new from above/ground press: Studies, by Micah Anthony Cavaleri

Studies
Micah Anthony Cavaleri
$6

The study of a poem
is not scientific
.  The study is grounded
It is an experience.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Micah Cavaleri has lived many lives—as a philosopher, poet, soldier, publisher, pastor, and father. He has published several books, including One Bright Morning When My Work is Over. Home is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where he writes and cooks for his wife and daughter.

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Peter Jaeger is on the 2025 Nelson Ball Prize short list! (along w Stebner, Christakos etc

Congratulations to the entire 2025 Nelson Ball Prize short list! (do you remember the longlist?) Naturally, it is very exciting to see an above/ground press title on the list, by Canadian poet Peter Jaeger, as well as titles by above/ground press authors Margaret Christakos (author of the 2019 title Retreat Diary 2019) and Kevin Stebner (author of the 2023 title AGALMA). In case you aren't aware:

The Nelson Ball Prize, worth $1,000, is awarded annually to a Canadian poet for a published work that features 'poetry of observation.' * The judges this year are James McDonald and Beverley Daurio. Stay tuned for announcement of the winning publication in the first week of December.

Here's the full list of shortlisted titles:

Margaret Christakos, That Audible Slippage (University of Alberta Press)
Jeremy Clarke, Stone Hours (Rufus Books)
Peter Jaeger, Selected Memoirs (above/ground press)
Kevin Stebner, Inherent (Assembly Press)
Michael Trussler, 10:10 (Icehouse Poetry)

new from above/ground press: The Man, by Benjamin Niespodziany

The Man
a sequence of foolish men
Benjamin Niespodziany
$6

The Man with the Tail

When he argued
with his doctor
it wandered.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Benjamin Niespodziany's writing has appeared in Fence, Conduit, Fairy Tale Review, Bennington Review, and elsewhere. He has previously released two chapbooks (one with above/ground press, one with Dark Hour Books) and two full-length books (one with Okay Donkey and one with X-R-A-Y). He also hosts the Neon Night Mic reading series in Chicago and recently launched the indie publication Piżama Press. You can find more at neonpajamas.com.

This is Niespodziany's second above/ground press chapbook, after The Northerners (2021).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 21: Stuart Ross, Liam Burke + Amanda Earl,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents

The Factory Reading Series
the pre-small press book fair reading

featuring readings by:
Stuart Ross (Cobourg ON)
Liam Burke (Ottawa)
+ 
Amanda Earl (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 21, 2025
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Tom Brown Arena]

Stuart Ross has worked in the small press trenches of Canadian writing for 50 years. His new chapbook, The Thing About the Thing in Exile reprints a dozen poems that appeared in his first publication at age 16, plus a new essay. He has published over 20 books, most recently the poetry collection The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky, the Trillium Book Award–winning memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. He has received the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and the ReLit Award for Short Fiction, as well as the Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature. Stuart runs the Feed Dog Book imprint for surrealist poetry at Anvil Press and the 1366 Books imprint for experimental fiction at Guernica Editions, and has been running his own Proper Tales Press since 1979. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Liam Burke (he/him/himbo) lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. He is the winner of the 2023 Diana Brebner Prize, and is most recently the author of status ailment (Anstruther, 2025) and the co-author of Orbital Cultivation with Manahil Bandukwala (Collusion, 2021) and machine dreams with natalie hanna (Collusion, 2021) which was shortlisted for the 2022 bpNichol Chapbook Award. He was shortlisted for the 2022 Austin Clarke Award for a collaborative poem with Manahil Bandukwala.

Amanda Earl [photo credit: Charles Earl] (she/her) writes, edits, reviews, publishes and makes mischief on the unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry. Subscribe to her Substack, Amanda Thru the Looking Glass and buy limited edition gorgeousness from Creatively Yours, her forthcoming year-long whimsical collaborative creation with her husband, Charles Earl. Her latest chapbook, her eleventh with above/ground press, is SOCIALLY AWKWARD GHOST (2025). More info: AmandaEarl.com. Instagram: earlamanda.

some author activity: Smith, Unrau, Bell, Myers + Ross,

Steve Ross Smith has a new song up at bandcamp; Melanie Dennis Unrau is interviewed via the "12 or 20 questions" series; Wade Bell has new work up at Public Reverie; Peter Myers has new work up at noir sauna; and Stuart Ross is interviewed by Tali Voron-Leiderman for The Ampersand Review.

new from above/ground press: The Sun Will Bleach It Away, by Rebecca Comay / Cary Fagan

The Sun Will Bleach It Away
Rebecca Comay / Cary Fagan
$6

Beer, light, Portuguese, German, English; how brittle is old paper in the seller’s hand.




The battered brass weight hung so heavily between her fingers.


Authors’ Note

In February and March of 2019, we spent several weeks in Lisbon.  One of us wrote a sentence in a blank notebook and handed it to the other who wrote a sentence in return.  This handing back and forth occurred about once a day until we left the city for home.  

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Rebecca Comay teaches philosophy and comparative literature at The University of Toronto. Her books include Mourning Sickness: Hegel and the French Revolution (Stanford UP) and The Dash-The Other Side of Absolute Knowing (with Frank Ruda, MIT Press). Her next book, On Persistence is the first of two essay collections forthcoming from Seagull Books. She is a co-editor of the chapbook house, espresso. More work can be seen at rebeccacomay.com

Cary Fagan is the author of eight novels and six story collections as well as many books for children. Just published are A Fast Horse Never Brings Good News (book*hug) and Robot Island (Tundra Books). His novel, Still the World, will appear in 2027. He is a co-editor of the chapbook house, espresso, and the publisher of Found Object, which focuses on bringing work back into print. His books can he seen at caryfagan.com.

This is Fagan's third title through above/ground press, after Fifty-Two Lines About Henry (2024) and then / here / now / there (2025).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: DIDIKUY, by Guy Birchard

DIDIKUY
Guy Birchard
$6

The Didikuy Renders Each Her Moment

A. Heeney, who does not idealize pretty,
for whom 'pretty' has ever been no goal,
for whom beauty excels, as she pledges
her torch song to extol, favors, expressly, Light.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Guy Birchard's most recent title is MOST BY BOOKS (Symple Persone Press, 2023).

This is Birchard’s third chapbook with above/ground press, after VALEDICTIONS (2019) and MONTCORBIER (2020).

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com