some author activity: Clayton, hanna, Unsworth, Claxton + Johnson,

Conyer Clayton recommends five books (including natalie hanna's above/ground press debut) as part of the TPQ5 over at The Poetry Question; Lydia Unsworth has a new essay in the Talking Poetics series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; a portrait of 2020 Governor General's Arts Award-winner Dana Claxton is now online; and Chris Johnson is interviewed in the Six Questions series at the Chaudiere Books blog.

some author activity: Ross, Claxton, Baus, Johnson, Gold + Perry,

some of Stuart Ross' poems have been translated into Russian; Dana Claxton has won the Hnatyshyn Foundation's $25,000.00 prize for outstanding achievement by a Canadian mid-career artist; Eric Baus is interviewed over at Neon Pajamas; Chris Johnson has a short poem, after Artie Gold, with a couple of interview questions, online at Canadian Literature; and Paul Perry has an article in the Irish Times on writing a children's novel.

Julie Mannell reviews Dana Claxton’s The Patient Storm (2016) and Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees (2016) in Arc Poetry Magazine #85

Writer and critic Julie Mannell was good enough to review Dana Claxton’s The Patient Storm (2016) and Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees (2016) as part of an omnibus bpNichol Chapbook Award 2017 shortlist review in Arc Poetry Magazine #85 (why, yes, copies are still available of both of these chapbooks; why do you ask?). Thanks so much! While this is the first review of Claxton’s chapbook, this is actually the third review of Saklikar’s chapbook, after Nikki Sheppy was good enough to discuss it in filling Station magazine, and Scott Bryson was good enough to discuss it over at Broken Pencil. Hooray!

Dana Claxton’s The Patient Storm is an anarchic and playful book of musical dialogue-poetry that is wholly original. It can be read as containing one or a series of rambunctious speakers—through unmetered short paragraphs that are set in the top of the page and are distinguished by a characteristically bouncy tone: “Calm. Still. Quiet and such. Ohhhhhhhh Stormy Storm… when they arrive and when they do… turbulency baby for me and you.” The poems read like Heather Christle had a baby and then let Steve Roggenbuck raise it. The tone is also reminiscent of a kind of new voice that is arising in Canada—one that is quick, punchy, and has a self-aware sense of humour—I would turn to Toronto-based MLA Chernoff as an author who embraces similar linguistic play in their work, as well as several of the authors publishing through Montreal’s Metatron Press.

[…]

After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees by Renée Sarojini Saklikar offers an anatomization of what could maybe be considered a relationship or perhaps a series of interactions as they relate to space. There are at least four central characters whose relationship to each other and the speaker is left ambiguous—as well as several others who play supporting roles. This book is perhaps best described as a poetic experiment in world creation as the poems themselves exist in a hive all their own while continuing the very Canadian tradition of incorporating a voluminous expanse of nature symbolism. Though, it must be mentioned, in the fictionalized Battle of Kingsway, the natural world is almost a character in itself and lines like: “She calls them Finds. Her teeth, bones, unexamined. Afternoons the heat: dust, that acrid curtain, wind whips red” occasion a foreboding tone that mystifies each text and imbues an overall enchanting effect on the chapbook as a whole.

some author activity: Baker, Tucker, Gurton-Wachter, Claxton + Saklikar,

Jennifer Baker has a new essay up at my (small press) writing day, as does Aaron Tucker; Anna Gurton-Wachter has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series at dusie; and Fazeela Jiwa writes on Meet the Presses, the bpNichol Chapbook Award and recent shortlist, including Dana Claxton and Renée Sarojini Saklikar for CWILA: Canadian Women in the Literary Arts.

above/ground press authors Renée Sarojini Saklikar's After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— (2016) and Dana Claxton's THE PATIENT STORM (2016) are on the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award‏ shortlist!

It has just been announced! Congratulations to Renée Sarojini Saklikar and Dana Claxton for making the shortlist to the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award [and of course, both Renée Sarojini Saklikar's After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees— and Dana Claxton's THE PATIENT STORM are still in print]! I'm in the midst of chapbook making (that might even be a Sacha Archer title in the background I'm stapling...), so am taking but a small pause with wine to hoist to the shortlisted authors. Congratulations, all!

This is above/ground press' fifth appearance on the bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist over the past six years, after Jason Christie's Cursed Objects (2014) and Ben Ladouceur's Lime Kiln Quay Road (2014) made the 2015 list, Christie's Government (2013) made the prior year's list and Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) made the list before that, and Hugh Thomas' Opening the Dictionary (2011) and Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin's let lie/ (2012) were shortlisted the year prior to that. So many lists!

Looking forward to this year's Meet the Presses to hear the winner! You should totally come by and say hello and even pick up copies of these shortlisted titles? The press release for such is below (and at this link):

TORONTO – October 17, 2017 – Tonight, at a Toronto event paying tribute to the late poet bpNichol, the Meet the Presses collective announced the finalists for the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award. The prize, awarded annually since 1985, goes to the author of the best poetry chapbook – in the estimation of the judges – published in Canada in the previous year and submitted for consideration. It is named in honour of the late poet, novelist, mentor, and micropress publisher bpNichol (1944–1988).

The $4,000 prize purse, donated by an anonymous benefactor, makes this the richest annual literary award for a poetry chapbook, specified as a collection of no more than 48 pages. The publisher of the winning title also receives $500, thanks to an annual donation by Toronto writers Brian Dedora and Jim Smith.

Judges Helen Guri of Montréal, Québec, and Hoa Nguyen of Toronto, Ontario, chose the finalists from more than 60 submissions from across the country.

The finalists for the 2017 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:

Dana Claxton. The Patient Storm. above/ground press
Doris Fiszer. The Binders. Tree Press
Stevie Howell. Summer. Desert Pets Press
Sonnet L’Abbé. Anima Canadensis. Junction Books
Nanci Lee. Preparation. FreeFall Literary Society of Calgary
Renee Sarojini Saklikar. After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees. above/ground press

The winner will be announced at 2 p.m. on November 18, 2017, at the annual Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, open from 12 noon to 5 p.m. at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, in Toronto. The Market introduces the public to independent literary publishers of books, chapbooks, magazines, ephemera, and recordings generally not available in bookstores. The free event is curated by Meet the Presses, a volunteer literary collective devoted to showcasing the work of independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

More details can be found at meetthepresses.wordpress.com.

For more information and interview opportunities, contact the publicist for Meet the Presses: Zarmina Rafi at rafi.zarmina@gmail.com

new from above/ground press: THE PATIENT STORM, by Dana Claxton

THE PATIENT STORM
Dana Claxton
$4

They are heading in from the West and perhaps they are held up… not only in the valley, but by the river’s edge. Hm. Either way, we will have to depart soon and they can join us.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2016
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Dana Claxton is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes film and video, installation and performance art. Her work is held in public collections, including the The National Gallery of Canada and Vancouver Art Gallery. Her work has been screened internationally, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (New York) and the Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis). Dana is of Hunkpapa Lakota descent and her family reserve is Wood Mountain Saskatchewan. Dana currently resides in Vancouver Canada and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia.

Produced, in part, for distribution as part of the Festival of Readers and The Concept of Vancouver conference in St. Catharines, Ontario, October 13-15, 2016. Thanks much to Gregory and Lisa Betts for their help and support. http://www.festivalofreaders.com

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