celebrating twenty-six years of continuous activity (and nearly a thousand publications), Ottawa publisher above/ground press presents:
seven readings and chapbook launches by:
Conyer Clayton (Ottawa)
Kyle Kinaschuk (Toronto)
Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa)
Gary Barwin (Hamilton)
Pearl Pirie (Ottawa)
Chris Turnbull (Kemptville)
+
Stuart Ross (Cobourg)
lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisher rob mclennan
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019
Vimy Brewing Company
145 Loretta Ave N #1, Ottawa, ON K1Y 2J7
http://www.vimybrewing.ca/
7pm door/7:30pm reading$6 at the door; includes a copy of a recent above/ground press titleTHIS EVENT WILL ALSO INCLUDE LAST YEAR'S LIMITED-EDITION T-SHIRTS, PRODUCED BY OTTAWA’S OWN TROUBLEMAKER PRINT
https://www.facebook.com/TroublemakerPrint/
AND I EVEN STILL HAVE A COUPLE OF THOSE 25TH ANNIVERSARY BROADSIDES WE MADE LAST YEAR
And don't forget the BIG SUMMER SALE, going on until August 15th!
author/performer biographies: Conyer Clayton is an Ottawa based artist who aims to live with compassion, gratitude, and awe. Her most recent chapbooks are:
/ (post ghost press, 2019),
Undergrowth (bird, buried press), Mitosis (In/Words Magazine and Press), and
For the Birds. For the Humans. (battleaxe press). She released a collaborative album with Nathanael Larochette,
If the river stood still, in August 2018. She won
Arc's 2017 Diana Brebner Prize, 3rd place in
Prairie Fire's 2017 Poetry Contest, and honourable mention in
The Fiddlehead's 2018 poetry prize. She is a member of the sound poetry ensemble Quatuor Gualuor, and writes reviews for
Canthius. Her debut full length collection of poetry is forthcoming in Spring 2020.
She will be launching her above/ground press debut,
Trust Only the Beasts in the Water (2019).
Kyle Kinaschuk is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, where he researches the politics and form of lament in contemporary poetry situated within Canada. His poetry has appeared in journals such as
The Capilano Review,
filling Station,
PRISM international,
The Puritan,
Hart House Review,
Poetry is Dead, and
FreeFall Magazine.
He will launching his above/ground press debut,
COLLECTIONS-14 (2019), a chapbook produced to coincide with TEXT / SOUND / PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space, a conference held at UCD, Dublin, Ireland, April 25-27, 2019.
Shortlisted for the 2016 bpNichol Award and winner of the 2013 Diana Brebner Prize,
Marilyn Irwin’s work has been published by Apt. 9 Press,
Arc Poetry Magazine,
bywords.ca, Hussy Press, Puddles of Sky, and
The Steel Chisel, among others.
the day the moon went away is her ninth chapbook, and fourth published by above/ground press. She runs shreeking violet press in Ottawa.
She will be launching
the day the moon went away (2019), Irwin’s fourth chapbook with above/ground press, after
for when you pick daisies (2010),
flicker (2012) and
north (2017).
The author of twenty-two books of poetry and fiction,
Gary Barwin is a writer, musician and multimedia artist from Hamilton, Ontario and the author of the nationally bestselling novel,
Yiddish for Pirates (Random House) which won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was a finalist for the Governor-General’s Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His poetry includes
No TV for Woodpeckers (poetry; Wolsak & Wynn, 2018), many chapbooks some with his own serif of nottingham editions, and, forthcoming,
A Cemetery for Holes, a poetry collaboration with Tom Prime (Gordon Hill Press, 2019),
Muttertongue (book/recording with Lillian Allen and Gregory Betts (Book*hug, 2019) and
For It is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems, ed. Alessandro Porco (Wolsak and Wynn, 2019.) A new novel,
Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted will appear from Random House in 2021.
garybarwin.comHe will be launching
Dust of the Wren: poems and translations (2019), a chapbook produced for the sake of the author’s participation in the TEXT/SOUND/PERFORMANCE: Making in Canadian Space conference at University College Dublin, Ireland, April 25-27, 2019. This is his fifth above/ground press chapbook, after
“SYNONYMS FOR FISH,” STANZAS #26 (March, 2001),
Seedpod, Microfiche (2013) and the collaborative
PLEASURE BRISTLES (with Alice Burdick; 2018) and
gravitynipplemilk anthroposcenesters (with Tom Prime; 2018).
Pearl Pirie has 3 poetry collections with a forthcoming in the fall of 2020 from Radiant Press. These haibun are unrelated to those. She gives workshops and readings sporadically. She lives in rural Quebec with her brilliant husband, scratchy cat and sweet dog. She can be found on twitter
@pesbo and you can sign up for her mailing list at
www.pearlpirie.com She will be launching
Eldon, letters (2019), her fifth chapbook with above/ground press, after the
oath in the boathouse (2008),
vertigoheel for the dilly (2014),
today’s woods (2014) and
sex in sevens (2016).
Chris Turnbull is the author of
continua (Chaudiere Books 2015; now a homestay at Invisible Press 2019) and [ untitled ] in
o w n (CUE Books 2014). She has published several chapbooks:
Shingles (Thuja1999);
continua 1-22 (above/ground 2010); and
Candid (hawkweed 2019).
Undertones, a collaboration with text/artist Bruno Neiva, is forthcoming in summer/fall 2019 with Low Frequency Press (Buffalo). Other visual and text based work and collaborations can be found online, in print, and within landscapes. She curates a footpress, rout/e, whereby poems are planted on trails:
www.etuor.wordpress.com. A collaborative hapbook with a rawlings,
The Great Canadian (Low Frequency Press 2016), combined Turnbull’s photographs from rout/e with rawlings’ text from her ongoing echolology.
Candid was previously published as part of Dusie Kollective #8 and is also online at
http://dusie.blogspot.com/2016/12/dusie-kollektiv-8-curated-by-rob.html. It is the first of three interconnected chapbooks.
contrite follows
Candid much like a riffle: “guess a spokesperson of it all” was published as a broadside in
above/ground press’ 25th Anniversary collection (2019); other pieces were published in
The Capilano Review 3.35 (Spring 2018) and
Café Review (Spring 2019: ed. Bob Hogg).
She will be launching
contrite (2019), her second chapbook with above/ground press, after
continua 1-22 (2010).
Stuart Ross is the author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and essays, and countless chapbooks and ephemera. His most recent books include the novel-in-prose-poems
Pockets (ECW Press, 2017) and the poetry collections
Motel of the Opposable Thumbs (Anvil Press, 2019) and
A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent (Wolsak and Wynn, 2016), which won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry in 2017. Other titles include the poetry collection
A Hamburger in a Gallery (DC Books, 2015), the novel
Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (ECW Press, 2011), and the story collection
Buying Cigarettes for the Dog (Freehand Books, 2009). Stuart began his literary career by selling his self-published chapbooks on the streets of Toronto during the 1980s, wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell: Buy My Books.” He was the 2010 Writer in Residence at Queen’s University, and has taught writing workshops across Canada. His poetry has recently been translated into French and Slovenian; other translations, into Nynorsk and Spanish, are in progress.
His micropress, Proper Tales, is currently celebrating its 40th year of publishing. Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario.
He will be launching
90 TINY POEMS (2019), his second chapbook with above/ground press, after
ESPESANTES (2018).
And you remember how much fun last year's event was, yes?
