some author activity: parizeau, Ball, Rukeyser, mclennan + Burgoyne,

df parizeau has a new poem up in the "Tuesday poem" series via the dusie blog; there is a short write-up on the work of the late Nelson Ball, as well as some poems, up at brief poems; Susan Rukeyser reads her piece "Less a man than a gun" over at YouTube; rob mclennan is interviewed by Colin Dardis over at Fill Your Books!; and Sarah Burgoyne reads work from her new Turret House Press chapbook over at YouTube.

some author activity: O'Reilly, Ball, Niespodziany, Armantrout + Naughton,

Nathanael O'Reilly has some new work up at ANONTYM; remembering Nelson Ball; Benjamin Niespodziany has two prose poems in the new issue of Guesthouse; Rae Armantrout has a new poem online at The Yale Review; and Katie Naughton has new work up at Timber Journal.

some author activity: Izsak, Christie, Burgoyne, Sweeney, Spinosa, Beaulieu + Ball,

Emily Izsak, Jason Christie, Sarah Burgoyne and Heather Sweeney have new work in the sixteenth issue of where is the river; Dani Spinosa has a new visual poem up at Train : a poetry journal; Derek Beaulieu is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; and Ryan Pratt has a new piece on working through the late Nelson Ball's literary archive.

announcing: THE NELSON BALL PRIZE

At the most recent Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, I was handed this flyer by Stuart Ross:

We are pleased to announce the creation of the Nelson Ball Prize, an annual award honouring the legacy of Canadian poet, publisher, and bookseller Nelson Ball (1942-2019) [see my obituary for him here]. Nelson was renowned for his poetry of observation and his quiet, steady support of Canadian writers as a bookseller and a publisher of literary magazines, chapbooks, and ephemera.

The Prize runs in three-year cycles. In years one and two, it is awarded for a published work (any size)—by a Canadian poet and published by a Canadian publisher in the previous two calendar years—that features “poetry of observation,” as chosen by two volunteer judges. In year three, the Prize recognizes a Canadian who has made a significant, under-the-mainstream-radar contribution to Canadian literature, as selected by two volunteer judges.

The inaugural Prize, $1,000 and a certificate, will be awarded in 2020 to the Canadian author of a publication issued in 2018 or 2019. Canadian publishers are encouraged to submit three copies of their nominated publication(s) by March 30, 2020, to The Nelson Ball Prize, c/o 3-300 Division Street, Cobourg, ON, K9A 3R3. Please include a statement confirming that the author is Canadian. The winning publication will be announced in fall 2020.

We are actively seeking patrons to help fund The Nelson Ball Prize. If you are able to make a onetime or annual contribution in Nelson Ball’s memory, please contact James McDonald and Stuart Ross at nelsonballprize@gmail.com

There is also an upcoming gathering for the late great poet in Toronto, on December 1, 2019. See here for details.

some author activity: mclennan, Schmaltz, Burdick, Ross, Ball + Smith,

rob mclennan has a new essay in the "(Not) My Writing Desk" series over at Queen Mob's Teahouse, and a new poem up at his blog, for Vancouver poet Rita Wong; Eric Schmaltz is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; Alice Burdick is interviewed over at Poetry in Voice (and now available for writing workshops in schools across Nova Scotia); Stuart Ross writes a moving post on Nelson Ball's last day, and days; and Jessica Smith has won the 2019 Betty Jane Abrahams Memorial Prize.

Nelson Ball (1942-2019)

above/ground press author Nelson Ball died this past Friday. Condolences to all that knew him, read him and loved him. above/ground press was fortunate enough to publish his chapbook Scrub Cedar (2003), as well as some new poems in issue #17 of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] (and, as anyone who knew him might suspect, he politely declined the offer of an interview). See my full obituary for him here. See Cameron Anstee's piece on him here.

The Café Review "Canadian issue" launch: Anstee, Clayton, Hall, Weaver, Hogg + Turnbull

above/ground press authors Cameron Anstee, Conyer Clayton, Phil Hall, Andy Weaver and Chris Turnbull read alongside poets Sandra Ridley and Bruce Whiteman in Ottawa as part of the launch of the "Canadian issue" of Maine's The Café Review.

Guest-edited by poet and above/ground press author Robert Hogg, the issue features new poetry by multiple above/ground press authors (highlighted) and non-authors alike, including Cameron Anstee, Nelson Ball, bill bissett, Conyer Clayton, Stephen Collis, Neil Flowers, Phil Hall, Daphne Marlatt, Don McKay, Barry McKinnon, Sandra Ridley, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Carolyn Smart, Sharon Thesen, Aaron Tucker, Chris Turnbull, Andy Weaver and Bruce Whiteman. This issue also features work by artists Jim Andrews and Judith Copithorne with a review by Dana Wilde.

Saturday, May 11, 2019
2-4:30pm
Bar Robo: 692 Somerset St W, Ottawa

some author activity: Earl, Smith, Anstee, Ball + mclennan,

Amanda Earl has a new visual poem up at h&; Jessica Smith can be found at FORMATION; Cameron Anstee talks on Ottawa's CBC Radio on Nelson Ball's bpNichol Chapbook Award win; and rob mclennan has a new poem up at Truck.

some author activity: Brockwell, Bramer, Ladouceur + Ball,

Stephen Brockwell is interviewed on his journal The Rideau Review (1987-88); Shannon Bramer has new poems up at Minola Review; Ben Ladouceur participates in the "12 or 20 questions" interview series; and The University of Sheffield Library does a nice write-up on Nelson Ball's Weed/Flower Press.

some author activity: Graham, Ball, Best, MacLeod + eckhoff,

Lea Graham has four new poems up at milk magazine; Nelson Ball has a new poem up at One Sentence Poems; Ashley-Elizabeth Best has some new poems up at Glasgow Review of Books; and the audio of three poems from Kathryn MacLeod's mouthpiece (1996) are now online at Our Teeth, as read by kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

above/ground press author Jason Christie's Cursed Objects (2014) and Ben Ladouceur's Lime Kiln Quay Road (2014) on the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award‏ shortlist!

Congratulations to Jason Christie (second year in a row!) and Ben Ladouceur for making the shortlist to the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award! Thrilled to see, also, two other above/ground press authors--Nelson Ball and Phil Hall--on the shortlist for further titles. Congratulations, all!

This is above/ground press' fourth and fourth annual appearance on the bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist, after Jason Christie's Government (2013) made last year's list, Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) made the previous year's list, and Hugh Thomas' Opening the Dictionary (2011) and Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin's let lie/ (2012) were shortlisted the year prior to that.

Looking forward to this year's Meet the Presses (our second annual appearance) to hear the winner! The press release for such is below (and at this link):

TORONTO – October 21, 2015 – The Meet the Presses collective is excited to announce the finalists for the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award. The prize, awarded annually since its establishment in 1985, goes to the author of the best poetry chapbook published in Canada in the previous year. It is named in honour of the late poet, novelist, and micropress publisher bpNichol.

Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the purse doubled to $4,000 in 2014, making it the richest annual literary award for a poetry chapbook — 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, both of whom were friends of bpNichol.

Judges Alice Burdick of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, and Karl Jirgens of Windsor, Ontario, chose the finalists from 68 submissions from across the country. The judges felt this year’s entries included many excellent works and some remarkable book designs, commenting: “It was difficult to choose from this wealth of literary riches.”

The finalists for the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:

Nelson Ball, A Gathering (BookThug)

Jason Christie, Cursed Objects (above/ground press)

Phil Hall, Notes from Gethsemani (Nomados Press)

Ben Ladouceur, Lime Kiln Quay Road (above/ground press)

Matt Rader, I Don’t Want to Die Like Frank O’Hara (baseline press)

Lissa Wolsak, Of Beings Alone: The Eigenface (Nomados Press)

The winner will be announced at 2 pm on November 14, 2015, at the annual Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, which runs from 11:30 am to 5 pm at the Tranzac Club, at 292 Brunswick Avenue, in Toronto. The Market introduces the public to independent literary publishers and authors of books, chapbooks, magazines, broadsheets, and recordings that are largely not available in bookstores. The event is curated by Meet the Presses, a volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events showcasing the work of independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

“This award is particularly important now, three decades after its inception,” says collective member Stuart Ross. “In an era when everyone seems constantly online, it’s exciting that there is still such vital passion for poetry on the printed page, especially in such an esoteric and utterly non-commercial form as the chapbook. And that the pioneering spirit of bpNichol continues to be such an influence on writers, including many born after his death.”

More information can be found at bpnichol.ca and meetthepresses.wordpress.com.

some author activity: Ball, Kronovet, mclennan, babineau + Barwin,

Nelson Ball has a new poem up at The Week Shall Inherit The Verse; Jennifer Kronovet is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; rob mclennan is interviewed over at The Town Crier; kemeny babineau participates in Amanda Earl's "One Thing"; and Gary Barwin has new work up at Our Teeth.

above/ground press at Word on the Street: Toronto (today!)

If you wander by The League of Canadian Poets booth at Word on the Street in Toronto today, they'll be handing out (while supplies last) a stack of above/ground press "poem" broadsides! I've been digging through the archives lately, and have discovered multiple broadsheets still in print by Sarah Pinder, Natalee Caple, Nelson Ball, Gil McElroy, Ken Norris, Steven Heighton, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Wanda Praamsma, George Bowering, Joe Blades and Christine McNair, among numerous others. Why not stop by?

some author activity: Hall, Ball, Rosenthal, Browning, Hajnoczky + Pirie,

Phil Hall was featured on The Toronto Quarterly for poetry month; Open Book: Ontario posts a "Poets in Profile" interview with Nelson Ball; Sarah Rosenthal has new work in issue 8 of Lightning'd Press; Sommer Browning has a short piece on writing up at NPM daily; Helen Hajnoczky has one of her folk-art poems up on the McGill-Queen's University Press site for Poetry Month; and Pearl Pirie has a new poem up at Moss Trill.

some author activity: Ladouceur, Anstee, Ball, Pirie, mclennan + The Peter F Yacht Club,

One of Ben Ladcouceur's poems has been nominated by the editors of Prism International for a Pushcart Prize; Cameron Anstee wrote a nice review of some recent chapbooks by above/ground press author and small press legend Nelson Ball; both rob mclennan and Pearl Pirie participated in "the next big thing" blog self-interview, and both read in Ottawa in January as part of the A B Series (Pirie on the 10th, and mclennan on the 29th). And there are still spaces in rob mclennan's upcoming poetry workshops!

And don't forget our annual Peter F Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta on the 29th!

Have you subscribed for the above/ground big 20th anniversary subscriptions? New publications forthcoming from Abby Paige, Jordan Abel and Joshua Marie Wilkinson, among others. Just what might 2013 bring?

Happy Seasonal things! From all of us to all of you, there;