some author activity: Rexilius, Mody, Earl, mclennan, Logan + Dewinetz,

Andrea Rexilius is interviewed, alongside Heather Garbo, for Westword; Monica Mody is discussed in an article by Yashaswini Krishna, "Poetry's role and the financial struggles of poets today," at NewsTrail; Amanda Earl has a visual poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; rob mclennan has an excerpt of the work-in-progress, "the green notebook," up at Annulet, and is interviewed by Ivy Grimes for Writing Thoughts; Nate Logan has a new poem up at LEAVINGS and then another new poem up at LEAVINGS and also a poem at The Tiny; and did you know that Jason Dewinetz received a "Distinguished Alumni Award" from the University of Victoria a few years back?

Alina Stefanescu on Andrea Rexilius and Khashayar Mohammadi

American poet Alina Stefanescu (who is both kind and clever enough to be an above/ground press subscriber) has been writing short essay-pieces on poems lately, including some poems she found in recent above/ground press titles: Khashayar Mohammadi’s poem, “Brink of Life,” from Solitude Is An Acrobatic Act (above/ground, 2020) [you can read her essay on such here] and on Andrea Rexilius' "The Structure of a Flower: Stem," from Afterworlds (above/ground, 2020) [you can read her essay on such here]. Thanks so much! Her blog has some other neat pieces worth reading on there as well, if you wander around for a bit, including "'Voice' by Jennifer Horne: Wondering towards a mother's voice," "11 poetry writing prompts for pandemic moments," and this really lovely personal essay I quite enjoyed. Gadzooks!

new from above/ground press: Afterworld, by Andrea Rexilius

Afterworld
Andrea Rexilius
$5

The Structure of a Flower: Ovary

That goddess was once a word,
and the word for that goddess
was girl. And she was not o-shaped,
not open or agape. She was swarming
or fissured. Indented as a way to speak
deeper than surfaces. As a huntress
she was wild-eyed and ravishing. No other
atom dare approach uninvited. Lest he be
gutted. She was not “girl-like,” not pink
and tied up with ribbons or rope. She was
volcanic, triumphant. Named woman. Named garden.
And the person who named her was herself.

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

Andrea Rexilius is the author of Sister Urn (Sidebrow, Spring 2019), New Organism: Essais (Letter Machine, 2014), Half of What They Carried Flew Away (Letter Machine, 2012), and To Be Human Is To Be A Conversation (Rescue Press, 2011). Her creative and critical writing is featured in the following anthologies: Anne Carson: Ecstatic Lyre, The Volta Book of Poets, Sixty Morning Talks: Serial Interviews with Contemporary Authors, and Letter Machine Book of Interviews. She is Co-Director, and Core Faculty in Poetry, for the Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing at Regis University. She also teaches in the Poetry Collective at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.

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