Author spotlight #6 : N.W. Lea,

N.W. Lea, who formerly published under Nicholas Lea, lives and writes in Ottawa. He is the author of three chapbooks--light years (Ottawa: above/ground press, 2006), Actual Girl (Toronto: The Emergency Response Unit, 2011) and Present! (above/ground press, 2014)--and two full-length poetry collections produced through Chaudiere Books: Everything is Movies (2007) and Understander (2015).

A recent poem appeared over at the dusie blog, with another here, and even further at ditch. Kate Greenstreet did an interview with him shortly after the publication of Everything is Movies, and Marcus McCann wrote on him for the Globe and Mail book blog. A review of Present! lives here, and a recent interview conducted by rob mclennan lives here. A while back, rob mclennan even did a profile of N.W. Lea for Open Book: Ontario, and, more recently, Apt 613 did a short piece on the new collection.

His Everything is Movies can be ordered directly here, and his new collection, Understander, here.

Author spotlight #5 : William Hawkins,

Born in 1940 in Ottawa, Ontario, legendary poet and musician William Hawkins is one of the most important artists to emerge from Canada’s capital. After side trips to the West Coast and Mexico, he resides in the capital, pursuing enlightenment or a reasonable alternative thereto. Hawkins worked as a truck driver, cook, journalist and musician before settling on the taxi profession as a means of preserving integrity and ensuring near-poverty. He is now retired. His work appeared in the seminal anthology New Wave Canada: The New Explosion in Canadian Poetry (Toronto: Contact Press, 1966) edited by Raymond Souster and Modern Canadian Verse (Toronto: Oxford, 1967) edited by A.J.M. Smith. He published six books from 1964-1974, including Ottawa Poems (Kitchener: Weed/Flower Press, 1966) and The Madman’s War (Ottawa: S.A.W. Publications, 1974). Broken Jaw Press published his Dancing Alone: Selected Poems in 2005, and later chapbooks include the black prince of bank street (Ottawa: above/ground press, 2007) and Sweet and Sour Nothings (Ottawa: Apt 9 Press, 2010), as well as Wm Hawkins: A Descriptive Biography (Apt 9 Press, 2010). He attended the influential 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, and organized poetry readings at Ottawa’s infamous Le Hibou Coffeehouse. An acclaimed songwriter, he wrote songs and performed in bands (with the likes of Bruce Cockburn, David Wiffen, Darius Brubeck, and others), and published widely in Canada’s most important little magazines of the 1960s before retreating into silence in the 1970s and working as a cab driver until his retirement in 2012.

A a tribute CD (Dancing Alone: The Songs of William Hawkins) was released in 2008, with The Children's first album released in 2013. In 2013, he was inducted into the VerseOttawa Hall of Honour [see Pearl Pirie's report on such here; Cameron Anstee's post on such here; see rob mclennan's introduction here]. Roy MacSkimming's introduction to Dancing Alone: Selected Poems lives here, as does an interview conducted by rob mclennan around the same time.

The Collected Poems of William Hawkins, edited by Cameron Anstee [an interview with Anstee on the project lives here], was released earlier this year, and gathers Hawkins’s complete output. His books are printed alongside previously unpublished and uncollected poems including early magazine publications, the long-lost book Sweet and Sour Nothings, poems from the time of his extended silence, as well as all work produced since his gradual re-appearance in the 1990s. This volume presents the generous, defiant, idiosyncratic, and compelling work of William Hawkins in its entirety. The Collected Poems of William Hawkins can be ordered directly, here.

A recent Apt 613 article on Hawkins appears here, as does a profile on Hawkins by rob mclennan at Open Book: Ontario. The audio of Hawkins on CBC Radio's All in a Day earlier this year lives here. Cameron Anstee posted a complete bibliography for Hawkins in 2014.

Publisher spotlight #1 : Christine McNair,

Christine McNair [photo credit: Charles Earl] is a writer, book designer, occasional editor, book conservator, and bookbinder. Her first collection of poems Conflict was published by BookThug in 2012. The manuscript, and then subsequent book was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, the Archibald Lampman Poetry Award, the Ottawa Book Awards, and the Re/Lit award. Her poetry chapbook Pleasantries and Other Misdemeanours (Apt9, 2013) was shortlisted for the bpNichol chapbook award. She has also published two chapbooks as part of a work-in-progress collaboration with rob mclennan, as well as notes from a cartywheel (AngelHousePress, 2011).

She completed her BA(Hon) in English Literature with a minor in Art History at Acadia University in 2001. While at Acadia, Christine co-founded estuary arts magazine. She nearly left Canada on a Commonwealth Scholarship to India in 2001 but turned it down to work with her hands. From 2001-2003, she was employed at Gaspereau Press as the ‘editor’s devil’. Essentially a fanciful term for editorial assistant – Christine was involved in numerous and numinous aspects of small press work while at Gaspereau Press including typesetting, design, editorial work, special edition binding, and sundry tasks relating to book production. Her apprenticeship by another name introduced her to her chosen career as a book conservator through working on bookbinding projects for the press and through coursework at the Dawson Printshop bindery with Joe Landry and other instructors. In 2003, she left for England to pursue a Master’s degree in Book Conservation. While overseas, she continued bookbinding coursework, focusing in particular on design binding where she was tutored by Mark Cockram of Studio5. After an intensive 2.5 years of study at West Dean College, she worked in the UK for a year before returning to Canada. From 2003-2012 she continued to work on the occasional book design project in addition to her writing and conservation work including Dalhousie Blues, a collaborative project with three other Ottawa writers. She has been involved with teaching the occasional bookbinding course to other bookbinders as well as introductory workshops aimed at other writers. Her time at Gaspereau Press, as well as coursework through the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild initiated her into letterpress work. In 2012, she was granted the long-term loan of an Improved Golding Pearl Press with which she tinkers with on small letterpress projects. She is a lax but wistful member of the Ottawa Press Gang, a gaggle of letterpress printers working in Ottawa. Her bookbindings have been exhibited at the St. Bride’s Printing Library (London, UK), the University of Northampton (UK), Queen's University, and other smaller galleries in Ontario. Her design binding on a copy of The Diviners by Margaret Laurence was acquired by Special Collections at Queen’s University. For four years, she was one of four hosts for CKCU’s Literary Landscapes. Christine joined her partner rob mclennan in relaunching the small press Chaudiere Books in 2013. Her work at the press focuses on design, production, and the occasional editorial. She is also in charge of ‘numbers’ much to her great chagrin.

She has poems up at Ditch and Project Rebuild; has been profiled/reviewed/featured at Open Book: Ontario here, here and here, and at the Ottawa Citizen, The Bull Calf and Apt 613; and interviewed over at Canadian Poets Petting Cats, Kevin Spenst's blog, by Cassie Leigh and rob mclennan's '12 or 20 questions' series.

Author spotlight #4 : Monty Reid,

We are very pleased to be publishing Garden this fall, Monty Reid’s second poetry collection with Chaudiere Books, after Disappointment Island (2006).

Monty Reid [photo credit: Pearl Pirie] is a Canadian poet living in Ottawa, and the author of more than a dozen trade poetry collections, including The Life of Ryley (Thistledown Press, 1981), These Lawns (Red Deer College Press, 1990), The Alternate Guide (Red Deer College Press, 1995), Dog Sleeps (NeWest Press, 1993) and Flat Side (Red Deer College Press, 1998), a collection of new and selected poems, Crawlspace (House of Anansi, 1993), and numerous chapbooks, including cuba A book (above/ground press, 2005) and Sweetheart of Mine (BookThug, 2006). His most recent collection is The Luskville Reductions (Brick, 2008). Recent chapbooks include Site Conditions (Apt 9), Contributors’ Notes (Gaspereau) and Moan Coach (above/ground) along with Garden units from a variety of small presses. A three-time nominee for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and three-time winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, his first collection with Chaudiere Books, Disappointment Island, won the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry in 2007, and was shortlisted for the City of Ottawa Book Award. 

Recent interviews with Reid can be found at The Rusty Toque as well as with Kevin Spenst.

Much of Garden appeared as Facebook posts in 2012 and his current long work, Intelligence, appeared on Twitter throughout 2013. Other online work can be found at Dusie, elimae, Drain, ottawater, Truck, experiment-o, Metazen and elsewhere. Recent print work can be seen in The Peter F Yacht Club, The Malahat Review, Grain, Prairie Fire and other magazines, as well as the Chaudiere anthology Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013. He is the Managing Editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, and plays guitar and mandolin with the band Call Me Katie.

author spotlight #3: Roland Prevost,

Chaudiere Books is pleased to be publishing Roland Prevost’s first poetry collection, Singular Plurals (Chaudiere Books), in September 2014.

Roland Prevost [photo credit: Charles Earl] 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.

He was a participant in jwcurry’s Messagio Galore, “a celebratory investigation into what constitutes sound poetry,” alongside jwcurry, John Lavery, Carmel Purkis, Sandra Ridley and Grant Wilkins. In 2008, he was one of the "hot Ottawa voices" through The TREE Reading Series in Ottawa.

Some of his online activity includes a "Poets in Profile" feature at Open Book: Ontario, an essay as part of the “On Writing” series at the ottawa poetry newsletter and his 2009 “12 or 20 questions” interview.

author spotlight #2: rob mclennan,

Chaudiere Books is publishing Ottawa writer rob mclennan’s first collection of short fiction, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, later this spring, launching as part of the Plan 99 Reading Series at The Manx Pub in Ottawa on Saturday, May 10, 2014. Some of the stories from this collection, as well as from a subsequent work-in-progress, have appeared online at The Barnstormer, Reader's Digest Canada, matchbooklit, fortunates and Sassafras Literary Magazine, as well as quite a number posted to his blog: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (for example). A short write-up by the author on composing the form of the short short story also appears at matchbooklit. Other short fiction has appeared online in Numero Cinq, the author's blog and The Puritan, with short essays on composing fiction at The Town Crier, The Puritan and at his blog. American writer Eileen R. Tabios was good enough to do a short write-up on the work-in-progress, here.

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan [photo credit: Christine McNair] currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. This spring also sees the publication of a second collection of literary essays, notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014). Other recent titles include the poetry collection Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review, seventeen seconds: ajournal of poetry and poetics and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater. 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

Some recent rob mclennan activity includes a four-part essay on "writing fatherhood" over at Open Book: Ontario, the essay "on writing (and not writing" over at the ottawa poetry newsletter, a write-up at Apartment613 and an article/interview by the Ottawa Citizen, as well as new and newish poems at Connotation Press Online, n/a, Thunderclap and posit.