new from above/ground press: The Rose Concordance, by rob mclennan

The Rose Concordance
rob mclennan
$4

Wednesday’s child is full of whoa—

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2015
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Originally published in Ottawa by Apostrophe Press as a handout for a reading as part of The Sawdust Reading Series, August 19, 2015. Thanks much to Jennifer Pederson and Liam Burke.

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of nearly thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014), The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and the poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com

This is rob mclennan’s millionth above/ground press chapbook, including, most recently, Texture: Louisiana, (2015), How the alphabet was made, [an instructional] (2014), from Hark: a journal (2014),  The creeks, (2013), The Laurentian Book of Movement (with Christine McNair; 2013), Trace, (2013), Poem beginning with a line by Pinder (2012), goldfish: studies in fine thread, (2012), Notes, on the subject of marriage (2012), Prelude: selections from a collaboration (with Christine McNair; 2012), This, circular tower (2012), Sextex: six poems from Songs for little sleep, (2012), The underside of the line, (2011), metric: a collaboration (with Lea Graham; 2011) and First you know, and then so ordinary (2010).

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

micro-presses in Canada : above/ground press as part of Brick Books' ongoing Celebration of Canadian Poetry

above/ground press has a short write-up (with plenty of links) as part of a list of micro-presses in Canada, compiled by Kitty Lewis as part of Brick Books' ongoing Celebration of Canadian Poetry. Thanks so much! Other presses on the list also include presses by a number of former and current above/ground press authors, including Amanda Earl's AngelHousePress, Cameron Anstee's Apt. 9 Press, derek beaulieu's NO Press, Kemeny Babineau's Laurel Reed Books, Pearl Pirie's phafours, Stuart Ross' Proper Tales Press, Meredith and Peter Quartermain's Nomados Literary Publishers, Gary Barwin's serif of nottingham and Nicole Markotić's Wrinkle Press.

some author activity: Kaminski, Pirie, Sand, Mangold + Hall,

Megan Kaminski has a new poem at Alice Blue Review; Pearl Pirie has a new poem up at Paul Vermeersch's Sunrise with Sea Monsters; Kaia Sand has a new poem posted as part of the annual "advent calendar" at Delirious Hem; Sarah Mangold is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Phil Hall is Kroetsching the Long-Poem in spring 2016 via the Sage Hill Writing Experience.

new from above/ground press: assignment: zero

assignment: zero
$4

a series of responses to Crosscut Universe:  Writing on Writing from France, ed. & trans. Norma Cole

with poems by:

Frances Boyle
Amanda Earl
Claire Farley
Rosemarie Krausz
Barbara Myers
Dawn Steiner

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2015
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Frances Boyle is the author of Light-carved Passages (BushchekBooks, 2014) and Portal Stones (Tree Press, 2014), which won the Tree Reading Series chapbook contest. Her poetry and fiction appear, among other place, in The New Quarterly, Vallum, ottawater, Prairie Fire, CV2, Fiddlehead, Room, Moonset and anthologies on such topics as form poetry, Hitchcock, and daughters remembering their mothers. Prizes she’s received include This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt, and Arc’s Diana Brebner Prize.

Amanda Earl is a feisty bitch who refuses to do things in half measures. See Kiki (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and Coming Together Presents Amanda Earl (Coming Together, 2014). Also A Book of Saints (above/ground press, 2015). She’s taken several of rob’s workshops and always benefits, thanks to rob’s philosophy of exposing students to unconventional contemporary writing, and also to the comments and work of each poet, always quite different from her own. Read about Amanda’s myriad shenanigans at AmandaEarl.com or find her on Twitter @KikiFolle.

Claire Farley is from Québec's Outaouais region. She is the co-founder and editor of Canthius, a feminist literary journal. She has writing forthcoming in some mark made, a limited edition publication considering hybrid, material literary practices.

Rosemarie Krausz is a psychologist and psychoanalyst living in Ottawa, who is dedicating her retirement to writing poetry.  She is also a child of Holocaust survivors, which informs many of her poems.

Barbara Myers: I grew up in Halifax but have lived most of my adult life in Ottawa. I first got paid for writing as a girl reporter for The Halifax Mail-Star in the era of typewriters and linotype hot metal composition. More recently—over the past couple of decades—I added a laptop or two in order to contribute poetry, essays and book reviews to many journals and anthologies. Slide, a full-length poetry collection, was a finalist for the Archibald Lampman award (2010). For eight years an active member of Arc Poetry Magazine’s board of directors, I also facilitated the Wellington Street Poets collective and produced frequent collections of the group’s work (as Firegrass Press), including a memorial chapbook of the work of late Ottawa poet Maureen Glaude. The work these days is to put together a new book of poems.

Dawn Steiner began writing poetry under the guidance of Stephanie Bolster in 1997. She has produced three chapbooks The Ties that Bind (1999), Freeze Frame (2000) and Reflections (2001). She was a member of The Wellington Street Poets. The Wellington Street Poets collaborated on five chapbooks: A Capella (1998), Bouquet (1999), Black Leather (2001), All in the Waiting (2002), A Closer Look (2004) and The Temperature of Dreams (2005) and have produced a collection in book form called Oblique Strokes (2007). Her poems have appeared in The Algonquin Roundtable Review, The Voice, Local Lines and Bywords. She is currently working on a collection of her poems.

assignment: zero emerges from rob mclennan’s fall 2015 poetry workshop, in which participants were asked to ‘respond’ to a work of their choice from the anthology Crosscut Universe:  Writing on Writing from France, ed. & trans. Norma Cole (Providence RI: Burning Deck, 2000).

For information on the next workshop conducted by rob mclennan, click here.

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

Ryan Pratt reviews Amish Trivedi's The Destructions (2015)

Our pal Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Amish Trivedi's The Destructions (2015) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter. Thanks, Ryan! This is actually the second review of Trivedi's The Destructions, after Rebecca Anne Banks reviewed such over at Subterranean Blue Poetry. You can see Pratt's full review here.

the return of The Peter F. Yacht Club regatta/reading/christmas party!

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan;

The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party & issue launch for The Peter F Yacht Club #23: edited/produced by rob mclennan

at The Carleton Tavern (upstairs)
233 Armstrong Avenue (at Parkdale Market)
Monday, December 28, 2015
doors 7pm, reading 7:30pm

with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including Karen Massey, Monty Reid, Chris Johnson, Brecken Hancock, Janice Tokar, Marilyn Irwin, Cameron Anstee, Ben Ladouceur, Roland Prevost and Amanda Earl etc.

some author activity: MacLeod, Bolster, Kroetsch + Barwin,

Kathryn MacLeod is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; both Stephanie Bolster and Robert Kroetsch are written up as part of Brick Books' year long Celebration of Canadian Poetry; and Gary Barwin has a new poem up at Paul Vermeersch's Sunrise with sea Monsters.