above/ground press at the virus bookfair, st. catharines, ontario saturday june 16 2012

above/ground press and Chaudiere Books will be participating in this year's Virus Bookfair on Saturday, June 16, 2012, in St. Catharines, Ontario, as part of the month long Niagara Literary Arts Festival. The fair runs from noon to 5pm, with the After A Fair literary reading will at the MahTay Cafe starting at 7pm, featuring performers Ellen S. Jaffe, Betsy Belega, Lisa de Nikoltis and Brenda Missen.

The Virus BookFair runs throughout a number of venues in downtown St. Catharines, with our little table, featuring various publications by above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, rob mclennan and Christine McNair, will be at the MahTay Cafe, 241 Saint Paul Street, St Catherines, ON L2R3M7. (905) 685-4040

Also, check out rob mclennan and Christine McNair's reading the evening before at Patrick Sheehan's Irish Pub, 101 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines.

For more information on the Virus BookFair and/or the Niagara Literary Arts Festival, contact Jordan Fry at niagaraliteraryartsfestival@gmail.com or 905.329.4739.

John Olson reviews Sarah Mangold's Cupcake Royale

Seattle poet John Olson was good enough to review Sarah Mangold's Cupcake Royale (2012) on his blog, at the end of a list of other reviews [see the full post here]. Here's his generous post on the chapbook:

Cupcake Royale, a chapbook of poetry by Sarah Mangold, arrived a few weeks ago. I thought I’d add mention of it at the end as a nice desert. The poems in this collection are modest as cat whiskers, droll as a giant Norwegian rabbit. Mangold does not like to pontificate. Never has. She favors the highly disjunctive, fragmentary lines found among poets such as Ted Berrigan and Tom Raworth. The world is presented as a simultaneity of sensation, a collage of wildly dissociative phenomena. Subjectivity is decentered beyond the margin. Mangold does not seem present. The poetry is not about her. The poetry is available to the eyes in whatever sense you want to take it. I feel nudged, a little, by the choices she has made. She likes the odd and quirky, the neglected and marginal. A cupcake, not a multi-tiered wedding cake.

Some author activity: Hall, Martin, Pirie, Brockwell, Armantrout, Reid, mclennan, Ferguson

Phil Hall answers "The Dirty Dozen" over at Open Book: Ontario; Camille Martin goes to Neptune, and lists the thirteen books she might bring; Pearl Pirie lists Stephen Brockwell in her "Currently Reading" list; Rae Armantrout publishes a new poem here and maybe here; Monty Reid and rob mclennan have new publications out from European publisher Corrupt Press; and Jesse Patrick Ferguson has some new visual poems over at Drunken Boat.

Video recordings of mclennan + Brockwell's readings in New Orleans

Megan Burns at 17 Poets has posted YouTube videos of Stephen Brockwell (reading from his recent above/ground press chapbook) and rob mclennan's readings in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 10, 2012. Check out mclennan's report of the event here.

Ryan Pratt's Recent Reads: Ottawa's Poets & Presses

Ottawa writer and blogger Ryan Pratt posted a nice note on his blog yesterday, in response to a package of chapbooks I handed him at a recent talk Pearl Pirie and I did for the OIW. Thanks, Ryan! He's also recently become one of the (ir)regular contributors to the ongoing ottawa poetry newsletter blog, so hopefully we might see a bunch more write-ups by him in the future. See the original post here.

Any writer who has spent time in Ottawa can attest to its reputation for literary excellence. For my part, shopping at the biannual Small Press Book Fair and attending readings around town have resulted in the cozy “local section” of my home library. Among the manifold stapled spines that jut out in all colours and sizes, I’ve collected publications from Bywords (their Quarterly Journals plus two chapbooks from John Newlove Poetry Award winners), Apt. 9 Press, AngelHouse Press and above/ground press.

The two titles I’d purchased from above/ground, a press created and operated by rob mclennan, were totally unique to one another: Green Wind, by Ken Norris, details the foreign and domestic sides of a trip abroad with straightforward yet poetic prose, whereas mclennan’s own 16 Yonge presents a long-form poem that analyzes Toronto’s concrete edge at the docks.

On account of someone’s generosity and kindness, I’ve wandered into a deluge of above/ground press chapbooks to further clutter my reading nook. There’s Stephen Brockwell’s Excerpts from Impossible Books, The Crawdad Cantos, a compilation that should be of particular interest given that Stephen will be hosting a writing workshop in Ottawa July 7th, and several of rob mclennan’s recent titles to choose from. I’m taking them in one at a time but it doesn’t help when Goldfish: studies in fine thread, a kaleidoscopic look at happenstances that reveal a relationship beyond the fish tank, rewards constant revisiting.

Besides above/ground, I’ve been introduced to a smattering of other authors and presses: Monty Reid’s Contributor’s Notes (Gaspereau Press), some unarmed chapbooks (journal #64: Unwanted Unarmed includes a crowd of wonderful writers), and poems working in conjunction with the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (featuring Sandra Ridley and Pearl Pirie, among others).

Needless to say, I haven’t had the opportunity to dive into most of these works with the attention they deserve, but what I’ve read so far, even in passing, warrants mention. Support these chapbook presses by seeking out their treasures online or by checking out your local Small Press Book Fair (I know Ottawa’s Spring Edition will be happening June 30th – details here).

Stephen Brockwell's Summer Heat Poetry Workshop - Ottawa

On Saturday, July 7th, Ottawa poet and above/ground press author Stephen Brockwell will be offering The Summer Heat Poetry Workshop at the Carlingwood Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. The workshop will help poets invest more verbal energy into their poems.

A single poem chosen from up to five pages of work from each participant will be work-shopped to improve musical energy with a sharp focus on voice, tone, rhythm, syntax and line. Participants will be encouraged to share their work on a free social networking website prior to the workshop. Participants will be able to comment on each other’s work in an encouraging environment moderated by the workshop leader. The initial online collaboration will set the tone for an intense but positive three hour face-to-face workshop at Carlingwood Library.

Please send your poems to Stephen Brockwell at least one week prior to the workshop. Email poems to sbrockwell@yahoo.com, or drop them off at the Carlingwood Library. A list of suggested reading from previous workshops will be provided for reference.

Stephen Brockwell is the author of five books, including The Real Made Up (ECW) and Fruitfly Geographic (ECW) which won the Archibald Lampman award. With Stuart Ross, Stephen edited Rogue Stimulus: the Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament (Mansfield). Stephen was recently the featured reader with rob mclennan for the 17 Poets series at the Goldmine in New Orleans, Louisiana. Samples from his current project, Excerpts from Impossible Books have been published by above/ground press.

For more information on the workshop, contact paul.tyler@ottawa.ca

Shannon Maguire reads as part of Un/Certain Words at Wilfrid Laurier University, May 28, 2012

Un/Certain Words: Two Nights of Literary Readings
May 27th and May 28th
Wilfrid Laurier University
Veritas Café in the Graduate Lounge
First floor, Student Services Building
7:00-9:00 p.m.

During Congress 2012 in Waterloo, Ontario, please join us at Wilfrid Laurier University for “Un/Certain Words,” two incredible nights of fiction and poetry featuring an international line-up of authors, including winners of the CBC Literary Award, the Confederation Poets’ Prize, the Bliss Carman Poetry Prize, the Australian/Vogel Literary Award, the Far Horizons Award for Poetry, and finalists for the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Award and the Governor General’s Award.  Don’t miss this chance to hear some of the best writers in the country during their Congress visits!

May 27 will feature readings by Amanda Jernigan (Groundwork), Carrie Snyder (Hair Hat, The Juliet Stories), Darren Bifford (Wedding in Fire Country), Warren Heiti (Hydrologos), Lucy Alford, and Lacey Beer.

May 28 will feature readings by Brian Henderson (Nerve Language, Sharawadji), Chris Banks (Winter Cranes), Rob Winger (Muybridge’s Horse), Jamie Dopp (The Birdhouse Or), Kristel Thornell (Night Street), Shannon Maguire [photo by Pearl Pirie] (Vowel Wolves and Other Knots), Tanis MacDonald (Rue the Day) and David Walter-Toews (The Complete Tante Tina).

All Congress delegates, Laurier and UWaterloo students, and members of the public are welcome. Admission free. Snacks provided courtesy of Congress 2012; cash bar.

The Graduate Lounge is located in the Student Services building, just off the Quad on the Laurier campus. Just look for the Congress beer tent – the Graduate Lounge is immediately to the west of it.

For more information, please contact Tanis MacDonald at tmacdonald@wlu.ca