Ottawa Poets Laureate activity: David O'Meara + Véronique Sylvain,

Véronique Sylvain will be reading a poem at Ottawa City Hall, Heritage Building (Elgin Street Entrance) as part of a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate Franco-Ontarian Day. 8:30am, Wednesday, September 25, 2024 (in case of rain, this will take place inside City Hall at Jean Pigott Place). David O'Meara was interviewed by rob mclennan for periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, and got a nice write-up by Lynn Saxberg in the Ottawa Citizen. Don't forget that David O'Meara launches his debut novel, Chandelier, in Ottawa at 6:30pm on Wednesday, September 18 at The Rainbow, and that he Véronique Sylvain give their first official readings as Poets Laureate for the City of Ottawa as part of an event through the Ottawa International Writers Festival, Tuesday, October 1, 2024 at 6:30pm!

the ottawa small press book fair : home edition #12 : above/ground press,

above/ground press hosted its first launch on July 9, 1993 in a café that no longer exists, in a building that no longer stands, on Ottawa’s Lisgar Street. Over twenty-seven years, above/ground press has produced more than one thousand items, including more than four hundred single-author poetry chapbooks, and currently also produces the quarterly Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], the occasional Peter F. Yacht Club and G U E S T [a journal of guest editors], as well as the new online journal periodicities:a journal of poetry and poetics.

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2017. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. His most recent poetry titles include A halt, which is empty (Mansfield Press, 2019) and Life sentence, (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019). He co-founded the ottawa small press book fair in fall 1994 with James Spyker, and has run the fair solo twice a year since.

Q: Tell me about your press. How long have you been publishing, and what got you started?

I started self-producing chapbooks in 1992, realizing that there wasn’t anyone as excited to produce my work as I was. I had officially founded above/ground by the following summer, after realizing how relatively easy it was to produce chapbooks, and seeing the poets in my immediate vicinity that I thought were doing interesting work. Moving through the shelves in the library at the University of Ottawa, I saw small and micro press as something exciting and engaging, although entirely historical. I didn’t see much in the way of publishing around me, so I started above/ground press to produce chapbooks, as well as the chapbook-sized long poem journal, STANZAS, a journal I distributed gratis, with some forty-five issues produced from 1993 to 2006. Early above/ground press authors included David Collins, Tamara Fairchild and Joe Blades.

Q: How many times have you exhibited at the ottawa small press fair? How do you find the experience?

I have, obviously, been at every one! The shifts have been interesting over the years, although I’ve found the fair as an experience has been consistently good for at least eighteen years, if not more. It took a couple of years for audience to figure out we existed, and what we were actually doing. What I also really like is seeing the same exhibitors, year after year, as well as new exhibitors emerging, and seeing what the new publications are. There’s such an incredible wealth of material being produced that I can barely keep up.

Q: Would you have made something specific for this spring’s fair? Are you still doing that? How does the lack of spring fair this year effect how or what you might be producing?

I’m not sure I would have made anything specific for the fair that I haven’t simply produced during lock-down. I had been hoping to launch the Michael e. Casteels collaboration at the pre-fair event (as we had discussed that as a possibility), but I still produced the chapbook in the same way I would have.

Q: How are you, as a small publisher, approaching the myriad shut-downs? Is everything on hold, or are you pushing against the silences, whether in similar or alternate ways than you might have prior to the pandemic? How are you getting your publications out into the world?

The bulk of my sales come through subscriptions and mail order, so that hasn’t changed. I still have a certain amount of sales through small press fairs, so I am missing that, as well as the human element. I’ve long known that there are certain times that purchases are more likely in person than online, so there are some opportunities being lost through this, but we’ll get there eventually. I am disappointed to not be able to hold my annual anniversary event this year, given the previous have been so wonderfully attended by both writers and audience (over the past few years, I’ve been ridiculous enough to attempt to launch ten new titles per anniversary event), but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that. I’ve wondered about ways to hold an alternate to the in-person anniversary reading for lock-down, but haven’t quite come up with the right kind of idea, yet.

Q: Have you done anything in terms of online or virtual launches since the pandemic began? Have you attended or participated in others? How are you attempting to connect to the larger literary community?

Back in March, I started working on a ‘virtual reading series’ over at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, posting short videos online of a variety of poets reading from their work, but nothing specifically for above/ground. It has been fun to see the reactions to the videos, as well as seeing the videos themselves, part of which has allowed me to actually see and hear certain poets I’ve known for years for the first time. I’ve participated in a ZOOM reading, and even watched a couple, including one Christine McNair participated in recently, but not much more than that. I like that they exist, but I tend to get distracted by the evenings, and tend to want to nest. The bulk of my outreach interactions, instead, have been through Canada Post.

Q: Has the pandemic forced you to rethink anything in terms of production? Are there supplies or printers you haven’t access to during these times that have forced a shift in what and how you produce?

When the original lock-down first hit, I lost access to all of my print options, but had, fortunately, already produced a couple of items I hadn’t yet announced. I did have to make a cover for the April 2020 issue of Touch the Donkey with materials I had already on-hand, which I felt pretty lucky about. I mean, even having enough materials to be able to fake a cover. I also had to learn how to send print orders through the Staples.ca online system for two different issues of G U E S T (although designed by Christine McNair and natalie hanna, respectively), which I didn’t care for in the least. Once the stores opened up a bit, I worked to produce as much material as possible for eventual release, in case lock-downs might resume. Back in June, I produced so much material that I haven’t yet managed to fold and staple all of them, including chapbook set for July, August and September release, and the October 2020 issue of Touch the Donkey. I’m thinking that if we’ve a further wave, I want to be prepared with publications already on-hand (with the presumption that Canada Post will remain as an option for sending out author packages and subscription envelopes). Who knows what might happen next?

Q: What are your most recent publications? How might folk be able to order copies?

Oh, I’ve been ridiculously busy, with new chapbooks over the past few weeks by Rose Maloukis, Sarah Burgoyne, Buck Downs, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, orchid tierney, Derek Beaulieu, Julia Drescher, Misha Solomon, Dani Spinosa and Andrew Cantrell as well as an issue of Touch the Donkey. Copies can be ordered through the direct links to their publications (there’s a whole sidebar of links to names on the site, which provide access to each author’s most recent above/ground press publication), or through sending me an email: rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com

Q: What are you working on now?

I’d love to receive further videos in the ‘virtual reading series,’ and am working on upcoming issues of Touch the Donkey (I usually work to be three to four issues ahead) and monthly content at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. For above/ground specifically, I’m working on new chapbooks by Zane Koss, Jérôme Melançon, Kemeny Babineau, Sarah Burgoyne (a collaboration with her mother) and a further by Julia Drescher, as well as the next issue of G U E S T, which was guest-edited by Jim Johnstone. Further issues down the line will be edited by Karen Schindler and Michael Sikkema (see his call for submissions on such here). I’ve already produced a second chapbook by Dublin poet Paul Perry, with a September release date, just so he can receive his contributor copies around the same time the book might be announced (it takes six to eight weeks for packages to head overseas).

call for interviews : queen mob's teahouse,

Interviews editor rob mclennan seeks interviews! Queen Mob's Teahouse is open to submissions of interviews with poets, fiction writers, comic book creators, non-fiction writers, etcetera.

Is there someone you know who hasn't been interviewed lately, or even at all? Who haven’t we heard from yet? What writer, in your opinion, deserves further attention?

If you are sending a query, include what else you’ve done and about the subject of your interview. If you are sending a finished interview, please send as .doc with a short introduction, a bio of the interviewer and a photo of your interview subject to include with piece.

See here for a link-list of recent interviews posted at Queen Mob's Teahouse.
 
Send submissions to rob [at] QueenMobs.com.

 

Arc Walk Ottawa #1 : Centretown : curator/guide: rob mclennan

Arc Walks Ottawa is a series of guided walks based on poetry themes and capitalizing on the rich poetry history of Canada’s capital. Residents and visitors alike are welcome to join in on the walks to learn and revel in Ottawa’s poetry. 

Join in the first walk on World Poetry Day (Wednesday, March 21^st). This walk, led by rob mclennan, will be a contemporary introduction to Ottawa’s literary history, visiting sites significant to poets of the National Capital Region such as John Newlove, William Hawkins, Judith Fitzgerald, Thomas D’arcy McGee, Michael Dennis and jwcurry, among others. 

The walk will begin at 4:30PM in front of 248 Bank Street, and it will continue to visit sites in Centretown. During the hour-long walk, participants will visit five locations where they will hear about some of Ottawa’s contemporary poetry history, and hear from a special guest poet. Come prepared for rain or snow or shine!

Concluding around 5:30PM, there will be plenty of time and opportunity to grab a bite to eat before VERSeFest’s second day of scheduled events: http://versefest.ca/year/2018/schedule/?day=Mar21

See the Facebook event for such here.

For any questions or concerns, contact Chris Johnson: managingeditor@arcpoetry.ca 

Guide Bio: 
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with the brilliant and utterly delightful poet and book conservator Christine McNair. The author of more than thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the CAA/Most Promising Writer in Canada under 30 Award in 1999, the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was twice longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2017. He has published books with Talonbooks, The Mercury Press, Black Moss Press, New Star Books, Insomniac Press, Broken Jaw Press, Stride, Salmon Publishing and others, and his most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014), The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and the poetry collection A perimeter (New Star Books, 2016). His next poetry title, Household items, is out later this spring from Salmon Publishing.

Recent reads: "The Calgary Renaissance"

The Calgary Renaissance

Edited by derek beaulieu & rob mclennan

Published by Chaudiere Books, 2016.

One of the first things I noticed about The Calgary Renaissance, a collection of experimental fiction and poetry, is that Alberta’s biggest city – the connective tissue that binds these authors – is rarely relevant thematically. As an Ontario reader living on the outskirts of Toronto’s cultural vacuum, I don’t gain much of an impression about the region’s pulse or how authors interact with their shared environment. But that isn’t the book’s mission. Instead, The Calgary Renaissance earns its bold title by forgoing geographical appraisals in favour of juxtaposing many of its radiant and diverse voices in a direct bid for national recognition.

It’s long overdue. And in recognizing more of the thirty-two authors than expected, I suspect The Calgary Renaissance doubles as a consolidation of co-editor rob mclennan’s efforts to showcase westward writers through his above/ground press (from which I credit much of my exposure). For co-editor derek beaulieu, this book serves as an extension of the role he has played as Calgary’s Poet Laureate from 2014 to 2016 and, unofficially, before and since.

It’s an impressive roster eclipsed by the quality of its content. Unfamiliar authors make strong bids for my attention while familiar ones posit new sides of their writing. Starting with the former camp, I enjoyed Susan Holbrook’s “What Is Poetry” and “What Is Prose”, twin pillars of tongue-in-cheek onomatopoeia that break open form for effect, not dissection. Here, the latter piece:

What Is Prose

Prose has wit,

war, hot spies,

pirate shows.

It has powers.

A swisher top,

wiser pathos,

towers, a ship,

parishes. Two

IHOPs. Waters

whose traps I

sap, so whiter

whites. Spa or

showier taps

spew hot airs:

“Poet wash, Sir?”

Posh waiters

tow Sharpies,

shower pitas,

pestos awhir,

pastries, how!

How it spears

trophies, was

tops, was heir

to Sears. “Whip

Thor, asswipe!

Swap heros!” it

whispers to a

hipster. Aw. So

worship a set.

Another late discovery for me is Braydon Beauleau, whose “In The Aurora” suite coaxes a mercurial identity from an expanse of rich, natural imagery. The sense of momentum and discovery in this poem is masterful, evolving at such a pace that its cryptic meaning gets outshone by the chaos of its transformation. (Although I do wonder: what happened to sections iii and v?) 

Eschewing Beauleau’s densely figurative constructions, Natalee Caple’s trio of poems entice with their casual, shorn immediacy. “Packing for the Weekend (For Natalie Walschots)” is literally a list of things to pack, but the items – some commonplace and tangible (“my boxing gloves”), others absurd and impossible (“my piano-limbed internet trolls”) – accumulate in ways that beg of the reader: what kind of weekend is this, and what do we all carry around as metaphorical baggage? Alternately, her poem “For Nicole Markotic” achieves a curious tension, her language primitive in its directness but unencumbered by emotion or punctuation.

For Nicole Markotic

In August it rains and rains

I slosh more wine into my brains

until I breathe wine

You lick the back of my knees

I touch your fingers

propose we build a bridge

be minotaurs in alphabets

sew triangles over scars

knit hymens for all kinds of birds

I will write you a slim letter

Someday

The poem itself functions as that slim letter, simultaneously heavy and floating, intimate but noncommittal.

Aside from the surprise of reading new talents, the fun thing about literary collections (whether they tackle a single author’s output or an entire scene’s) is the freedom to browse the Table of Contents and choose your own launch-point. In the case of The Calgary Renaissance, I started with Jason Christie’s incendiary “This Poem Is a Ski Mask”, a thoughtful dismantling of privilege and hypocrisy. Next up was Emily Ursuliak’s “Removing the Shoe” which, despite its disjointed lines, retains the absorbing narrative details of her prose. Afterwards I flipped to Sandy Pool’s “On Anatomical Procedures”, a witty summary of clinical trials conducted on her acquaintances that judge whether Pool is a good person, with variables like social events and alcohol factored in. A skillful but lightweight palate cleanser after the gutting Undark: An Oratorio (Nightwood Editions). Such maneuvers felt akin to grazing from a delectable hors d’oeuvres table.

For the sake of brevity, I’ve omitted mention of many contributions here. But I’ve omitted several more because, frankly, I didn’t respond to them – and that isn’t a bad thing. Such an anthology welcomes us into Calgary’s talent pool but it also allows fair-weather experimental poetry readers like myself to gauge and advance our comfort zones. Most of the authors I’ve discussed take moderate leaps without (in my eyes) abandoning form or narrative altogether. But as I revisit this collection from time to time, it stands to reason The Calgary Renaissance will further reward my interest in the experimental spectrum.

the return of rob mclennan's poetry workshops: August-October, 2016

After nearly a year, I return once again to offering poetry workshops. Originally held at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar, this session will be held upstairs at The Carleton Tavern, 223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale).

The workshops are scheduled for Sunday afternoons, 2-4:30pm: August 28; September 11, 18 + 25; October 2 + 16.

$200 for 6 sessions.

for information, contact rob mclennan at rob_mclennan@hotmail.com or 613 239 0337;

The course will focus on workshopping writing of the participants, as well as reading various works by contemporary writers, both Canadian and American. Participants should be prepared to have a handful of work completed before the beginning of the first class, to be workshopped (roughly ten pages).

Participants over the past few years have included: Amanda Earl, Frances Boyle, Chris Johnson, Roland Prevost, Christine McNair, Pearl Pirie, Sandra Ridley, Marilyn Irwin, Rachel Zavitz, Janice Tokar, Dean Steadman, N.W. Lea, David Blaikie, James Irwin, Claire Farley, Barbara Myers and Marcus McCann.

For those unable to participate, I still offer my ongoing editorial service of poetry manuscript reading, editing and evaluation.
http://www.robmclennan.blogspot.ca/2014/07/robs-ongoing-editing-service-poetry.html

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of nearly thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014), The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and the poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). In fall 2015, he was named “Interviews Editor” at Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and recently became a regular contributor to both the Drunken Boat and Ploughshares blogs. 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

We Who Are About To Die: rob mclennan

Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan [with baby Aoife at three weeks and two days] currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. The author of nearly thirty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2010, the Council for the Arts in Ottawa Mid-Career Award in 2014, and was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2012. In March, 2016, he was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. His most recent titles include notes and dispatches: essays (Insomniac press, 2014), The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) and the poetry collection If suppose we are a fragment (BuschekBooks, 2014). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books, The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), Touch the Donkey (touchthedonkey.blogspot.com) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). In fall 2015, he was named “Interviews Editor” at Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and recently became a regular contributor to Drunken Boat. 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

Where are you now?
I am sitting at my desk in my home office, during one of our toddler’s twice-a-week morning sessions at ‘school.’ I have less than two hours, from this moment, to get anything done before I am off to collect her.

What are you reading?
I’m really enjoying Rosmarie Waldrop’s new Gap Gardening: Selected Poems (New Directions, 2016) and about to begin on a whole stack of other titles, including Nelson Ball’s Chewing Water (Mansfield Press, 2016), Laura Walker’s story (Berkeley CA: Apogee Press, 2016), Emily Carr’s Whosoever Has Let A Minotaur Enter Them, Or A Sonnet— (San Francisco CA: McSweeney’s, 2016) and Margaret Christakos’ Her Paraphernalia: On Motherlines, Sex/Blood/Loss & Selfies (BookThug, 2016). I’ve also been rereading Sarah Gordon’s Rapture Red & Smoke Grey (Winnipeg MB: Turnstone Press, 2003), after finally achieving contact with the author (after more than a decade trying). I’m also reading Brian Michael Bendis’ incredible work over at Marvel, a company he saved from itself a decade or so back, when he destroyed and rebuilt the Avengers (among other things). I’m really enjoying his current run on Spider-Man; the Miles Morales stuff is fantastic.

A month or so back (on the day our new baby was born, actually), I finished reading Jean McKay’s remarkable Gone to Grass (Coach House Books, 1983). I do so hope she writes more books; I seem to have read them all, now.

What have you discovered lately?
American poet Matthew Henrikson has been a recent discovery, after his incredibly striking piece as part of The Volta’s tribute to C.D. Wright. I immediately worked to get my hands on his new book. Another recent discovery has been Inger Wold Lund, via her small chapbook Leaving Leaving Behind Behind (Brooklyn NY: Ugly Duckling Press, 2015). Incredible wow.

Where do you write?
I used to write in public spaces, but, given I’ve been home full-time with toddler for eighteen months now (since Christine returned to work after her year-long maternity leave), I do the bulk of my work from my little desk in my little home office. Given I spent so many years writing longhand in public spaces, it feels a strange shift. Once every month or two I’m still able to get a few afternoon hours of longhand at my favourite watering hole, The Carleton Tavern, but it might be a few more weeks before I can even consider such (given our newborn).

What are you working on?
Remembering to breathe, mostly. We’ve a newborn as well as a toddler, so things are a bit hectic. I’ve been attempting to complete a manuscript of short stories for some time now, and keep poking away, as well, on a manuscript of poems, “Cervantes’ bones.” But the main goal is the stories: once those are complete, I can once again dig into revisiting my post-mother creative non-fiction project, “The Last Good Year,” before finally returning to my attempt to rewrite “Don Quixote.”

I’m also working on a stack of interviews to appear over the next year for Touch the Donkey (with Meredith Quartermain, Mathew Timmons, Luke Kennard, Shane Rhodes, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Amanda Earl, Buck Downs, Kemeny Babineau, Oana Avasilichioaei, Ryan Murphy, Norma Cole, Lea Graham, Colin Smith, Nathaniel G. Moore, David Buuck, Kate Greenstreet, Douglas Barbour and Sheila Murphy, Oliver Cusimano and Joseph Mosconi), and the usual mound of chapbooks for above/ground press (less than twenty items away from an accumulated eight hundred items), including new and imminently-forthcoming chapbooks by Stephanie Bolster, Braydon Beaulieu, Geoffrey Young, John Barton, myself, Pete Smith, Stephen Collis, Bronwen Tate and lary timewell (among others).

Have you anything forthcoming?
Not at the moment, but that could change.

What would you rather be doing?
I can’t imagine anything better than this.

Two ghazals, for newborn

1.

Map: for she articulates
our new, invented landscapes.

A declaration of staccato kicks
and wails.

A salted, sunny membrane
of gestures, squeaks and snorts.

Exhaustion, multiplied. A cavernous
desire: feral skin, and breath.

Newly birthed, big sister devotes
such rapt attention.

Monopolized: we have not
learned their language.

2.

Toddler’s outstretched arms,
convinced herself bigger

than she still is, asks: Let me
hold her. Two ducks,

three. The western shoal,

swift curl of seagull, her
newborn deep

and impenetrable.
The contours

of a shapeless day.

Their mother, relieved
she finally out.