some author activity: Novak, Babineau, Sikkema, Bowering + Ross,

JoAnna Novak has new work at MerionWest; Kemeny Babineau has new work in the Spotlight series; Michael Sikkema has some new work up at cul-de-sac of blood; George Bowering is quoted in this recent piece on the infamous 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference; and Stuart Ross has three new poems in Gargoyle.

some author activity: Babineau, Earl, fitzpatrick, Konchan, Carr, Perry, Blunt Research Group + mclennan,

Kemeny Babineau writes about the late Asphodel Books in Cleveland over at Medium; Amanda Earl, ryan fitzpatrick, Virginia Konchan, Emily Carr, Paul Perry and Blunt Research Group, among many others, have work in the winter volume of Action, Spectacle, an issue guest-edited by more than a dozen contemporary poets and editors, including rob mclennan.

new from above/ground press: Nurse Sing Home, by Kemeny Babineau

Nurse Sing Home
Kemeny Babineau
$5

Park Race: The Manual


Long term transmission enabler
Executive and non-sterile
Single use mucous mask
Wet around the neck
Pocket tuberculosis sputum
Use acceptable excretions
Hierarchy accommodation facility
Toilet washing organism metre
Commode label accountability
Soiled bedpan membrane
Diseased visitor’s mission
Because it’s varicella zoster time
Cover immense measle well
Scabies drainage activity
Desquamation control colony
Outbreak bathing bell breather
General roar locally updated

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
August 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kemeny Babineau lives in Stratford with his partner. He works at a restaurant and operates Laurel Reed Books a sometime publisher as well as purveyor of sundry literary items. Previous publications include work from above/ground press, Angel House Press and Book*hug (nee BookThug).

This is Babineau’s fourth above/ground press chapbook after AFTER PROGRESS (2012), The Blackburn Files (2014) and Rain Play (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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

new from above/ground press: Rain Play, by Kemeny Babineau

Rain Play
Kemeny Babineau
$4

light rain
doorless
entry

-

Naiad

Earth
Sky
Rain
Drain
Rained

Naiad

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kemeny Babineau lives in Stratford ON with his partner. He works as a cook in a downtown restaurant and runs Laurel Reed Books an out of print book store specializing in Canadian poetry and ephemera but with much else besides.

This is Babineau’s third above/ground press chapbook after AFTER PROGRESS (2012) and The Blackburn Files (2014).

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 at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: Barwin, Beaulieu, Bök + Babineau,

Gary Barwin has some new work up at NewPoetry.ca; Braydon Beaulieu was interviewed by Corey Redekop on his story in the new anthology Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories (Exile Editions); Christian Bök is interviewed over at the Chaudiere Books blog for The Calgary Renaissance; and Kemeny Babinueau is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

some author activity: mclennan, Ladouceur, Babineau + Armantrout,

rob mclennan is interviewed by Oscar Martens; there is a new interview with Ben Ladouceur on The League of Canadian Poets blog, and he's a new poem up at The Walrus; Kemeny Babineau has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; and Rae Armantrout has a poem online at Granta.

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: Ball, Kronovet, mclennan, babineau + Barwin,

Nelson Ball has a new poem up at The Week Shall Inherit The Verse; Jennifer Kronovet is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; rob mclennan is interviewed over at The Town Crier; kemeny babineau participates in Amanda Earl's "One Thing"; and Gary Barwin has new work up at Our Teeth.

The Factory Reading Series : Babineau, Christie + Johnson, January 9, 2015;

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

The Factory Reading Series presents
three readings and chapbook launches by:

Kemeny Babineau (Brantford)
Jason Christie (Ottawa)
+ Chris Johnson (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, January 9, 2015;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Kemeny Babineau [pictured] is a bookseller, micro-presser, and poet living in Brantford Ontario.

He will be launching THE BLACKBURN FILES (2014), his second above/ground press chapbook after AFTER PROGRESS (2012).

Jason Christie is the author of i Robot, Canada Post, and Unknown Actor. His chapbook, Government, published by above/ground press, was shortlisted for the 2014 bpNichol Chapbook Award. Jason lives in Ottawa with his wife and their one-year old son.

He will be launching Cursed Objects (2014), his third above/ground press chapbook, after 8th Ave 15th St NW. (2004) and Government (2013).

Chris Johnson is a has-been. He used to be an editor at In/Words Magazine & Press. He used to be a student at Carleton University. His poetry has previously appeared on bywords.ca, The Steel Chisel, The Peter F. Yacht Club and in a few nice little zines.

new from above/ground press: THE BLACKBURN FILES, by Kemeny Babineau

THE BLACKBURN FILES
Kemeny Babineau
$3

The House Next Door


You need another
text to work of off.

Literature
is a building of a building
building a building.

A tenement
square. Attended
attending, intent
& sediment.

The windows, with ovals
Line upon line
                           Movement
moving meant.

-

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover image by R.B. Kitaj

Kemeny Babineau is a bookseller, micro-presser, and poet living in Brantford Ontario.

This is Kemeny Babineau’s second above/ground press chapbook after AFTER PROGRESS (2012).

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

Cameron Anstee on Kemeny Babineau

Prompted by a recent publication by Kemeny Babineau, Ottawa poet (and above/ground press author) Cameron Anstee recently posted an entry on a number of Babineau's poetry books and chapbooks, including After Progress (above/ground press, 2012) over at his blog. Given the rarity of chapbooks reviews generally, it's good to see someone taking a longer view of Babineau's work overall.

Love's Not The Way To B after C: Rogal, Tucker + Babineau in Toronto, July 28, 2013

above/ground press authors Stan Rogal, Aaron Tucker and Kemeny Babineau read at the BafterC and Love's Not The Way To double launch in Toronto on Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 6pm. As the facebook event reads:

Stan Rogal and BafterC Magazine are holding a joint launch upstairs at The Madison in Toronto on July 28th at 6pm. madisonavenuepub.com

Stan Rogal will be reading from his latest collection of poetry Love's Not The Way To which is a collection of urban haiku dedicated to the life and work of American writer Richard Brautigan.

Contributors from the latest issue of B after C magazine, published by BookThug, will be reading from work in the magazine as well as other work of their own. This issue of B after C is unique in that it celebrates long time Toronto poet and on-line presence John Barlow. Reading alongside Barlow will be poets Aaron Tucker, Sam Kaufman, Kemeny Babineau & the itinerant Nic Coivert. Others, also, may appear.

Madison Avenue Pub & Restaurant
14 Madison Ave, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2S1

above/ground press titles make up nearly half of Amanda Earl's "Best of 2012: chapbooks" list

What do "best of" lists mean? Less when you aren't on them, I suppose. Ottawa writer, publisher and lit-blogger Amanda Earl was good enough to include ten different above/ground press chapbooks on her twenty-three chapbook "Best of 2012: chapbooks" list. With her original post here, I include her included list of above/ground press titles (with appropriate links): Christine McNair and rob mclennan, Prelude: selections from a collaboration ; Kathryn MacLeod, Entropic Suite ; Roland Prevost, Parapagus ; rob mclennan, Notes, on the subject of marriage: ; rob mclennan, Poem beginning with a line by Pinder ; Barry McKinnon, Into the Blind World ; Kemeny Babineau, After Progress ; Stephen Brockwell, Excerpts from Impossible Books, the Crawdad Cantos ; George Elliott Clarke, Selected Canticles ; Robert Hogg, from Lamentations. Thanks, Amanda!

Some author activity: Babineau, Armantrout;

Recent above/ground press author Kemeny Babineau answers the "On Writing" interview over at Open Book: Ontario, and Rae Armantrout will be interviewed by Mitchell Caplan on Click Here, CHUO-FM89, on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 5pm, anticipating her upcoming reading at VERSeFest.

new from above/ground press: AFTER PROGRESS, by Kemeny Babineau

AFTER PROGRESS
by Kemeny Babineau
$4

Arizona Bulletin

The mind trapped in the body like that,
it goes without saying, a dependent
island unto oneself, merely
the sum of one, a whole at least
even with a zero through your skull
the point blankly is
there are guns
in the hands of madmen and America
has made a symbol
of its yearning for violence.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2012
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Kemeny Babineau lives near Brantford Ontario. He runs Laurel Reed Books and edits literary rag magazine The New Chief Tongue. Babineau’s latest work, After the 6ix O’Clock News, is published by BookThug.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com