some author activity: hastain, Cook, Olsen + Mohammadi,

j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have a new collaboration up at Berfrois; Geoffrey Olsen has new work in the debut volume of Works & Days; and Khashayar Mohammadi has some new work up at the Ex-Puritan.

some author activity: dueck, hastain, mclennan, Radmore + Manery,

nathan dueck has some new work in where is the river; j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have some collaborative work online via The Operating System; rob mclennan and forthcoming author Claudia Coutu Radmore participate in Vallum magazine's 2018 year in review; and Rob Manery is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

new from above/ground press: G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #1

above/ground press debuts a new journal this week: 
G U E S T [a journal of guest editors]

issue #1 is edited by Amanda Earl 
(issue #2 will be edited by Stuart Ross)

and this first issue features new work by:

Manahil Bandukwala
Ariel Dawn
Allie Duff
Brinda Gulati
j / j hastain
Ren Iwamoto
Margo Lapierre
Dona Mayoora
Ashley Naftule
Dominik Parisien
Fátima Queiroz
Rasiqra Revulva
Sneha Subramanian Kanta
+ Ur-Matter
 
See the link here for author and editor biographies, ordering information and Amanda's introduction!

As you might already know, guest editor Amanda Earl is also the author of six chapbooks through above/ground press, including Eleanor (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), A Book of Saints (2015), Lady Lazarus Redux (2017) and The Book of Mark (2018).
 
and don't worry: G U E S T is already included as part of the above/ground press subscription! (there's still time to subscribe for 2019 if you haven't already)

some author activity: hastain, Price, Baker, Blouin + Downs,

j/j hastain and Juliet Cook have some new collaborative work up at tenderness, yea; Katie L. Price is interviewed over at Speaking of Marvels; Jennifer Baker was interviewed earlier this year at Aella's blog; Michael Blouin has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day; and Buck Downs is featured at Medium as part of rob mclennan's Spotlight series.

some author activity: Cook, hastain, McElroy, Armantrout + Siklosi,

Sarah Cook has a new essay, "In Defense of Infiltration," at ASAP Journal; j/j hastain has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Gil McElroy; Rae Armantrout has a new poem up at the Poetry Foundation website, and then another one; and Kate Siklosi collaborates on an interview on Gap Riot Press.

some author activity: hastain, Polyck-O'Neill + Bolster,

j/j hastain is the subject of an essay over at many gendered mothers; Julia Polyck-O'Neill has a new poem posted in the "Tuesday poem" series at dusie; and Stephanie Bolster has some new poems up at Numéro Cinq.

some author activity: hastain, Barwin, Robertson, Flemmer + mclennan,

j/j hastain is interviewed over at Queen Mob's Teahouse; Jennifer LoveGrove interviews Gary Barwin over at Open Book; Lisa Robertson has a new essay up at Harriet, the blog for the Poetry Foundation; Kyle Flemmer has a new essay up in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and rob mclennan has a new poem online as part of National Poetry Month over at the Chaudiere Books blog.

some author activity: Moritz, mclennan, McElroy, hastain, Pirie + Stewart,

Rachel Moritz is interviewed over at the website for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation; rob mclennan's short 'commentary' on Gil McElroy is now up at Jacket2; a new interview with j/j hastain is now up at Touch the Donkey; Pearl Pirie answers the "Canadian Poetries Questionnaire"; and Christine Stewart has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog.

some author activity: Robertson, Smith, hastain, Reed + Armantrout,

Lisa Roberton's "Essay on Origins" is included in the new issue of The Rusty Toque; Jessica Smith has a new poem up at Open Letters Monthly; j/j hastain has new work in issue #8 of summer stock; Megan Burns interviews Marthe Reed over at The Conversant; and Rae Armantrout has four new poems up at Jacket2.

some author activity: Kaminksi, Dyckman, Carr, hastain + Ursuliak,

Megan Kaminski offers an "object lesson" on the box of wine in The Atlantic; Susanne Dyckman is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Emily Carr has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; j/j hastain has a new essay posted as part of the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; and Emily Ursuliak has a new piece up at One Throne magazine.

some author activity: Abel, Hancock, Markotić, Cooley, Graham, hastain, Barbour, Murphy, eckhoff + Pirie,

Jordan Abel is interviewed in the "Six Questions" series for the sake of his inclusion on the 2014 Gerald Lampert Award shortlist; Brecken Hancock has four poems up on Lemonhound; both Nicole Markotić and Dennis Cooley have new poems up at Atticus Review, as well as a short introductory essay on their work by Lea Graham; j/j hastain, as well as Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy, have new work in the second issue of Posit; there's a new interview with kevin mcpherson eckhoff up at Poets Touching Trees; and Pearl Pirie participates in the "My Writing Process: Blog Tour" meme.

National Poetry Month: mclennan, hastain, Pirie, Barwin, Martin + Betts,

In case you missed it, Amanda Earl's National Poetry Month featured a number of new poems by above/ground press authors, including rob mclennan, j/j hastain, Pearl Pirie, Gary Barwin, Camille Martin, Gregory Betts, Karen Massey and Gil McElroy, as well as a number of other incredible works by poets (predominantly working with visuals) from around the world.

some author activity: Armantrout, Schapira, Smith, Brockwell, Earl, Hancock, mclennan + hastain,

Some early recordings of Rae Armantrout reading are now posted up at PennSound; Newport Life Magazine features a selection of poems for poetry month, including new work by Kate Schapira and Jessica Smith, among others; Stephen Brockwell has a couple of new poems up at Maple Tree Literary Supplement; and Jessica Smith, Amanda Earl, Brecken Hancock, rob mclennan, j/j hastain all have new work up in the ninth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.

some author activity: Pirie, Barwin, hastain, Barton, Douglas, McKinnon, Simpson, Abel,

Pearl Pirie has a new poem in the March issue of Bywords.ca; Gary Barwin offers the fourth "first reading" of M. NourbeSe Philip's 'Zong' #6 over at Jacket2; j/j hastain responds to Jennifer K. Dick's series of essays on the fragment; John Barton has two new poems up at TRUCK, near the end of Colin Morton and Mary Lee Bragg's month curating March, as does Rhonda Douglas; Paul E. Nelson writes on Barry McKinnon; Rachael Simpson participates in the "My Writing Process - blog tour" interview; and Sean Cranbury interviews Jordan Abel for 49th Shelf.

some author activity: Martin, Hall, hastain + Reed,

[a photo of some older above/ground titles Cameron Anstee picked up recently] Camille Martin has (as she writes) "been writing an illustrated exploration of the life and work of Robert Zend (1929-1985), avant-garde Hungarian-Canadian poet and artist. It features photographs, poetry, concrete poetry, collages, typewriter art, and fiction, some of it never before made public. Special attention will be given to Zend's cosmopolitan literary spirit, including his international influences and affinities. I'll be posting installments twice a week on my blog, Rogue Embryo." The first of these installments is now up; Ann Ireland interviews Phil Hall over at Numero Cinq; j/j hastain has new work in dusie #15; and Marthe Reed has new work in Otoliths #32.

some author activity: Folsom, hastain, MillAr, McCann, Barwin + Sand,

Eric Folsom provides a new essay in the "On Writing" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; j/j hastain is interviewed by Amanda Earl over at DevilHousePress; over at his blog, Jay MillAr posts a short essay on Toronto small press legend Crad Kilodney; we seem to have missed this new poem by Marcus McCann in the September 2013 issue of The Steel Chisel; Gary Barwin interviews Geof Huth over at Jacket2; and Kaia Sand has some new work and accompanying statement over at Everyday Genius.

some author activity: Bolster, Abel, Dolman, Dennis, hastain, Hall + Wilkinson;

Stephanie Bolster is interviewed by Montreal poet and blogger Susan Gillis; the website CanLit Guides writes on "Visual Poetry and Indigenous-Settler Issues: Shane Rhodes and Jordan Abel"; Anita Dolman reads at The TREE Reading Series, Ottawa, on December 10, 2013 alongside Mike Caesar and Peter Richardson; and above/ground press authors Amy Dennis, j/j hastain, Phil Hall and Joshua Marie Wilkinson each have new work up in the 8th issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics.

new from above/ground press: After Swann, by Marthe Reed

After Swann
Marthe Reed
$4

21

these dreams
stop like a clock
a malady

too irresistible
this black cavity
precisely the same

she might have a red
principle
a certain type of femininity

her subjection
fixed in
space

oh, marvelous
the tombs
of sunlight straying

impossible for me
the vagrancy
of her

detachment
that face
deliberately unfinished

present except
in a flood of blue light
that current

we imagine
almost ours
that sort of tenderness
the instant of pain
the special pleasure
and seize

the mysterious object
still alive
buried in a couch of grass

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

The text for these constraint-driven poems is collaged from the Moncrieff translation of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, accessed via Project Gutenberg.

Marthe Reed is the author of three books: (em)bodied bliss (Moria Books 2013), Gaze (Black Radish Books 2010) and Tender Box, A Wunderkammer (Lavender Ink 2007). A fourth book, Pleth, a collaboration with j hastain, will appear September 2013 from Unlikely Books; a fifth will be published by Lavender Ink (2014). She has also published four chapbooks as part of the Dusie Kollektiv. Her poetry has appeared in New American Writing, Golden Handcuffs Review, New Orleans Review, HOW2, MiPOesias, Fairy Tale Review, Exquisite Corpse, BlazeVOX, and The Offending Adam, among others. Her manuscript, an earth of sweetness dances in the vein, was a finalist in Ahsahta Press’ 2006 Sawtooth Poetry Contest; her manuscript Nights Reading was a finalist for the Elizabeth P. Braddock Prize (Coconut Books). An essay on Claudia Rankine’s The Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue appears in American Letters and Commentary.

Marthe Reed will be launching After Swann in Ottawa as part of the above/ground press 20th anniversary reading/launch/party on August 23, 2013.

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

some author activity: Turnbull, Pirie, Armantrout, Robertson, Mangold + hastain,

a. rawlings did a small write-up on above/ground press author Chris Turnbull's "rout/e" project; Pearl Pirie discusses Rae Armantrout in her essay, "What is Being Said," recently posted on her blog; Michael Redhill discusses Lisa Robertson over at Lemonhound; Armantrout reads Fanny Howe's poem "9/11" over at the Library of Congress website; Tsering Wangmo Dhompa writes on Sarah Mangold over at Harriet; and j/j hastain has a new poem posted on the Dusie blog as part of the Tuesday poem.

some author activity: Robertson, Pirie, Hancock, mclennan, Martin, hastain + Nichol,

Are you ready for spring yet? Until then, there's a new interview with Lisa Robertson at The Rusty Toque; Pearl Pirie has a new essay up at Canadian Poetries, and a new poem over at Poem in Which; Pirie was also good enough to post a photo of Brecken Hancock from her recent appearance in the open set at The TREE Reading Series; Camille Martin gets reviewed over at Bookslut; j/j hastain participates in The Next Big Thing self-interview series; and the online archive for the late Toronto poet bpNichol has been extensively updated.