some author activity: Eleftherion, Hunter, Waldrop, Trivedi, Mohammadi + Melançon,

both Melissa Eleftherion and Carrie Hunter have new work in the bisexual issue of Hot Pink Magazine; Rosmarie Waldrop is interviewed on the Between the Covers podcast via Tin House by David Naimon; Amish Trivedi has four new poems up at The Brooklyn Rail; Khashayar Mohammadi has new work up at Iterant, and Jérôme Melançon reads in October at the Festival International de la Poésie, Trois-Rivières.

some author activity: Waldrop, Clayton + mclennan

Rosmarie Waldrop has some new work in La Vague Journal; Conyer Clayton is interviewed by Shazia Hafiz Ramji for the Invisible Publishing blog; and rob mclennan writes on Stuart Ross and his Proper Tales Press over at the Forty Proper Tales blog.

some author activity: Schmaltz, Pirie, Hajnoczky, Radmore + Waldrop,

Eric Schmaltz is posting a series of 'commentaries' over at Jacket2; Pearl Pirie has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Helen Hajnoczky, Claudia Coutu Radmore has a poem in the Poetry Pause series via The League of Canadian Poets; and Rosmarie Waldrop has a poem up at Poets.org.

some author activity: Armantrout, Moure, Waldrop, Eleftherion + Gruber,

Rae Armantrout, Erín Moure + Rosmarie Waldrop, along with multiple others, have new work as part of the #MeToo: A Poetry Collective feature at Chicago Review; Melissa Eleftherion is interviewed in the "12 or 20 questions" series; and Adrienne Gruber has some new work + a statement as part of rob mclennan's "Spotlight" series over at Medium.

some author activity: Waldrop, Earl, mclennan, Ladouceur + Tucker,

Rosmarie Waldrop is interviewed on Burning Deck, and closing down the press after nearly six decades; Amanda Earl posts a lovely obituary for her mother; rob mclennan has a new poem up at Abstract, and posts his 'best of 2017' Canadian poetry books over at dusie; Ben Ladouceur has a new column up at Open Book; and Aaron Tucker is interviewed over at the ottawa poetry newsletter blog.

some author activity: Higdon, beaulieu, Waldrop, Schapira + Brockwell,

Hailey Higdon had some new work up at Bloof for the sake of National Poetry Month; derek beaulieu has a new visual poem up at h&; Rosmarie Waldrop has a new poem, with accompanying write-up by Ben Lerner, over at Harper's; Kate Schapira has some new work up at The Wanderer; and Stephen Brockwell (pictured) has a new poem (with audio) over at The Puritan.

Scott Bryson reviews Marthe Reed's After Swann (2013) and Rosmarie Waldrop's Otherwise Smooth (2013) in Broken Pencil #65

Scott Bryson was good enough to review Marthe Reed's After Swann (2013) and Rosmarie Waldrop's Otherwise Smooth (2013) (both of which are still available) in Broken Pencil #65. Thanks, Scott!

This is actually the second review of After Swann, after Ryan Pratt was good enough to review such, and the third for Otherwise Smooth, following reviews by Ryan Pratt and Pearl Pirie.

We might not agree with Bryson's take on these works (apparently he's never heard of "constraint-driven poetry" before), but very much appreciate his attention. But the poetry chapbook reviews in Broken Pencil always make me wonder: if the reviewers don't seem to really understand poetry at all (there seems a tone of dismissal in much of Bryson's comments on the work in these chapbooks), why do they bother to write reviews?

After Swann
Marthe Reed

The words and phrases that constitute this series of poems were culled and collaged from Swann's Way, the first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time series of novels. Repurposing text from what Encyclopedia Britannica describes as "one of the supreme achievements of modern fiction," is never a bad way to start a poetry collection.
    The way Marthe Reed -- New York resident and chapbook publisher -- uses that text, however, may appear peculiar at first glance. She makes no attempt to vary the style of the verse she presents in After Swann; each entry consists of 10-12 three-line stanzas, and lines rarely go on for more than four words. These restrictions are more an indication of a singular vision, than a lack of creativity; she refers to her verse as "constraint-driven poetry" -- a style in which the author voluntarily applies limitations or rules, in an effort to spark inspiration.
    As a result of the succinct nature of Reed's lines, the segments of an individual poem never completely coalesce into a definable event. From time to time, you're awarded a brief flash of comprehension. A vague scene forms, then quickly fades into the next: "she suggested / my dress wasn't ready / some excuse // charming / she would jump in / and hold him in her arms." After Swann, in this way, pays homage to a crucial element of Proust's Swann's Way: involuntary memory -- when a particular cue evokes an unexpected recollection of a past event.
    A decent chunk of this, thematically, appears to deal with femininity and the tribulations and desires at play in the lives of women, 100 (or more) years ago. Those who've read Swann's Way will likely see more substance in this than those who haven't


Otherwise Smooth
Rosmarie Waldrop

The tone of a written work has likely never been set as quickly as it is in the first sentence of this collection: "How daily my life."
    Otherwise Smooth, an assemblage of nine prose fragments, rarely strays from that initial promise of despondency. There are tangible losses -- "a sister's death, a friend's," and the resulting funerals -- but Rosmarie Waldrop is more interested in the passing of what could be called the now-component of time, or what she describes as "the immediate between the ticks of the watch." Events and chances constantly evade her grasp; everything is instantly history: "A cosmic storm slips between my fingers... only once it's past I latch on."
    Language and cognition are to blame for the loss of immediate perception, Waldrop suggests: "Only once we've said 'I' with all that follows do we become aware of pure experience... But then it's already over... pronouns do not refer to anything in space and time except the utterance that contains them." This clearly isn't cheery material, but a nugget of hope does creep in to lighten the closing paragraph: "And yet. Already so many pear trees blossom."
    Otherwise Smooth reads as a complete cycle, with no loose ends, and Waldrop stays loyal to her theme throughout. It tends to wallow into heady territory, but always manages a tactful balance between poetic language and comprehensibility.

some author activity: Waldrop, Robertson, Smith, Massey + Poe,

Rosmarie Waldrop's "Inalienable writes (PoemTalk #47)" was recently featured at Jacket2; Lisa Robertson writes on Peter Culley over at Lemonhound; and audio from Robertson's reading in Vancouver on March 19, 2014 at The Western Front is now online at The Capilano Review; Jessica Smith writes on Susan Howe over at Literary Mothers; Karen Massey's "fuse," an erasure poem based on Charles Bukowski’s poem "funhouse," is now online at Bukowski on Wry; and Deborah Poe reviews Meredith Stricker's Mistake over at Jacket2.

some author activity: Barwin, mclennan, Waldrop, Hall + Earl,

Gary Barwin has a short film he did with Jenna Mariash, "The Hand," now up at Lemonhound; Ryan Pratt includes two above/ground press titles in his 'top five books I read this year' over at his blog, titles by rob mclennan and Rosmarie Waldrop, linking back to the reviews he originally posted at the ottawa poetry newsletter blog; Phil Hall has the final "Tuesday poem" of 2013; rob mclennan lists his "'best of' list of 2013 Canadian poetry books" over at the dusie blog; and Amanda Earl starts a new 2014 feature over at her blog.

some author activity: Poe, Armantrout, Carr, Smith, McNair, Waldrop + Clarke,

Deborah Poe and Rae Armantrout (as well as many others) have new poems in 1913: a journal of forms #6; Emily Carr has a lyric essay on "eating disorders and body image" in Better issue three; Jessica Smith has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series up at the dusie blog; Christine McNair and her work gets a good write-up by Alejandro Bustos in Apt613; Rosmarie Waldrop's Camp Printing (1970) is now online as a pdf at ubu web; and George Elliott Clarke has two new poems up at The Toronto Review of Books.

Ryan Pratt reviews recent above/ground press titles by Rosmarie Waldrop + rob mclennan

Our pal Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Rosmarie Waldrop's Otherwise Smooth (2013) and rob mclennan's The creeks (2013) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter, providing an extremely worthy second review for both chapbooks. Thanks, Ryan! See the original review here.

Pearl Pirie reviews Waldrop, mclennan and the mclennan/McNair collaboration

Ottawa poet, blogger and above/ground press author Pearl Pirie was good enough to discuss three recent above/ground press titles over at her Pesbo Poetry Journal as part of her "95 Books for 2013, Part 11, 106-116" post: Rosmarie Waldrop, OTHERWISE SMOOTH (2013), rob mclennan, The creeks (2013) and rob mclennan and Christine McNair, The Laurentian Book of Movement (2013), all of which are still available. See the original post on Pirie's blog here. Thanks very much!

95 Books for 2013, Part 11, 106-116
Continuing the reading habit, mostly poetry, a little memoir/biography.

106. Otherwise Smooth by Rosemary Waldrop (above/ground, 2013)

I’ve long said for every book published, forget the blurb or synopsis. The cover, fine, price, useful but give me even two lines from the work and I’ll know from it than all that. That tells me more of angle, subject, control of language, freshness, density, style and match to my needs and taste than secondary sources. In poem 8 she started, 

Without you to say you to. Without you saying to me. Words don’t rise to the roof of the mouth. The rose is obsolete. The color of your eyes subtracted from the air. Fabric undone.

This isn’t going to be a lineated anecdote. Not the usual sentence structure. Maybe the usual I miss the generic object-you but still, there’s not the sentimental indulgence that such subjects are apt to become. The choice of how it is expressed is fresh.

In poem 5 she says, “I say “I” and thereby appropriate the entire language.” Like that interconnectedness. We see a conflict when both sides of a war claim the same god on their side but each person says I and means someone else. Funny universities we can parse. It reminds me of the prosody prof who described pronouns as professional nouns. They don’t need the spotlight. They will play as a band for whatever Proper Name act comes to town.

108. The Creeks by rob mclennan (above/ground, 2013)

What a lovely palate cleaner. Livesay takes one firm step after the last. The Creeks by contrast are not such a holding forth. The mood is for the reader. He moves instead to a more crisp and delicate gestures that are about living and directing attention more than directing. There are pings of well-turned and suggest what could be unpacked with time.

The opposite of poetry,

I never knew approximation. We were always precise. The invention of trickery, to save time and effort. A poppy, in stubbly light. Each fool makes a doctor, a trading ship. I would understand doors, thick and scrupulous. Reproduced as a corpse. A grape hyacinth. Strawberry posies.

There’s something like aphorism coloring but it glides more as an observation than a pat opinion. What relationship between the images are there? Doors as scrupulous, knock offs the way corpses copy one another. Then among all the disingenuousness of talking through loopholes (of the first 3 sentences) and overestimating what you know, there’s the relief of flowers and the surprise innocence of strawberry posies but even that image is troubled with posies being associated with stench of plague. A beauty not for its own sake but to survive with until loss is past. It all makes a kind of oblique sense.

110. The Laurentian Book of Movement by Christine McNair and rob mclennan (above/ground, 2013)

This collaborative series from a Quebec cottage has some starlit spots. For example the first poem where one place is held constant, but only as a place does with it fast-forwarding decades from thick woods to present

A thread pulls powder across various landmarks. We walk into the Metro. This is not a pilgrimage.

The English language corresponds with optical illusions. One looks too close sometimes, and words begin to shimmer, flick. A chance occurance, breathes.

The next poem has some of my favorite turning the tables on parts of speech and our relationships to objects “I pablum up the stairs. I beige myself to sleep. I infuse myself with weak tea.”

some author activity: Waldrop, Hall, Barwin, eckhoff, Wilkinson + mclennan,

Rosmarie Waldrop has a new poem as part of the dusie Tuesday poem series; Phil Hall is interviewed over at The Toronto Quarterly; Gary Barwin interviews kevin mcpherson eckhoff on his "Their Biography" project over at Jacket2; Joshua Marie Wilkinson participates in Green Mountains Review's "Why Write?" series with the essay "Or: A Hollow Little Nimbus of Grime: How I Made Certain of My Poems"; and rob mclennan has two new poems, as well as an interview, in the second issue of The Mackinac.

new from above/ground press: OTHERWISE SMOOTH, by Rosmarie Waldrop

OTHERWISE SMOOTH
Rosmarie Waldrop
$4

How daily my life. How tiny the impurities around which words might accrue. Worlds. Whorls. Pearls? Once I stood in a town where nothing was left unchanged but the clouds driven from the east. Now I learn from the sea. Always the same, always different, brackish body, uncertain. The unusual I hold at bay by taking pictures. To let it accrue to memory without having to experience it? Do we live this way, walking, as if we could, on thin air? But the sycamore stands in the yard all day and all night. And now, though still lifeless in appearance, quickens. Roots gripping farther down.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2013
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Rosmarie Waldrop’s recent poetry books are Driven to Abstraction, Curves to the Apple, Blindsight (New Directions), Splitting Images (Zasterle), and Love, Like Pronouns (Omnidawn). Her Collected Essays, Dissonance (if you are interested), was published by University of Alabama Press in 2005.

Two novels, The Hanky of Pippin's Daughter and A Form/of Taking/It All are available in one paperback (Northwestern UP, 2001).  

She has translated 14 volumes of Edmond Jabés’s work (her memoir, Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabés, is out from Wesleyan UP) as well as books by Emmanuel Hocquard, Jacques Roubaud, and, from the German, Friederike Mayröcker, Elke Erb, Oskar Pastior, Gerhard Rühm, Ulf Stolterfoht.

She lives in Providence, RI. where she co-edits Burning Deck books with Keith Waldrop.

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