“poem” broadside #342 : “A child speaks to St. Augustine” by rob mclennan

Take up, read. A manner of trace. This footpath, garners. Pints. Take up. Gathers: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. Epsilon. But, the clouds. A pirated code. Two hands, English. The grace of Christ, he reasoned, was indispensable to human freedom. Phrasing, wonder. Little snowflake. Take up. Builds, an east wind. We fabricate syntax. To know more than nothing.

A child speaks to St. Augustine
by rob mclennan
produced in part as a filling Station handout for Calgary’s inaugural Canzine small press and zine fair, November 4th, 2017
above/ground press broadside #342

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 more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his latest chapbook is It’s still winter (above/ground press, 2017), a fragment of the work-in-progress “the book of smaller”. He also has two poetry collections forthcoming: Life Sentence (Flat Singles Press, 2018) and Household items (Salmon Poetry, 2018).

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...

new from above/ground press: Tribeca: Twentieth Anniversary Edition, by Joe Blades

Tribeca: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

by Joe Blades

with a new afterword by the author

$5

in tompkins square

no one bothers us

with our bag-wrapped vodka

here in the night

in tompkins square

even though we don’t sit

near trashcan fires

or have cardboard

bedding under plastic

we sit pulling grain

watching cops on avenue a

behind our backs

an open-columned shrine

faith · hope · charity · compassion

carved in lintel stones

we leave the bottle

empty in its paper bag

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

November 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Tribeca was originally produced through above/ground press in an edition of 300 copies, May 1997. It subsequently appeared in the anthology Groundswell: the best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Fredericton NB: Broken Jaw Press / cauldron books, 2003), edited by rob mclennan.

Joe Blades is currently is a PhD Interdisciplinary Studies student at the University of New Brunswick Fredericton where he also earned a MEd in 2012. A participant– researcher in Canadian Studies in the Balkans since 2004, Blades has authored seven poetry books, with three of them also published in Serbian translation. His writings are in over 50 anthologies as well as more than 30 chapbooks the most recent of which is november poems (dusie kollektiv 8 & BS Poetry Society).

This is Blades’ fifth chapbook with above/ground press, after In the Valley of the Shadow of Poets' Corner (1994), Tribeca (1997), wriding (2000) and “t sea ache,” produced as STANZAS #19 (February 1999).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Archer, Earl, Robinson + Barwin,

Sacha Archer has some new work up at h&; Amanda Earl is interviewed over at Entropy on her AngelHousePress and DevilHousePress; Elizabeth Robinson has work in the new issue of Tupelo Quarterly; and Gary Barwin is interviewed over at TBPL Off the Shelf.

selected above/ground press titles now available at Toronto's knife | fork | book

Toronto's infamous poetry-only bookstore and reading venue, knife | fork | book, has been developing quite the selection of above/ground press titles! They even have a couple of issues of Touch the Donkey, as well. If you're in town, be sure to check them out at their new location as part of The Dark Side Studio, 244 Augusta Avenue, Second Floor (walk-up above Bunner's Bakery).

new from above/ground press: upROUTE : The Language of Plates, Sacha Archer

upROUTE : The Language of Plates

Sacha Archer

$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

October 2017

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Sacha Archer is an ESL instructor, childcare provider, father, writer, and visual artist. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as filling Station, ACTA Victoriana, h&, illiterature, NōD, Experiment-O, UTSANGA, and Matrix. Archer’s first full-length collection of poetry, Detour, a conceptual work with the Dao De Jing as the source text, was recently published by gradient books (2017). His most recent chapbooks are The Insistence of Momentum (The Blasted Tree, 2017), and Acceleration of the Arbitrary (Grey Borders, 2017), with a chapbook forthcoming, TSK oomph (Inspiritus Press). A collection of broadsides from his work Ghost Writing is his latest publication from The Blasted Tree. One of his online manifestations is his blog at https://sachaarcher.wordpress.com. Archer lives in Burlington, Ontario.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

above/ground press authors Renée Sarojini Saklikar's After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (2016) and Dana Claxton's THE PATIENT STORM (2016) are on the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award‏ shortlist!

It has just been announced! Congratulations to Renée Sarojini Saklikar and Dana Claxton for making the shortlist to the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award [and of course, both Renée Sarojini Saklikar's After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— and Dana Claxton's THE PATIENT STORM are still in print]! I'm in the midst of chapbook making (that might even be a Sacha Archer title in the background I'm stapling...), so am taking but a small pause with wine to hoist to the shortlisted authors. Congratulations, all!

This is above/ground press' fifth appearance on the bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist over the past six years, after Jason Christie's Cursed Objects (2014) and Ben Ladouceur's Lime Kiln Quay Road (2014) made the 2015 list, Christie's Government (2013) made the prior year's list and Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) made the list before that, and Hugh Thomas' Opening the Dictionary (2011) and Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin's let lie/ (2012) were shortlisted the year prior to that. So many lists!

Looking forward to this year's Meet the Presses to hear the winner! You should totally come by and say hello and even pick up copies of these shortlisted titles? The press release for such is below (and at this link):

TORONTO – October 17, 2017 – Tonight, at a Toronto event paying tribute to the late poet bpNichol, the Meet the Presses collective announced the finalists for the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award. The prize, awarded annually since 1985, goes to the author of the best poetry chapbook – in the estimation of the judges – published in Canada in the previous year and submitted for consideration. It is named in honour of the late poet, novelist, mentor, and micropress publisher bpNichol (1944–1988).

The $4,000 prize purse, donated by an anonymous benefactor, makes this the richest annual literary award for a poetry chapbook, specified as a collection of no more than 48 pages. The publisher of the winning title also receives $500, thanks to an annual donation by Toronto writers Brian Dedora and Jim Smith.

Judges Helen Guri of Montréal, Québec, and Hoa Nguyen of Toronto, Ontario, chose the finalists from more than 60 submissions from across the country.

The finalists for the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:

Dana Claxton. The Patient Storm. above/ground press
Doris Fiszer. The Binders. Tree Press
Stevie Howell. Summer. Desert Pets Press
Sonnet L’Abbé. Anima Canadensis. Junction Books
Nanci Lee. Preparation. FreeFall Literary Society of Calgary
Renee Sarojini Saklikar. After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees. above/ground press

The winner will be announced at 2 p.m. on November 18, 2017, at the annual Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, open from 12 noon to 5 p.m. at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, in Toronto. The Market introduces the public to independent literary publishers of books, chapbooks, magazines, ephemera, and recordings generally not available in bookstores. The free event is curated by Meet the Presses, a volunteer literary collective devoted to showcasing the work of independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

More details can be found at meetthepresses.wordpress.com.

For more information and interview opportunities, contact the publicist for Meet the Presses: Zarmina Rafi at rafi.zarmina@gmail.com