report: Writer-in-Residence 50th Anniversary Alumni Showcase : Abel, Marlatt, Wah, mclennan, Carpenter, fitzpatrick, etc

In case you hadn't heard, above/ground press was well represented this past week at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, as part of the University of Alberta's Writer-in-Residence 50th Anniversary Alumni Showcase, held near the end of a full week when a slew of us prior writers-in-residence got to spend time together at the Banff Centre, up in them mountains (there was a full two days of snowfall, if you can imagine).

Hosted by Jordan Abel [who currently runs the w-i-r program], Jason Purcell and Julianna Wager [above, who organized the entire week as well], the event had opening remarks on a (very) brief history of the University of Alberta writer-in-residence program [remember when I conducted all those interviews for the fortieth, with every still-living uAlberta writer-in-residence I could find?] by Thomas Wharton, and readings by Daphne Marlatt, Fred Wah, Marilyn Dumont, Makda Mulatu, rob mclennan, Joshua Whitehead, January Rogers, J.R. Carpenter, ryan fitzpatrick, Cody Caetano, Jana Pruden, Kaitlyn Purcell and Hiromi Goto. There was a livestream that one can catch here, which unfortunately missed Wharton, picking up only mid-point through Marlatt's reading, but the full event was recorded, and should be up soon.

[J.R. Carpenter, above] With everyone reading roughly five minutes each, it truly was a remarkable event overall, including singing, staccato, lyric, chanting and prose, and even some tears. As you already know, the event was also a kind of launch for a handful of recent above/ground press titles specifically made for the event, by myself, Fred Wah, Daphne Marlatt, J.R. Carpenter, ryan fitzpatrick and Derek Beaulieu (Director of the Literary Arts at Banff, but not actually reading, although in the audience), although Wah was the only one of the group that actually read from his new title (I mean, I didn't even do that, so I've no business throwing shade). There were a handful of copies of all of these titles on site for free distribution, both through the event specifically and across the whole week, with a mound of copies still available gratis through the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta (just prod at Jordan Abel, if you are up that way), or just order direct from the press, of course. And did you hear I'm even back at the Banff Centre this November? I've already got a new slew of above/ground press publications in the works, just you wait.

[ryan fitzpatrick, above] It was good, also, to see various audience I hadn't been expecting (amid our packed house), including poet and former Tsunami Editions publisher Michael Barnholden, driving in from Edmonton with his wife, or poet Ryanne Kap, driving in from Calgary with a friend. Separately, Winnipeg poet Sharanpal Ruprai was actually at Banff as part of a playwriting retreat, and Vancouver poet Adèle Barclay was there as well, working a couple of weeks in one of the Leighton cabins, retreating. Edmonton writer Conor Kerr, who teaches at the University of Alberta, was also part of our group for most of the week. It still doesn't feel real, how good it all was.

Cole Swensen zoom-interviews rob mclennan, Misha Solomon + Jennifer Baker May 20th on above/ground press for Brooklyn Rail,

Publishing-in-Transit: above/ground
Featuring Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, Misha Solomon

Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

REGISTER HERE

Poets Jennifer Baker, rob mclennan, and Misha Solomon join Rail contributor Cole Swensen for a conversation on Zoom on above/ground press (which turns thirty-three years old this summer, by the way). 

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Teaching Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of four chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021/reissued by above/ground press, 2023), Memento Mishka (co-authored with David Currie, Apt. 9 Press, 2023), and Wee Walk (above/ground press, 2026). Her work has been featured in Groundwork: Best of above/ground press (2023), Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, Canadian Literature, Dusie, and the Delisted project. 

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 some fifty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles include On Beauty: stories (University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collections the book of sentences (University of Calgary Press, 2025) and edgeless (Caitlin Press, 2026), and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). The current Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he founded above/ground press, a publisher of chapbooks, journals and other ephemera, way back in July 1993. He also spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

Misha Solomon is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His work has appeared in journals across Canada and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2024, 2026, and 2027 (Biblioasis) and in On Occasion: Poems for the People (Coach House Books). He is the author of three chapbooks, including FLORALS and Misha Solomon's BIODÔME: A Bestiary after Stephanie Bolster (above/ground press), and one full-length collection, My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet (Brick Books). He has a BA from Columbia University, an MA from Concordia University, and he is currently a student in Concordia’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program.

Cole Swensen [see her above/ground press title here] is the author of twenty volumes of poetry, most recently And And And (Shearsman Books, 2023), which was long-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a collection of critical essays, Noise That Stays Noise. A book of hybrid poem-essays, Art in Time, was published by Nightboat in 2021. A former Guggenheim Fellow, she has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Award and has been awarded the Iowa Poetry Prize, the SF State Poetry Center Book Award, and the National Poetry Series. She has also translated over twenty volumes of poetry, prose, and art criticism from French and won the 2024 ALTA National Translation Award and the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Translation Award.

Writer-in-Residence 50th Anniversary Alumni Showcase: mclennan, fitzpatrick, Wah, Marlatt, Carpenter, etc;

May 15, 2026 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Clvb 33, St. Julien Way, Banff, AB and online

REGISTER HERE;

The Writer-in-Residence program in the Department of English and Film Studies is delighted to invite you to attend our 50th anniversary Writer-in-Residence Alumni Showcase at the Banff Centre's Clvb 33. All are welcome to attend either in person or virtually.

There will be readings from Thomas Wharton, Fred Wah, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Cody Caetano, JR Carpenter, rob mclennan, Daphne Marlatt, Jana Pruden, Hiromi Goto, and Marilyn Dumont.

Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series: A tribute to Larry Sawyer, March 7, 2026

Lit Balm : An Interactive Livestream Reading Series presents:
A Tribute to Larry Sawyer

Saturday, March 7, 5pm EST on Zoom: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/461603228
see the facebook event page here

Featuring Friends Reading and Reminiscing by:

Vincent Katz : Paul Hoover : Sheila Murphy : Dale Smith : Tony Trigilio : rob mclennan

With Lina Ramona Vitkauskas

Hosted by Jefrey Cyphers Wright
And the Lit Balm crew : Marc Vincenz, Cassandra Atherton, Jonathan Penton and Jon Wesick.

a (zoom) conversation between Renée Sarojini Saklikar and rob mclennan : December 7, 2025

a (zoom) conversation between Renée Sarojini Saklikar and rob mclennan
on above/ground press
in which they (also) each read from recent work
Sunday Dec 7, 2025 / 7pm EST on zoom

a zoom link will be offered just prior to the event via the facebook event page; or email rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com to register;

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is the author of five books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, and Pulp Literature. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey (2015-2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU, and teaches Creative Writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery is the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOTJBAP, forthcoming in Spring 2026 with Nightwood Editions. She lives in East Vancouver.

Saklikar is the author of three titles through above/ground press: After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (2016; second printing, 2019), from The Book of Bramah (2019) and Voices from Planet X ~ speculative verse from the THOTJBAP series (2025).

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 some fifty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles include On Beauty: stories (University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collections the book of sentences (University of Calgary Press, 2025) and edgeless (Caitlin Press, 2026), and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). The current Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.

He founded above/ground press way back in July 1993, having produced nearly 1,500 items-to-date, the bulk of which have been single author poetry chapbooks. His publishing mantra continues to be: "relentless."

some author activity: mclennan, Niespodziany, Jenks, Shirley, Williams, Logan, Kemp-Gee + Young,

rob mclennan has a poem up at Pamenar Press online; the full event of Benjamin Niespodziany's Surreal-Absurd Reading Marathon, featuring a handful of above/ground press authors including Tom Jenks, Vik Shirley, Evan Williams and Nate Logan, is now up on YouTube! ; Meghan Kemp-Gee has a new poem up at Eunoia Review; and Geoffrey Young had a poem a while back on the Best American Poetry blog.

Jacob Wren and Erin Brubacher at Perfect Books, Ottawa: Monday, August 11, 2025

Erin Brubacher and Jacob Wren, hosted by Rachel Weldon
Perfect Books
Monday August 11th
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
258A Elgin St, Ottawa

In writing that speaks to the here and now, two protagonists, in very different ways, seek connection as an antidote for hopelessness.

Erin Brubacher and above/ground press author Jacob Wren (From Desire Without Expectation) read from their recent novels: These Songs I Know By Heart and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim, and converse on the intersections between literature and performance making, and the personal and political. Hosted by Debaser's Rachel Weldon.

-Erin Brubacher, These Songs I Know By Heart (Book*hug Press): Seeking and searching; making art; making new friends; getting divorced; falling in love; becoming a stepparent; surviving miscarriage; enduring this pandemic; valuing lakes, lilies, and mosses; and celebrating the quiet moments between people. A novel about living inside the unknowing: surrendering control and finding joy in the free fall of it all... It’s about love.

“This book left me feeling less alone.” – Aimee Wall, author of We, Jane

-Jacob Wren, Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim (Book*hug Press): In these pages, real-world politics mingle with profoundly inventive fabulations. This is an anti-war novel unlike any other, an intricate study of our complicity in violent global systems and a celebration of the hope that underpins the resistance against them.

“A knowing knot of courage and its opposite, and a defiant work of desperate grace.” — Eugene Lim, author of Search History

some author activity: Logan, Armantrout, Stanley, Brenner + Naughton,

Nate Logan has work up in the Spotlight series; Rae Armantrout is interviewed by Paul Semel; a video of George Stanley reading at San Francisco State University's Poetry Center from October 24, 2013 is now online via the Poetry Center Digital Archive; Summer Brenner has a poem up at Poets Reading The News; and Katie Naughton is interviewed by Emily Harnden as part of an alumni spotlight via the Colorado State University website.

some author activity: Ballard, Smith, Kaminski, Trivedi + Houbolt,

the livestream video for Kevin Opstedal and Micah Ballard's July 21, 2024 reading at Bird & Beckett Books, San Francisco is now online; Mahaila Smith is interviewed over at News & Press from The Future Fire; Megan Kaminski has poems from a new project forthcoming in Plant Perspectives; Amish Trivedi read some poems as part of the Disaster Research Center 60th Anniversary Workshop at the University of Delaware, now up on YouTube; and Kyla Houbolt has two new poems and a write-up newly posted at Moist Poetry Journal.

the above/ground press 31st anniversary reading/launch/party : August 10 2024 : Red Bird Live,

: tickets available here :

some upcoming author readings: mclennan in Picton, Ebbitt in NYC + Tracy, Casteels + Heroux in Kingston, etc

rob mclennan reads with Kingston poet and Anstruther Press author Y. S. Lee on Thursday, June 20 in Picton, Ontario as part of the PEP Rally series hosted by Assembly Press: 6:30-8pm at Books & Company, 289 Main Street; Katie Ebbitt launches her above/ground press title alongside Riley Mac, Sophia Kiam, Coco Gordon Moore, Krithika Varagur and Stephanie Wambugu as part of Red Room KGB, 7pm on Sunday, June 23 in New York City; Dale Tracy launches her above/ground press title alongside Michael e. Casteels and Jason Heroux chapbook launches on Tuesday, June 18, 7pm, at Novel Idea Bookstore in Kingston, 156 Princess Street ; and you heard the ottawa small press book fair is next weekend, yes?

an above/ground press (zoom) launch, May 19, 2024: Ballard, Eleftherion Carr, Deutch, Ebbitt + Polyck-O'Neill : video now online,

In case you missed it, the video for the above/ground press (zoom) launch from May 19, 2024 is now online, posted to the same YouTube channel that also hosts the ongoing  virtual reading series via periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. With readings and launches by five different above/ground press authors: Micah Ballard (San Francisco CA), Melissa Eleftherion Carr (Ukiah CA), Amanda Deutch (Brooklyn NY), Katie Ebbitt (New York NY) + Julia Polyck O'Neill (Toronto ON). lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,

 

 
You can find the link to author biographies, as well as to each of the new chapbooks they were launching, here.

an above/ground press (zoom) launch, May 19: Micah Ballard, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, Amanda Deutch, Katie Ebbitt + Julia Polyck-O'Neill,

Micah Ballard (San Francisco CA)
Melissa Eleftherion Carr (Ukiah CA)
Amanda Deutch (Brooklyn NY)
Katie Ebbitt (New York NY)
+
Julia Polyck O'Neill (Toronto ON)

lovingly hosted by publisher/editor rob mclennan
Sunday, May 19 2024: 3pm PST/6pm EST ZOOM
please contact host or readers for zoom link:
rob mclennan : rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com or Melissa Eleftherion Carr : melissa.eleftherion (at) gmail (dot) com

Micah Ballard is the author of over a dozen books of poetry including Waifs and Strays (City Lights Books), Afterlives (Bootstrap Press), The Michaux Notebook (FMSBW), Krewes (Bootstrap Press), Selected Prose, 2008-19 (Blue Press), Evangeline Downs (Ugly Duckling Presse), Daily Vigs (Bird & Beckett Books), Vesper Chimes (Gas Meter), Muddy Waters (State Champs), and Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners (Bootstrap Press). He lives in San Francisco with poet Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, their daughter Lorca, and co-edits Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions.

He will be launching BUSY SECRET (2024), his first chapbook with above/ground press, although he did co-edit G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #21, "Castle Greyskull," with Garrett Caples (above/ground press, 2022).

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. They are the author of the full-length poetry collections, field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), as well as twelve chapbooks including trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020), & sunflower spell (poems-for-all, 2022).  Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Sixth Finch, Entropy, & Barren Magazine. Melissa now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Ukiah. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

She will be launching abject sutures (2024), her third chapbook with above/ground press, after little ditch (2018) and trauma suture (2020).

Amanda Deutch is a poet born and raised in New York City. She is the author of several chapbooks including Bodega Night Pigeon Riot (above/ground press, 2020), and Surf Avenue & 29th Street, Coney Island (Least Weasel Press, 2018). Deutch’s poetry has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Oversound, The Rumpus, Cimarron Review and in many other journals and magazines. An artist book collaboration with Sarah Nicholls, wild anemone, is forthcoming in 2024. She lives in Brooklyn where she is the founder of Parachute Literary Arts.

She will be launching new york ironweed (2024), her second above/ground press title, after bodega night pigeon riot (2020).

Katie Ebbitt is a poet/psycho-behavioralist living in NYC. She is the author of the chapbooks ANOTHER LIFE (Counterpath, 2016), Para Ana (Inpatient, 2019), and Air Sign (Creative Writing Department, 2024). Fecund, her first full-length book, will be released by Keith LLC.

She will be launching HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY (2024), her first title with above/ground press.

Julia Polyck-O’Neill (they/she) is an artist, curator, critic, poet, and writer. They are currently the Michael Ridley Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Guelph and a former SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University’s Sensorium Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. Starting in July 2024, they will be an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her research explores feminist, digital approaches to interdisciplinary artists’ archives and intersections between archives and creative praxis. Her publications appear in Amodern, Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (The Journal for Aesthetics and General Art History), English Studies in Canada, BC Studies, Canadian Literature, and other places.

She will be launching Process (2024), her fourth above/ground press title, after femme (2016), Everything will be taken away (2018) and poem | image | self (2019).

VERSeFest 2024: Reid, drystek, Earl, Dolman, Turnbull, Christie + Mohammadi,

above/ground press authors Monty Reid, nina jane drystek, Amanda Earl, AJ Dolman, Chris Turnbull, Jason Christie and Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi, among plenty of others, read next week in Ottawa as part of VERSeFest 2024 (March 21-24)! Might we see you there? And in case you weren't aware, there have been an array of interviews with a number of authors reading at this year's festival posted over at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, including an interview with AJ Dolman by Amanda Earl and Sandra Ridley by Margo LaPierre, and interviews with Khashayar Mohammadi and Jason Christie by myself (interviews with Chris Turnbull, Laila Malik + Klara du Plessis to post over the next few days!).

Benjamin Niespodziany's virtual reading marathon, September 24, 2023: Logan, mclennan, Walker, Williams, Barwin etc

above/ground press author Benjamin Niespodziany has curated a virtual reading marathon that will go live on Sunday, September 24, 2023 at noon CT, featuring thirty-one readers and nearly three hours of footage! the event also includes plenty of other above/ground press authors, including Nate Logan, rob mclennan, Laura Walker, Evan Williams and Gary Barwin! The premiere link for the event will be here, "live" on YouTube and will continue to be available after the event on his YouTube channel. He has included a list of authors and timestamps, also, if you aren't able to sit through all three hours.

00:00 Intro
01:02 Sparrow
05:12 Rebecca Wadlinger
07:44 Rainie Oet
10:15 Vi Khi Nao
13:07 Nate Logan
15:59 Jose Hernandez Diaz
19:31 Kristin Lueke
20:54 william erickson
25:06 Zachary Schomburg
29:36 Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi
34:37 Angelo Maneage
36:35 Joe Aguilar
42:08 Tyler Barton
50:58 Vik Shirley
54:53 Michael Bazzett
55:21 Daisuke Shen
57:24 rob mclennan
1:07:51 Laura Walker
1:12:56 Tom Snarsky
1:22:00 Evan Williams
1:34:49 Réka Nyitrai
1:36:24 David Wojciechowski
1:45:40 Jay Besemer
1:49:42 Paul Cunningham
1:58:00 David Dodd Lee
2:03:36 Lesle Lewis
2:10:09 Daniel Miller
2:15:51 Rick Bursky
2:24:08 Kai Ihns
2:27:44 Jeff Alessandrelli
2:37:34 Gary Barwin

THIS WEDNESDAY: the ottawa small press book fair pre-fair reading:

readings and chapbook launches by:

Jennifer Baker
David Currie
Vera Hadzic
rob mclennan
+
Pearl Pirie

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
As a precursor to Saturday’s spring edition of the ottawa small press book fair
at Jack Purcell Community Centre:
Doors 7pm / Reading 730pm
Ten Toes Coffee House and Laundry
837 Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,

Jennifer Baker is a poet and Adjunct Professor of English Literature at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of three chapbooks: Abject Lessons (above/ground press, 2014), Groundling (Trainwreck Press, 2021, reissued by above/ground press, 2023), and Memento Mishka (with David Currie, Apt.9 Press, 2023). Her poetry, reviews, and articles can be found in Ottawater, Dusie, Canthius, The Bull Calf, Canadian Literature, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, and Robert Kroetsch: Essayist, Novelist, Poet (University of Ottawa Press, 2020), among others, and she is the 2022 honourable mention recipient of Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize.

David Currie is a writer in Ottawa.  He is the author of five chapbooks and no book books. His chapbooks include Bird Facts (Apt 9 Press, 2014), Mystery Waffles (In/Words Press 2014), Poems for the Mishka (Shrieking Violet Press 2015), The Planets that Block our Light (In/Words 2015), and now Memento Mishka (Apt. 9, 2023) in collaboration with Jennifer Baker.  His poems have appeared in magazines across Canada most recently in Plants, Animals, and Humans (Apartment 613 2023).  He currently works as a political organizer – a job which brings him to exotic locations across Canada most recently the resplendent former municipality of Kanata.

Vera Hadzic is a writer from Ottawa, Ontario, currently studying English and history at the University of Ottawa. Her work has appeared in Minola Review, flo., and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Fossils You Can Swallow, is from Proper Tales Press.

The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, rob mclennan’s most recent titles include the poetry collections the book of smaller (University of Calgary Press, 2022) and World’s End, (ARP Books, 2023), the chapbook The Alta Vista Improvements (above/ground press, 2023), and a suite of pandemic essays, essays in the face of uncertainties (Mansfield Press, 2022). 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

Adding Up to This (Catkin Press, 2023) is Pearl Pirie’s [pictured] newest chapbook. Her next upcoming chapbook is A Couple Sumerians (Turret House Press, 2023). rain's small gestures (Apt 9 Press, 2021) won the Nelson Ball Prize 2022. footlights (Radiant Press, 2020). Support her at Patreon for the price of a coffee or less where there are author updates and poem drafts. Or at Substack where she writes in-depth essays. www.pearlpirie.com