Some author activity: Stewart, Robertson, Markotic + Wilkinson; and McElroy, McNair + Markotic at VERSeFest!

Fenn Stewart, Lisa Robertson and Nicole Markotic read with Susan Holbrook in Toronto on Friday, March 8, 2013, hosted by the Toronto New School of Writing; and Joshua Marie Wilkinson has a new essay, "On Poetry & Accessibility," over at The Volta, and a review-essay over at West Branch Wired. And don't forget Gil McElroy, Christine McNair and Nicole Markotic (and many others) at this year's VERSeFest!

new from above/ground press: A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost Its Puff, by Kaia Sand

A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost Its Puff
Kaia Sand
$4

Notes on the Premiere Performance of A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost Its Puff

Early in the fall of 2010, Jules Boykoff, our daughter Jessi Wahnetah, and I visited whistler and magician Mitch Hider in Eugene, Oregon, USA, where he whistled as a human jukebox in his driveway, then staged a magic show in his living room. Afterward, we brainstormed ideas about creating a magic show to tell the story of the shenanigans and deceit surrounding the 2008 financial collapse. Over the next couple of months, I wrote a script, mailing drafts to Mitch, and we would then talk by phone, dreaming up magic tricks to intersect with the script. All the while, Jules provided feedback. As I doggedly aimed to describe the lead-up to the financial collapse, I hoped to accomplish this with playful language, so I frequently tried out the language on eight-year-old Jessi.

On December 1, 2010, we performed the show at Field Work, an art space in downtown Portland, Oregon that inhabits a former retail space slated for demolition. I played the role of storyteller, Mitch performed the magician known as the Fabulous Mitchelli, and Jules served as the Magician’s Assistant. Jessi organized children’s participation from the audience, and Jen Coleman was an audience volunteer. Meg Eberle, Sue Schoenbeck, Marjorie Pratt and Jessi all created props. The magic show was part of a larger Econ Salon, a format I began curating in 2008 by bringing together poets, artists, economists, and activists to better understand the financial collapse and organize creative responses.

Video footage of the premiere performance is available at http://kaiasand.net/happy-valley-project/

Kaia Sand is the author of Remember to Wave (Tinfish Press 2010), a book that is also a walk Sand led in Portland investigating political history and current goings-on. She is also the author of the poetry collection interval (Edge Books, selected as a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year 2004); co-author with Jules Boykoff of Landscapes of Dissent (Palm Press 2008); and her poetry serves as the text for two of the books made by Jim Dine for Hot Dream: 52 Books (Steidl Editions 2008). Sand has created many chapbooks for the dusie kollektiv, and links to these, as well as many of her poetry projects, can be found at the webpage http://kaiasand.net. Sand is currently working with Garrick Imatani as Artists in Residence at the Portland Archive and Records Center.

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

Produced, in part, as a handout for the 2013 AWP Conference and Bookfair, Boston MA, March 6 – 9. Thanks much to Sarah Rosenthal and Jill Stengel for their help and support.

To pick up a free copy at AWP, head over to the combined Black Radish / Dusie booth.

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

“poem” broadside #317: Rosarose, by Jeremy Colangelo

For Gertrude Stein

A rose
A rose
A rose a rose a rose a
Rose a rose a
Rose-a-rose-a-rose-a
Rose arosea
Rosa Rose arose
Rosa, rose
Rosa Rose rose Rose
Rose, a rose, arose a Rosa Rose

Rosearose

Jeremy Colangelo

above/ground press broadside #317

Work by Jeremy Colangelo has appeared in The Dalhousie Review, Popshot Magazine, ditch, Steel Bananas, and elsewhere. He has also published two poetry chapbooks with Grey Borders Books, and a prose chapbook with Ribbon Pig. Jeremy lives in London, Ontario, and is currently working on an MA in English.

William Hawkins inducted into the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour

Ottawa poet and above/ground press author William Hawkins is one of the first two inductees (along with Greg "Ritalin" Frankson) in the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour, to be held towards the end of this year's third annual VERSeFest, on March 17.

above/ground press published William Hawkins' poetry chapbook the black prince of bank street (2007) as part of our fourteenth anniversary reading/launch, and new poems have appeared in various issues of The Peter F Yacht Club, including #4 and #11.

Other items have appeared with Cameron Anstee's Apt. 9 Press; he writes his own note on Hawkins, here.

new from above/ground press: THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS), by Amy Dennis

THE COMPLEMENT AND ANTAGONIST
OF BLACK (OR, THE DEFINITION OF ALL
VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS)
Amy Dennis
$4

Rauschenberg – even his blankness 

couldn’t stay sacred; the panels’ ashen trinity

not spoken of in a church although one couldn’t

be more immaculate than those vacuous

canvases.

Chaste spaces invite shadows invite art. Mirrors

of air licked

by many. Frames for chance

theatre. Airports

for dust

                                                           mites.

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

In addition to publications in England and France, Amy Dennis’ poetry has appeared in more than a dozen Canadian literary publications, such as CV2, Event, Queen’s Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. Her poetry has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and a Random House Creative Writing Award. She placed second in the UK’s National Bedford Open Poetry Competition. She now lives in the UK where she is completing her PhD.

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

Christine McNair's spring readings: Wolfville, Ottawa, Toronto, St. Catharines, Calgary, Regina, Vancouver + Hamilton

above/ground press author Christine McNair is doing a spring tour, with dates across Canada throughout the next four months. You should totally go hear her, if you are able.

She's touring predominantly for her first trade poetry collection, Conflict (BookThug, 2012), but copies of her collaborative chapbook with rob mclennan, Prelude: selections from a collaboration (2012) are still available. You can also check out an above/ground press broadside of hers, here.

WOLFVILLE, NS: Friday March 1, 2013
Authors@Acadia
Where: Acadia University, Wolfville, NS
Vaughan Memorial Library, 4pm
http://valleyevents.ca/event?id=20740

OTTAWA, ON: Sunday March 17, 2013
VerseFest: A World of Poetry in Ottawa
Christine McNair, Ken Babstock and Anne Simpson
Where: Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward Market Sq, Ottawa, 4:00 PM
http://www.versefest.ca/2013/schedule/sunday/

TORONTO, ON: Wednesday April 10, 2013
Pivot Reading Series
Christine McNair with Roseanne Carrara and Jessica Hiemstra.
Where: The Press Club, 850 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, 8:00 PM
Hosted by Jacob McArthur Mooney.
http://pivotreadings.ca/

ST CATHARINES, ON: Friday April 26, 2013
In The Soil Arts Festival Presents Christine McNair and Mark Goldstein with other readers and musical guests: TBA
Where: Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, ON, 8:00 PM
Hosted by: Eric Schmaltz
http://www.inthesoil.on.ca/

CALGARY, AB: Thursday May 9, 2013
filling Station’s Flywheel Reading Series presents Christine McNair, author of Conflict and Sandra Ridley with other readers TBA.
Where: Pages Books on Kensington, 1135 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB, 7:30 PM
http://www.fillingstation.ca/flywheel

REGINA, SK: Monday May 13, 2013
Vertigo Reading Series presents Christine McNair, author of Conflict and Sandra Ridley with other readers TBA.
Where: Crave Kitchen + Wine Bar, 1925 Victoria Avenue, Regina, SK, 7:30 PM
Hosted by: Tara Dawn Solheim
http://vertigoreadingseries.wordpress.com/

VANCOUVER, BC: Tuesday May 14, 2013
Real Vancouver Writers’ Reading Series presents Christine McNair and Sandra Ridley with other readers TBA.
Where: TBA, Vancouver, BC, 8:00 PM
Hosted by: Sean Cranbury
http://realvancouverwriters.org/

ST. CATHARINES, ON: Saturday June 29, 2013
Niagara Literary Arts Festival Presents BookThug Author Night
Featuring readings by: Mark Goldstein, Beatriz Hausner, Christine McNair, Shannon Maguire, David Dowker, bill bissett, Head Thug Jay Millar and more
Where: Mahtay Cafe, 241 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, ON
Time: TBA PM
http://nlaf.jigsy.com/

HAMILTON, ON: Sunday November 3, 2013
The LitLive Reading Series presents Christine McNair with other readers TBA
Where: The Homegrown Hamilton Cafe, on the 1st Floor of the Skydragon Centre, 27 King William Street, Hamilton, ON, 7:30 PM
http://litlive.blogspot.ca/

some author activity: Norris, Gold, Armantrout, Martin + mclennan,

Vehicule poets and above/ground press authors Ken Norris and Artie Gold are part of the brand-new Vehicule Poets website; Will Vallières discusses the title poem of Rae Armantrout's chapbook, Custom, over at Lemonhound; Camille Martin has new poetry up at The Rusty Toque, and reads in Vancouver with Andrew Kaufman and Barry Webster at the UBC Robson Reading Series on March 14, 2013; and rob mclennan has a new poem on Konundrum Engine Literary Engine.