some author activity: Johnson, Paty, Radmore, O'Reilly, Norris + Gold,

Chris Johnson has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; Allyson Paty is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Claudia Coutu Radmore has a new essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter, as well as an obituary for Ottawa poet Lesley Strutt; Nathanael O'Reilly is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; and Ken Norris and the late Artie Gold etcetera have work in the newly-revamped mouse eggs.

new from above/ground press: micro moonlights, by katie o'brien

micro moonlights
katie o'brien
$5

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

katie o’brien is a poet, community worker, and Netflix enthusiast originally from St. John’s, Ktaqamkuk, on unceded Beothuk land. They currently live in Mohkínstsis, on Treaty 7 territory, and recently founded blood orange, an experimental poetry tarot. micro moonlights is their first above/ground chapbook. katie dislikes lying, sings a lot, and doesn’t kill bugs.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) 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: Less Dream, by N.W. Lea

Less Dream
N.W. Lea
$5

Driver


No essential sentences
for this, um, essence.

Drove through the night,
harmonies barking.

I’ve always been afraid of,
or to, sleep. I’ve always

had to pay those attention tariffs,
had to wrestle specters.

The meaner memes.
No...no decentralizing force here.

No blowout combing twilight,
my eye’s lights. Drove

into new days, just a mess

of essences.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

N.W. Lea is a poet living in Whitehorse, Yukon (also, his birthplace) with his supernal partner and their wild and beautiful daughter. Find his books at invisiblepublishing.com.

This is Lea’s fifth above/ground press chapbook, after light years (2006), Present! (2014), Nervous System (2018) and Five Mothers (2019).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) 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

Scott Bryson reviews Derek Beaulieu's CABARET (2020) in Broken Pencil

Scott Bryson was good enough to provide the first review of Derek Beaulieu's CABARET (2020) over at Broken Pencil. Thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

Chapbook, Derek Beaulieu, 14 pgs, above/ground press, abovegroundpress.blogspot.com, $4

It doesn’t take long to grasp the technicality of what this is — in Derek Beaulieu’s words, “symmetrical visual poetry, all using the same typeface.” The stumper is why it’s so hard to turn away from it. Perhaps bewilderment breeds amusement.

Beaulieu’s latest collection of concrete poems begin from central, seemingly random letters or punctuation marks, with like letters radiating out in two directions. It creates something that’s not quite a mirrored image or an inkblot, but the opposite sort of reflection, if there’s a name for that.

After a short time communing with these images, you’ll likely give up trying to decipher what, if anything, the selection or arrangement of letters means. Your focus will turn instead to the method behind the symmetry, as you maddeningly turning the page around and around to see what it looks like from every direction. Satisfied that a symmetry of sorts does exist, you’ll move on to the shape and the typeface, Does it suggest anything? The text is certainly carnivalesque and whimsical, a marquee font if there is one — deserving of the title Cabaret. The smaller designs could be headlines from a performance poster.

In the end, this appears to be more a feast for the eyes than a puzzle to decode. It demands your engagement, which on its own is a desirable achievement.

some author activity: Cortese, mclennan, Vaughan, Cooley, Saklikar + Turnbull

Franco Cortese answers the "12 or 20 questions"; rob mclennan recently posted a poem for the late RM Vaughan; Dennis Cooley has a poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; Renée Sarojini Saklikar has helped launch "Poetry Phone" through the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, providing "Vancouver's first free poetry hotline," and featuring readings by Vancouver poets; and Chris Turnbull has some new work up at The Pi Review.

some author activity: Earl, Reid, Kaplan, Deutch + mclennan,

An excerpt of Amanda Earl's "Beast Body Epic" is online at Osmosis, and a statement on her ongoing project, "The Vispo Bible," is now online at The Babel Tower Notice Board; Monty Reid is interviewed in the "Six Questions" series over at the Chaudiere Books blog; Genevieve Kaplan has some new work up as part of rob mclennan's Spotlight series; Amanda Deutch has some new work in issue #6 of Leon Literary Review; and rob mclennan answers a few questions at the Kenyon Review online.

Pearl Pirie's #95 Books : Amanda Earl + The Peter F. Yacht Club #29

Pearl Pirie was good enough to include two above/ground press titles as part of her ongoing #95 Books list for 2021. You can catch her full (ongoing) list here.

17. Aftermath of scenes of a woman convalescing by Amanda Earl (above/ground, 2019) is a chapbook about health problems in language-y ways and more straight spoken vignettes. Both work to capture the feeling of incapacity.

8. Peter F Yacht Club #29 (above/ground, 2020) is in a new smaller format, which is great because the full 8 1/2 x 11 don’t fit my shelves. Great poems by Monty Reid and Amanda Earl. A new one by me in there. I have extras if you want a copy. I believe it is part of an above/ground subscription. It’s like a mystery poetry party gift every few weeks.