some photos from last night's spring poetry launch;

Here are some photos from last night's big spring poetry launch for The Collected Poems of William Hawkins, ed. Cameron Anstee, and N.W. Lea's Understander. Thanks everyone for showing up, to Jesse Patrick Ferguson for his brilliant acoustic sets, and to Raw Sugar Cafe for their continued support! 

Stephen Brockwell and Bob Hogg (with Marilyn Irwin in the background

Jesse Patrick Ferguson,

 

Nina Jane and Vivian Vavassis

Cameron Anstee, reading in William Hawkins' stead,

Calgary launch of Ground Rules: a report,

We had an amazing launch last night at Calgary’s Shelf Life Books last night for Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press, 2003-2013 (2013), with readings by Julia Williams, Natalie Simpson and newly-announced Calgary poet laureate derek beaulieu, lovingly hosted by Chaudiere Books editor and co-publisher rob mclennan. The generous folk at Shelf Life Books (who have also posted photos from last night here and here) ordered a mound of copies of the anthology, and even had a healthy selection of books by all the readers, including Julia Williams' The Sink House (Coach House Books, 2004), derek beaulieu's Please, No More Poetry (WLU, 2013), rob mclennan's Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011) and Natalie Simpson's brand-new Thrum (Talonbooks, 2014). The collected audience in attendance included writers such as Christian Bök, Paul William Zits, Monica Kidd and Colin Martin (all pictured, above), among others.

mclennan also provided a stack of various above/ground press backlist (including copies of the first issue of Touch the Donkey) for free distribution (publications by ryan fitzpatrick, rob mclennan, Hugh Thomas, Rae Armantrout, Sarah Rosenthal, N.W. Lea, Camille Martin, Carrie Olivia Adams, Hailey Higdon and plenty of others) that the crowd hungrily devoured, alongside a wine and cheese spread.

After a stretch of too many years, it was a great pleasure to hear Williams read again, especially given her almost complete publishing silence over the decade since the appearance of her trade book and above/ground press chapbook. Where has she been? Children and copy-editing, and quietly writing, it would appear. She even read from something new, slowly forming into a shape. Natalie Simpson gave a stellar reading of material from the anthology as well as from her new second trade collection. beaulieu [pictured, as Williams and Simpson watch on] read a single prose-piece working through translation, fiction and movie-making that was rather intriguing, something I would very much like to see more of, to see where the piece might possibly go.

rob mclennan [pictured] ended the event reading his single poem in the collection, as well as a selection of stories from his new title, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), a book we're launching tomorrow afternoon in Ottawa at The Manx Pub. All in all, it was a magnificent event. Over the next few months, watch for details on our Chaudiere Books Podcast, where the full audio of last night's event (as well as last fall's Ottawa launch) will be available. Thanks very much to Shelf Life Books, the readers and all who came out to help celebrate both press and the anthology.

McNair + McCann (etc) in Hamilton: a report,

Our pal Ryan Pratt was good enough to post a generous and thorough report of the LitLive Reading Series event in Hamilton on March 2, 2014 that included readings by Chaudiere author Marcus McCann and co-publisher Christine McNair, as well as Angie Abdou, Jim Smith, Andrew Faulkner and Lynn Davies (the photos are his as well). Much thanks! I have to say it was an impressive event (and Pratt was even good enough to mention the fact that I was also there, holding Rose the Intern throughout). Check out his report here.

Ground Rules launch: a report,

On Saturday, December 7, 2013, we celebrated the publication of the first title in our Chaudiere Books re-launch at The Manx Pub. Thanks so much to David O'Meara and The Manx Pub for hosting the event, and Sean Wilson and the Ottawa International Writers Festival for their sponsorship, and ongoing support. Lovingly hosted by myself, we launched Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 [see ordering information here] to a packed house with readings by contributors Marilyn Irwin, Stephen Brockwell and Sharon Harris. We even had copies available of the limited-edition chapbook I simply began: above/ground press at 20 [an interview with rob mclennan] (Ottawa ON: Apt. 9 Press, August 2013), a lengthy interview with myself on the beginnings and history of the press that Cameron Anstee conducted [read an excerpt of such here], as well as the previous above/ground press anthology, Groundswell: the best of above/ground press 1993-2003 (Fredericton NB: Broken Jaw Press, 2003).

Marilyn Irwin has been doing quite well lately, from her 2013 Diana Brebner Award win to poems in this year's issue of New American Writing. Part of her reading included a new poem longer than a single page (as she said during her reading, anyone familiar with her work would know exactly how shocking an idea like that is). Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of her (but hopefully someone else did).

Stephen Brockwell, while reading from his reprinted chapbook, Impossible Books (the Carleton Installment), included in the new anthology, was good enough to read a poem in the anthology by Stephanie Bolster. Brockwell's chapbook was an earlier work-in-progress excerpt (one of two such fragments of the same work produced through above/ground press) from what has newly appeared as The Complete Surprising Fragments of Improbable Books through Toronto's Mansfield Press. Notice, too, if you skim the crowd behind this photo of Stephen Brockwell, you can catch glimpses of Brian and Pearl Pirie, Cameron Anstee, Ben Ladouceur, Christine McNair and Monty Reid, among others.

Toronto writer and artist Sharon Harris read from a scattering of works, including her "more fun with 'pataphysics," originally produced by above/ground press as an issue of STANZAS and reprinted in the anthology, as well as a number of pieces from a couple works-in-progress. Harris is originally from Sarnia, Ontario, and read a couple of poems composed on and around her hometown (including some stories that don't seem restricted to those from Sarnia, and could easily be Ottawa Valley stories).

Writer, book conservator, designer and new co-publisher Christine McNair, who is also my lovely wife, designed and produced the book (which is absolutely gorgeous). If you can imagine, two weeks plus earlier, she managed to approve cover stock for the anthology from her hospital bed in the midst of a thirty-seven hour labour. We were enormously happy that she was able to be on hand for the event with our other co-production, two-and-a-half-week-old Rose, making this the baby's first public outing (basically, her first non-baby outing) and first literary reading. We suspect there might be many more such readings in her future!

If you were unable to make the event, fret not; the entire reading was recorded, and will be posted come spring as part of the first Chaudiere Books podcast. Expect to see at least one more Ottawa launch with different readers around the same time, and schemes are cooking to see launches in Toronto, Montreal and even Calgary. Have you joined our Facebook group yet, to keep apprised of updates? And of course, we will be announcing our Indiegogo campaign in the New Year, as well as our 2014 forthcoming titles. Stay tuned!

Pearl Pirie in St. Catharines + Marcus McCann in Ottawa: some reports,

Pearl Pirie [photo credit: Ryan Pratt] read in St. Catharines, ON at the Grey Borders Reading Series recently, and Ryan Pratt was good enough to post a report on the ottawa poetry newsletter blog. Pirie posted her own report as well, on her own blog. Back home, Marcus McCann read at the Manx Pub over the weekend, as part of the ottawa international writers festival, and Amanda Earl posted her report of such, here.