the press has generated over the past year. Can you afford to miss it?

We might even have some new surprises. Shhhhhhhhh.

The Jack Purcell Community Centre (second floor)
from noon to 5pm
at Jack Purcell Lane, just by Elgin and Gilmour Streets, Ottawa
see the link here for all information

above/ground press at the virus bookfair, st. catharines, ontario saturday june 16 2012

above/ground press and Chaudiere Books will be participating in this year's Virus Bookfair on Saturday, June 16, 2012, in St. Catharines, Ontario, as part of the month long Niagara Literary Arts Festival. The fair runs from noon to 5pm, with the After A Fair literary reading will at the MahTay Cafe starting at 7pm, featuring performers Ellen S. Jaffe, Betsy Belega, Lisa de Nikoltis and Brenda Missen.

The Virus BookFair runs throughout a number of venues in downtown St. Catharines, with our little table, featuring various publications by above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, rob mclennan and Christine McNair, will be at the MahTay Cafe, 241 Saint Paul Street, St Catherines, ON L2R3M7. (905) 685-4040

Also, check out rob mclennan and Christine McNair's reading the evening before at Patrick Sheehan's Irish Pub, 101 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines.

For more information on the Virus BookFair and/or the Niagara Literary Arts Festival, contact Jordan Fry at niagaraliteraryartsfestival@gmail.com or 905.329.4739.