The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 22: Birrell, Blouin, Colistro + Earl,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
celebrating 25 years of the ottawa small press book fair
featuring readings by:

Heather Birrell (Toronto)
Michael Blouin (Kemptville)
Vincent Colistro (Toronto)
+ Amanda Earl (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted as part of a rare public appearance by poet, provocateur and accidental recluse, rob mclennan
Friday, November 22, 2019;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

Heather Birrell [pictured] is the author of two story collections, both published by Coach House Books: Mad Hope (a Globe and Mail top fiction pick for 2012 and a “CanLit cult classic,” according to 49th Shelf) and I know you are but what am I? Heather’s work has been honoured with the Journey Prize for short fiction and the Edna Staebler Award for creative non-fiction and shortlisted for the KM Hunter Award, the Arc Magazine poem of the year award, National and Western Magazine Awards (Canada), and received a notable mention in Best American Essays 2017. Heather works as a high school English teacher and a creative writing instructor in Toronto, where she lives with her family. Float and Scurry (A Feed Dog Book from Anvil Press) is her first poetry collection. Learn more about Heather and her work at www.heatherbirrell.com

Michael Blouin has won ReLit Best Novel in Canada, been shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, the bp Nichol Award, the CBC Literary Award, and is a winner of the Diana Brebner Award and the  Lampman Award. He has collaborated on recent projects with poet Gillian Sze, film director Bruce McDonald, poet and artist bill bissett and visual artist and author Elizabeth Rainer. He has been published in most Canadian literary magazines including Arc, Descant, Branch, Dragnet, The Antigonish Review, Event, Queen's Quarterly, Grain and The Fiddlehead. He has received rave reviews from The National Post, The Ottawa Citizen, The Chicago Institute for Photography and Literature, The Ottawa International Writers Festival, SubTerrain Magazine, Broken Pencil Magazine, Ottawa Magazine, This Magazine, The Telegraph Journal, Lynn Crosbie, bill bissett, Emily Schultz, Susan Musgrave, Marilyn Bowering, George Fetherling, Phil Hall, Sean Wilson, Paul Gessell, rob mclennan, Alejandro Bustos, Melanie Jannisse, Catherine Owen and Lisa Moore. He has served as an adjudicator for The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Ottawa Book Awards, Carleton University and This Magazine. His most recent work is in the Summer 2017 issue of Arc Magazine. Forthcoming are material in Taddle Creek Magazine, the anthology The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings and the novels Skin House, and I am Billy the Kid.

Vincent Colistro's poems have appeared in The Walrus, Hazlitt, Geist, Arc and elsewhere. He was a prize-winner in the 2012 Short Grain contest, and was nominated for National Magazine Award for Poetry in 2014. Late Victorians (Signal Editions, 2016) was his first book, but his new chapbook Mountain Fountain Font (Odourless Press, 2019) is what he's currently excited about.

Amanda Earl writes in Ottawa, and occasionally other places. She’s the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the fallen angel of AngelHousePress. Kiki (Chaudiere Books) is now available from Invisible Publishing. For more information, please visit AmandaEarl.com or connect with Amanda on Twitter @KikiFolle. Her latest chapbook, and her seventh from above/ground press, is Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019).

some author activity: Koss, Earl + Barwin,

Did I mention that Zane Koss (left) was in town recently? It was nice to be able to hand him his new above/ground press title in person. We enjoyed drinks and a spot of food at my most favourite tavern. Also: Amanda Earl's "The Power of Poetry" essay is now up at The Poetry Question; and Gary Barwin is interviewed in the Wombwell Rainbow Interviews series (but you already knew all of that, right?)

The Factory Reading Series: Emily Izsak chapbook launch w Sarah Kabamba + Sarah MacDonell

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
above/ground press chapbook launch

for London, Ontario poet Emily Izsak
launching Twenty-Five

with special guest-readers:
Sarah Kabamba
+
Sarah MacDonell

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Thursday, November 1, 2018;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs), Ottawa

author biographies:

Emily Izsak is the author of Whistle Stops: A Locomotive Serial Poem (Signature Editions, 2017) and Stickup (shuffaloff/Eternal Network, 2015). Her work has been published in Arc Poetry Magazine, The Puritan, House Organ, Cough, CV2, The Doris, and The Hart House Review. In 2014 she was selected as PEN Canada’s New Voices Award nominee. Emily is currently 25 and living in London, Ontario, but all of that could change at any moment.

We are surrounded by stories and poetry, Sarah Kabamba just wants to share some of them with you. She is of Congolese origins, and now lives in Ottawa.

Sarah MacDonell writes, bakes and bikes around Ottawa. She is the digital content editor for Canthius and the communications officer for the Green Party. She was a 2017 Tree Reading Series Hot Ottawa Voice and her poem “Beinn Bhiroach” won an honourable mention for the Diane Brebner Prize. Her first chapbook, The Lithium Body, came out in 2017 with In/Words and her work has been published in literary magazines across Canada and the US.

The Factory Reading Series: Jenna Jarvis chapbook launch w Ian Martin + Mia Morgan, July 26

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
above/ground press chapbook launch

for Jenna Jarvis' year of pulses
(before she leaves the country again)

with special guest-readers:

Ian Martin
+
Mia Morgan

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Thursday, July 26, 2018;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs), Ottawa

author biographies:

Jenna Jarvis has published poems in such places as Word and Colour, sea foam, and The Puritan. Her poem “syndical not synecdochal” secured an honourable mention for The Puritan's 2014 Thomas Morton Prize. In 2012, she won Bywords.ca’s John Newlove Award. year of pulses (above/ground press) is her third chapbook.

Ian Martin is, by and large, bi and large. His writing has appeared recently in Pretty Owl Poetry, In/Words, rout/e, and Absolutely Orbital. Ian has released 4 chapbooks, including PLACES TO HIDE (Coven Editions, 2018) and YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP THIS UP FOREVER (AngelHousePress, 2018). When he’s not writing, Ian is developing small video games and complaining online. [www.ian-martin.net]

Mia Morgan is the co-founder of Coven Editions, former editor of the Ottawa Arts Review, and former host of the Blue Mondays reading series. Her work has appeared in Bywords, Hussy, Battleaxe, In/Words and more. In her down time, she cooks and tends an ever-growing indoor jungle.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, June 22: Alexander, Siklosi, Rogal, Martin, Geddes + Bandukwala,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

David Alexander (Toronto)
Kate Siklosi (Toronto)
Stan Rogal (Toronto)
Ian Martin (Ottawa)
Bruce Geddes (Toronto)
+ Manahil Bandukwala (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, June 22, 2018;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

David Alexander is the author of After the Hatching Oven, new from Nightwood Editions. His poems have appeared in Prairie Fire, The Malahat Review, The Puritan, subTerrain, The Humber Literary Review, the Literary Review of Canada and many other fine journals and magazines. David volunteers as a reader for The Puritan and works in Toronto's nonprofit sector.

Kate Siklosi lives, writes, and thinks in Toronto. She is the author of three chapbooks, po po poems (above/ground press, 2018), may day (no press, 2018), and coup (The Blasted Tree, 2018). Her poetry has also been featured in ditch, magazine, Dusie, NoD Magazine, 3:AM Magazine, and 2018's nationalpoetrymonth.ca. She is the cofounding editor of Gap Riot Press, a neat little feminist experimental poetry chapbook press.

Stan Rogal lives and writes in Toronto. He is the author of 23 books, including 12 poetry collections. He is left-handed and has never owned a cell phone, placing him among the less than 8% of the North American population. Is this final fact either interesting, meaningful or relevant? No, which is precisely why he mentions it. Rogal is the author of four above/ground press chapbooks, including In Search of the Emerald City (1997), “THE CELEBRITY RAG: Opá” (STANZAS #44, March 2006), All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (2004), and muscle memory (2018).

Ian Martin [pictured] is, by and large, bi and large. His writing has appeared recently in Pretty Owl Poetry, In/Words, rout/e, and Absolutely Orbital. Ian has released 4 chapbooks, including PLACES TO HIDE (Coven Editions, 2018) and YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP THIS UP FOREVER (AngelHousePress, 2018). When he’s not writing, Ian is developing small video games and complaining online. [www.ian-martin.net]

Bruce Geddes's fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly, Great Lakes Review and The Hart House Review, and he has written two books for Lonely Planet and worked as a producer for the CBC. With a MA in Latin American Literature, he’s a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. Bruce lives and works in Toronto and his new novel, The Higher the Monkey Climbs was just published by NON Publishing in Vancouver. Follow him on Twitter @olbrucie

Manahil Bandukwala is a poet and artist currently living in Ottawa. She is an editor for In/Words Magazine & Press, run out of Carleton University. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in The Puritan, Room Magazine, Ricepaper, ottawater, Bywords.ca, In/Words and Coven Editions, among others. She’s currently completing her undergrad in English at Carleton University. Follow her on Instagram @bandukwali, or on Twitter @manaaaahil for photos of her art and news on her upcoming projects. She is launching a new chapbook through natalie hanna's battleaxe.

The Factory Reading Series: Quinn, Clayton + Bandukwala, June 13, 2018

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

with readings by:

Shannon Quinn (Toronto)
Conyer Clayton (Ottawa)
+ Manahil Bandukwala (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
doors 7pm/reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Shannon Quinn was born in Kanata. Her formative years were spent in the Hazeldean Mall. She has lived in Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Thunder Bay and Iqaluit. She now calls Toronto home. She works in mental health and previously worked for CBC Radio. Her first book, Questions for Wolf, was published by Thistledown Press. Her work has most recently appeared in CV2, ARC, Grain, Prairie Fire and Geez. Nightlight for Children of Insomniacs (Mansfield Press) is her second full length collection.

Conyer Clayton [pictured] is an Ottawa based writer who aims to live with compassion, gratitude, and awe. She has 2 chapbooks forthcoming: Undergrowth (bird, buried press, June 2018), and Mitosis (In/Words Magazine and Press, August 2018). For the Birds. For the Humans. was released with battleaxe press in February 2018. Her work appears in Prairie Fire, The Fiddlehead, The Maynard, In/Words, Bywords, Transom, and others. She won Arc's 2017 Diana Brebner Prize, 3rd place in Prairie Fire's 2017 Poetry Contest, and honourable mention in The Fiddlehead's 2018 poetry prize. She is a member of the sound poetry ensemble Quatour Gualour. Check out conyerclayton.com for updates on her endeavours.

Manahil Bandukwala is a Pakistani poet and artist currently living in Ottawa. She is an editor for In/Words Magazine & Press and is on the editorial board of canthius. Her work has appeared in Bywords.ca, the Puritan, In/Words, Coven Editions, Room Magazine and others. You can find her work on her website at manahils.com.

The Factory Reading Series: Tucker, Hancock, McNair + mclennan, April 29, 2018

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

with readings by:

Aaron Tucker (Toronto)
Brecken Hancock (Ottawa)
Christine McNair (Ottawa)
+ rob mclennan (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Sunday, April 29, 2017
doors 2pm; reading 2:45pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Aaron Tucker is the author of the novel Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books) as well as two books of poetry, Irresponsible Mediums: The Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp (Bookthug Press) and punchlines (Mansfield Press), and his latest chapbook with above/ground press Catalogue d'oiseaux. His current collaborative project, Loss Sets, translates poems into sculptures which are then 3D printed (http://aarontucker.ca/3-d-poems/); he is also the co-creator of The ChessBard, an app that transforms chess games into poems (http://chesspoetry.com).

Currently, he is an uninvited guest on the Dish with One Spoon Territory, where he is a lecturer in the English department at Ryerson University (Toronto), teaching creative and academic writing. You can reach him atucker[at]ryerson[dot]ca

Brecken Hancock's poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Puritan, Arc, Best Canadian Poetry in English, Best American Experimental Writing, The Globe & Mail and Hazlitt. Her first book of poems, Broom Broom (Coach House, 2014), was shortlisted for the ReLit Award and won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. It was also named by The Globe & Mail's Jared Bland as a debut of the year, and appeared on a number of year-end best-book lists, including the National Post, All Lit Up, and BookThug's Best Reads. She lives in Ottawa.

Ottawa poet Christine McNair's second poetry collection Charm came out from BookThug in 2017. Her first book Conflict (BookThug, 2012) was a finalist for the City of Ottawa Book Award, the Archibald Lampman Award, and the ReLit Award, and shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her chapbook pleasantries and other misdemeanours (2013) was shortlisted for the bpNichol chapbook award. McNair lives in Ottawa, where she works as a book doctor.

rob mclennan’s most recent titles include The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), the poetry collection A perimeter (New Star Books, 2016) and the chapbook snow day (above/ground press, 2018). His poetry title Household items (Salmon Poetry, 2018) should be out soon, hopefully. He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com. He also runs a reading series (this one!) three blocks away from where he was born.

the launch of ottawater #14: Ottawa's annual poetry pdf journal

Ottawa’s annual pdf poetry journal
edited by rob mclennan

Come out to the launch of the fourteenth issue of ottawater, featuring new writing by Manahil Bandukwala, Stephanie Bolster, Sara Cassidy, Jason Christie, JM Francheteau, Spencer Gordon, Chris Johnson, N.W. Lea, Leah MacLean-Evans, Christine McNair, Colin Morton, Dani Spinosa, Priscila Uppal, Jean Van Loon, Ian Whistle and Maha Zimmo.

http://www.ottawater.com

The launch, featuring readings by a number of this issue’s contributors, will be held on Friday, February 2, 2018, upstairs at The Carleton Tavern, Parkdale at Armstrong; doors 7pm, reading 7:30pm.

Lovingly hosted by editor/publisher rob mclennan.

Founded to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the City of Ottawa, Canada's glorious capital city, "ottawater," and its chemical formula/logo "O2(H2O)," is a poetry annual produced exclusively on-line, in both readable and printable pdf formats, and found at http://www.ottawater.com. An anthology focusing on Ottawa poets and poetics, its first issue appeared in January 2005, 150 years after old Bytown became the City of Ottawa.

The issue itself isn't online yet, but all previous issues remain archived on the site. Thanks to designer Tanya Sprowl, the ottawa international writers festival, and Randy Woods at non-linear creations for their continuing support.

The Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta : a report,

Last night was our annual Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta, once again in our usual space in Parkdale Market's Carleton Tavern [see last year's report here], held as the "office Christmas party" for our informal writer's grouping.

The evening held a myriad of short readings by PFYC regulars and even an irregular, including Anita Dolman, Christine McNair, D.S. Stymiest, Faizal Deen, Amanda Earl, Chris Johnson, Roland Prevost, Frances Boyle and rob mclennan (with absences by Jason Christie, Chris Turnbull, natalie hanna, James Moran, Cameron Anstee, Vivian Vavassis and Claire Farley, all of whom were sorely missed), with an unexpected appearance by new father N.W. Lea (we had a copy of his most recent above/ground press title handy, so managed to convince him to read), and Nova Scotia poet E. Alex Pierce, who gave a short reading as well. Apparently Pierce was in Ottawa for part of the holidays, and Basma Kavanagh sent her an email and told her to get herself down to the tavern, because of all the poets that would be there!

[above, from top: N.W. Lea reading; N.W. Lea listening as Anita Dolman reads; E. Alex Pierce; D.S. Stymiest] Reading to a healthy crowd of friends new and old, the audience included Jennifer Pederson, Grant Wilkins, Janice Tokar, Monty Reid, Josh Massey, Stephen Brockwell, Charles Earl, jwcurry, Marilyn Irwin and Chris Jennings, among others. And we even helped train a new waitress to our shenanigans.

[above: Roland Prevost; crowd scene including Josh Massey; post-reading w jwcurry, Faizal Deen + D.S. Stymiest] Christine and I made a point of reading from works-in-progress (as well as a poem I wrote the day after our prior PFYC Christmas gathering), her from a series of poetry and prose sections on her experience with preaclampsia, and myself a short story in-progress, one of the three I've been actively working on over the past few months. It was good to hear pretty much the entire group reading from new or recent work, from recently-polished poems to completely unfinished works, including a longer piece by Faizal Deen we're hoping will soon make it into an above/ground press chapbook (a section of the same work appeared in the tenth issue of Amanda Earl's experiment-o).

[Monty Reid and Chris Johnston, listening] And yes, I made cookies (lemon icebox and sugar) and everyone loved them. And Frances made cookies also, which were also loved.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 24: Earl, Thomas + hanna,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

Amanda Earl (Ottawa)
Hugh Thomas (Montreal)
and natalie hanna (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 24, 2017;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

Amanda Earl writes poetry, prose and visual poetry in Ottawa. She's managing editor at Bywords.ca, fallen angel of AngelHousePress, co-host of The Small Machine Talks podcast with a.m. kozak, editor of the Close Reading Service for New Women Poets and chief troublemaker at the Home for Whimsical Misfits. More about chapbooks, books, awards, grants and professional stuff at AmandaEarl.com.

Hugh Thomas is a poet and translator living in Montréal, where he teaches mathematics at UQAM.  His most recent chapbook, Six Swedish Poets, was published in the summer of 2015 by above/ground press.  It records his attempt at translating Swedish poems without knowing any Swedish.

natalie hanna [pictured] is an Ottawa lawyer working with low income populations, and an alumna of Carleton and Ottawa universities. Her writing focusses on feminist, political, and personal themes. In 2016, she joined the Sawdust Reading Series as Administrative Director and joined the board of Arc Poetry Magazine later that year. She runs battleaxe press - a local poetry small press. dark ecologies is her ninth chapbook, and second with above/ground press (this evidence against you, 1999). "dark ecologies" tries to balance identity and violence.

The Factory Reading Series: Irwin, Rhodes + Landers, August 12, 2017

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

with readings by:

Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa)
Shane Rhodes (Ottawa)
+ Sue Landers (Brooklyn NY)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, August 12, 2017
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Shortlisted for the 2016 bpNichol Award and winner of the 2013 Diana Brebner Prize, Marilyn Irwin’s [pictured] work has been published by Apt. 9 Press, Arc Poetry Magazine, Matrix Magazine, Puddles of Sky, and The Steel Chisel, among others. north, her eighth chapbook, and third published by above/ground press, was released earlier this year. She runs shreeking violet press in Ottawa.

See her 2015 Jacket2 interview here: http://jacket2.org/commentary/short-interview-marilyn-irwin

Shane Rhodes is the author of six books of poetry, including his most recent Dead White Men (2017, Coach House Books). Other titles include Err, which was nominated for the City of Ottawa Book Award in 2012, X, which created poetry out of Canada’s post-Confederation treaties, and The Wireless Room, which won the Alberta Book Award. Shane’s poetry has also been featured in the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2014, Breathing Fire II, and was awarded the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry.

See his recent Touch the Donkey interview here: http://touchthedonkey.blogspot.ca/2016/09/ttd-supplement-61-seven-questions-for.html

Sue Landers is a poet from Brooklyn. She is author of Franklinstein, which tells the story of one Philadelphia neighborhood wrestling with the legacies of colonialism, racism, and capitalism. She is also the author of two books of poetry, 248 mgs., a panic picnic and Covers, as well as two chapbooks, 15: A Poetic Engagement with the Chicago Manual of Style and What I Was Tweeting While You Were on Facebook. She is currently writing about riding every New York City subway line from end to end.

See her recent Touch the Donkey interview here: http://touchthedonkey.blogspot.ca/2017/06/ttd-supplement-81-seven-questions-for.html

The Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta : a report,

Last night we held our annual PFYC Christmas party/reading/regatta [see the report from last year's event here] at the Carleton Tavern, our "office Christmas party," if you will, for those of us in our informal writer's group [see a history of PFYC here].

Stephen Brockwell provided some fine co-hosting duties, as well as an array of photos (all of these pictures were taken by him). There were short readings by Amanda Earl, Stephen Brockwell, Frances Boyle, Pearl Pirie, Marilyn Irwin, Janice Tokar, myself, Gwendolyn Guth and Roland Prevost, with an array of audience that included Monty Reid, Brian Pirie, jwcurry, Rachel Zavitz, Steve Zytveld, Jason Wiens (Christmassing here from Calgary) and Robert Stacey [pictured at the end, with me]. Most read short selections of new pieces and/or works-in-progress, but for myself, who could only manage a poem or two from the new book (all my works-in-progress aren't yet ready for public consumption).

It was good to hear some new work from Gwendolyn Guth, including a poem since that has been accepted for a forthcoming anthology on motherhood via Demeter Press. Congratulations, Gwen!

Really, much of the enjoyment of the PFYC Christmas event is in hearing new work from poet-friends that perhaps don't read as often as they should, whether Gwendolyn Guth, author of the 2010 chapbook Good People, or Janice Tokar, author of the 2014 chapbook ARRHYTHMIA.

Some of us, including Marilyn, Pearl and myself, even provided some baked goods, with an array of chocolate goodness brought in by Roland and Jan. There was also much merriment! I also brought along copies of a variety of above/ground press items not set to release until January, including the new issue of Touch the Donkey, and above/ground press' 800th item! (What could it be? Stay tuned!)

Unfortunately, weather and circumstance kept a few readers away, including Jason Christie, Claire Farley, Chris Turnbull, Chris Johnston, Christine McNair and Vivian Vavassis. But hey, there's always next year, right?

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 25, 2016: Strimas, Di Cicco, Brockwell, Fiszer + Marchand,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

Meagan Strimas (Toronto)
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco (Toronto)
Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa)
Doris Fiszer (Ottawa)
+ Blaine Marchand (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 25, 2016;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

Meaghan Strimas [pictured] is the author of three poetry collections, Junkman’s Daughter, A Good Time Had By All and Yes or Nope, and the editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwan. She grew up in Owen Sound, Ontario, and lives in Toronto, where she is a professor in the Department of English at Humber College and the managing editor of the Humber Literary Review.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco is the author of twenty-two volumes of poetry, most recently My Life Without Me, and a book of manifestos on creative cities called Municipal Mind. He has lectured widely in the domain of creative economies throughout N. America and Europe and is the recipient of a Canadian Urban Institute Award for his thesis of civic spirit as the underpinning of prosperous modern cities. He is a Roman Catholic priest, a jazz trumpeter, and principal of the urban consultancy, “Municipal Mind” (municipalmind.com). He is presently the public space liaison between the stakeholders of the Toronto waterfront land and the City of Toronto. He was the Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto between 2004 and 2009.

Stephen Brockwell cut his writing teeth in the ’80s in Montreal, appearing on French and English CBC Radio and in the anthologies Cross/cut: Contemporary English Quebec Poetry and The Insecurity of Art (both Véhicule Press, 1982). George Woodcock described Brockwell’s first book, The Wire in Fences, as having an “extraordinary range of empathies and perceptions.” Harold Bloom wrote that Brockwell’s second book, Cometology, “held rare and authentic promise.” Fruitfly Geographic won the Archibald Lampman award for best book of poetry in Ottawa in 2005. Brockwell currently operates a small IT consulting company from the 7th floor of the Chateau Laurier and lives in a house perpetually under construction. His most recent poetry title is All of Us Reticent, Here, Together, published by Mansfield Press.

Doris Fiszer is a member of Ruby Tuesday’s writing group. Her poetry has appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, bywords.ca and other local publications. Her chapbook The Binders won the 2016 Tree Chapbook Award and was published by Tree Press. The poems in the chapbook were inspired by her parents’ experiences in Nazi camps during world War 11 and are part of a larger collection she is currently working on. 

Blaine Marchand's poetry and prose has appeared in magazines across Canada and in the US. He has won several prizes for his writing, including 2nd Prize in the 1990 National Poetry Contest and the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry for his book A Garden Enclosed. His two most recent books, Aperture and The Craving of Knives were short-listed for the Archibald Lampman Award in 2009 and 2010. He has six books of poetry published, a children's novel and a work of non-fiction.

The Factory Reading Series: Quartermain, jarvis + Reid, September 1, 2016

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

Meredith Quartermain (Vancouver)
jenna jarvis (Ottawa)
+ Monty Reid (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Thursday, September 1, 2016
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Meredith Quartermain’s [pictured] second novel, U Girl, will be published by Talonbooks Aug/Sept 2016. She is also the author of I, Bartleby: short stories; Recipes from the Red Planet (finalist for a BC Book Award (Fiction)); Nightmarker (finalist for a Vancouver Book Award); Rupert's Land: a novel; and Vancouver Walking (winner of a BC Book Award (Poetry)).

jenna jarvis is a poet and a barista. her writing has appeared in puritan magazine and keep this bag away from children, as well as in various zines and microblogs, including a recent above/ground press broadside.

Monty Reid was born in Saskatchewan, worked for many years in Alberta, BC and Quebec, and now lives in Ottawa.  His Meditatio Placentae was published by Brick Books in 2016.  Previous books include Garden (Chaudiere), The Luskville Reductions (Brick), and CrawlSpace (Anansi) as well as chapbooks such as Kissing Bug (Phafours), Moan Coach (above/ground) and Site Conditions (Apt 9).  His frequently-modified A Gran Zoo remains forthcoming from BuschekBooks and his current project, Intelligence, is nearing completion.  He has won Alberta’s Stephansson Award for Poetry on three occasions, the Lampman Award, two national magazine awards, and is a 3-time nominee for the Governor-General’s Award.  He is currently the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine and Festival Director at VerseFest, Ottawa’s international poetry festival.

The Factory Reading Series: Best, Kerrison + Brockwell, July 22, 2016

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

Ashley-Elizabeth Best (Kingston)
Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa)
+ Jane Kerrison (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, July 22, 2016;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Ashley-Elizabeth Best [pictured] is from Cobourg and now lives and writes in Kingston. Her work has appeared, in CV2, Berfrois, Grist, dusie, Ambit Magazine and The Literary Review of Canada, as well as in the chapbook Now You Have Many Legs to Stand On (above/ground press, 2015). Her debut poetry collection Slow States of Collapse was shortlisted for the 2015 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and was published with ECW Press in April of 2016.

Stephen Brockwell is an Ottawa poet and small business schlub. His poems are forthoming in Arc and Inwords. He is preparing workshops on poetry and philosophy for the Ottawa Public Library. His chapbook Where Did You See It Last? appeared in June with Ottawa's Textualis Press, and he has a new poetry title out this fall—All of Us Reticent, Here, Together—with Mansfield Press.

Jane Kerrison is an Ottawa based writer whose work has appeared in Literary Laundry, carte blanche, Doll Hospital Journal, and Bywords, among other publications. She will soon launch a poetry centered Etsy store called Small Poetics, where she combines found poetry, tea and water colour paper into art.

The Factory Reading Series: Simpson, Brockwell + Peerbaye, February 20, 2016

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:
The Factory Reading Series:

Rachael Simpson (Ottawa)
Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa)
+ Soraya Peerbaye (Toronto)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, February 20, 2016;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Rachael Simpson's poetry has been published in Canada and the United States. She lives in Ottawa.

Stephen Brockwell is an Ottawa poet and small business owner. He is currently cultivating two very slow growing manuscripts of poetry and two seedling novellas.

Soraya Peerbaye’s first collection, Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award. Her poems have previously appeared in Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Women Poets (Mansfield Press, 2004), edited by Priscila Uppal and Rishma Dunlop, as well as various literary journals; she has also contributed to the chapbook anthology Translating Horses (Baseline Press). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Peerbaye also works with dance and theatre organizations in Toronto as a dramaturge and curator.

The Factory Reading Series: Hanson-Finger, Barwin + Hogg, February 27, 2016

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series:
Jeremy Hanson-Finger (Ottawa)
Gary Barwin (Hamilton)
+ Robert Hogg (Mountain)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, February 27, 2016;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Jeremy Hanson-Finger's [pictured] first novel, a mystery/black comedy set in the Ottawa Civic Hospital, will be published by Invisible Publishing in April 2017. Born in Victoria, he attended Carleton University, where he was an editor of Ottawa's only literary erotica magazine, The Moose & Pussy (now defunct). After moving to Toronto to work in publishing, he co-founded the literary magazine Dragnet (currently on hiatus). He moved back to Ottawa in January after five years away. His website is http://hanson-finger.com.

Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multidisciplinary artist, and the author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and books for kids as well as numerous chapbooks. His most recent books are the short fiction collection, I, Dr Greenblatt, Orthodontist, 251-1457 (Anvil) and the poetry collection, Moon Baboon Canoe (Mansfield) which won the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry. His novel, Yiddish for Pirates, will appear in April 2016 from Random House Canada. A PhD in music, Barwin was 2014-2015 Writer-in-Residence at Western University. He has taught creative writing at a number of colleges and universities and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Robert Hogg was born in Edmonton, Alberta on March 26, 1942. When the child was nine, his father bought a ranch in the Cariboo region in the interior of British Columbia, where the family spent three years; from there they moved to Burnaby, and later Abbotsford and Langley in the Fraser Valley where Hogg finished high school in 1960. He spent the next four years in the English and Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia where he came into contact with the Black Mountain poets and their poetics and participated in the Tish poetry movement. After graduating in the spring of 1964 Hogg hitch-hiked to Toronto, visited the poet, Charles Olson, in Buffalo, and applied to study under him in the graduate program of the English Department of the State University of New York. Hogg later wrote his doctoral dissertation on Olson under the supervision of Robert Creeley. He completed the course work for the PhD in the spring of 1968 and accepted a position at Carleton University in Ottawa where he taught Modern and Post-Modern American and Canadian Poetry and Poetic Theory until his retirement in 2005.

He is the author of the poetry collections The Connexions (Berkeley CA: Oyez Press, 1966), Standing Back (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1972), Of Light (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1978), Heat Lightning (Windsor ON: Black Moss Press, 1986) and There Is No Falling (Toronto: ECW Press, 1993). In 2012, above/ground press produced his chapbook from Lamentations. A new edition of the chapbook with updated materials will be launching at this event.

The Factory Reading Series: Morrissy, Burgoyne + Farley, March 26, 2016

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series:

Julie Morrissy (Dublin)
Sarah Burgoyne (Montreal)
+ Claire Farley (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Saturday, March 26, 2016;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Julie Morrissy is a poet from Dublin currently living in her home city after spending a number of years living in Canada and the USA. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize in the UK, and selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. Her work has published widely in Ireland, the UK, and Canada. Morrissy has performed readings at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival, the International Literature Festival Dublin, and on national radio. Her debut poetry pamphlet I Am Where is published by Eyewear Press in the UK.

Sarah Burgoyne [pictured] is from Canada's West Coast and currently lives in Montreal. Her first book of poetry, Saint Twin, is being published with Mansfield Press in the spring of 2016. She will be launching a new chapbook with above/ground press.

Claire Farley lives and works in Ottawa where she is the co-founder and editor of Canthius, a feminist literary journal. Her poetry has been published in The Apeiron Review, The Minetta Review, ottawater, The Peter F. Yacht Club and in the workshop anthology assignment: zero (above/ground press, 2015). She has writing forthcoming in some mark made, a publication considering hybrid, material literary practices.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 6, 2015: Noble, Casteels, Farley, McPherson + Christie,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

Catina Noble (Ottawa)
Michael e. Casteels (Kingston)
Claire Farley (Ottawa)
Christian McPherson (Ottawa)
+ Jason Christie (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 6, 2015;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

Catina Noble: I have over 150 publications including Poetry, Short Stories, Articles/Interviews and Photography. My publications include: In/Words, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Byline Magazine, The Mindful Word, Curious: The Tourist Guide, Woman’s World, Riverview Park Review, Mainstreeter, PEN, Canadian Newcomer Magazine, Verse Afire, Y Travel Blog, Mojito Mother, Short-Story Me, Baby Post, CultivateTO, The Charlatan and Prairie Journal. I have 3 chapbooks of poetry out: Odds & Ends (Nov. 2014), Clean Up In Aisle 4 (May 2014) and Pussyfoot (May 2013). My new book is Katzenjammer, a collection of eclectic poems (Twig Works).

Michael Casteels has self-published over a dozen chapbooks of poetry and artwork. His poetry has recently appeared in: Arc, Filling Station, and BafterC. In 2012 he was nominated for the emerging artist award in The Premier's Awards for Excellence in the Arts. He lives in Kingston, where he runs Puddles of Sky Press. He will be launching a new chapbook with Ottawa's Apt. 9 Press.

Claire Farley [pictured] is from Québec's Outaouais region. She is the co-founder and editor of Canthius, a feminist literary journal. She has writing forthcoming in some mark made, a limited edition publication considering hybrid, material literary practices.

Christian McPherson was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1970.  He is the author of seven books, Saving Her, Cube Squared, My Life in Pictures, The Sun Has Forgotten Where I Live, The Cube People (shortlisted for the 2011 ReLit Awards), Poems that swim from my brain like rats leaving a sinking ship, and Six Ways to Sunday (shortlisted for the 2008 ReLit Awards). He has a degree in philosophy from Carleton University and a computer programming diploma from Algonquin College. He is married to the beautiful Marty Carr. They have two kids, Molly and Henry. They all live together in Ottawa.

Jason Christie lives in Ottawa with his wife and toddler. He is the author of Canada Post (Snare), i ROBOT (Edge/Tesseract), Unknown Actor (Insomniac), and a co-editor of Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (Mercury). He has two other recent chapbooks from above/ground press, which were both nominated for the bpNichol Chapbook Award: GOVERNMENT (2013), and Cursed Objects (2014). He is currently writing poetry about objects. He will be launching his new chapbook, The Charm (above/ground press).

The Factory Reading Series: Pratt, Prevost, Anstee + Reid, September 25, 2015

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series presents:

Ryan Pratt (Hamilton)
Roland Prevost (Ottawa)
Cameron Anstee (Ottawa)
+ Monty Reid (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, September 25, 2015;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Ryan Pratt lives in Hamilton, Canada. A contributing writer for The Puritan and Ottawa Poetry Newsletter, Ryan's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Quiddity, Contemporary Verse 2, text Magazine and (parenthetical) zine. He was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize.

Roland Prevost's first trade poetry publication Singular Plurals (Chaudiere Books, 2014) came out in the fall of 2014. He has been published by Arc Poetry Magazine, Descant, The Toronto Quarterly, ottawater, experiment-o, Ottawa Arts Review, The Steel Chisel, The Peter F. Yacht Club and as a dusie “Tuesday poem,” among many others. He is the author of four chapbooks: Metafizz (Bywords, 2007), Dragon Verses (Dusty Owl, 2009), Our/ Are Carried Invisibles (above/ground press, 2009), and Parapagus (above/ground press, 2012), and has also been published in three poetry collections by Angel House Press. He won the 2006 John Newlove Poetry Award, judged that year by Erín Moure. He was managing editor of Poetics.ca, and founding managing editor of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics. He lives and writes in Ottawa.

Cameron Anstee lives and writes in Ottawa ON where he runs Apt. 9 Press and is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa. He has published chapbooks with Baseline Press (London ON), above/ground press (Ottawa ON), The Emergency Response Unit (Marmora ON), and In/Words (Ottawa ON). He is the editor of The Collected Poems of William Hawkins (Chaudiere Books, 2015).

Monty Reid was born in Saskatchewan, worked for many years in Alberta, BC and Quebec, and now lives in Ottawa. His books include Garden (Chaudiere), The Luskville Reductions (Brick), and CrawlSpace (Anansi) as well as chapbooks such as Kissing Bug (Phafours), Moan Coach (above/ground) and Site Conditions (Apt 9). Two collections are forthcoming: Meditatio Placentae from Brick, and A Gran Zoo with BuschekBooks. He has won Alberta’s Stephansson Award for Poetry on three occasions, the Lampman Award, national magazine awards, and is a 3-time nominee for the Governor-General’s Award.  He is currently the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine and Festival Director at VerseFest, Ottawa’s international poetry festival.