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

the above/ground press LUCKY THIRTEEN (the angry teen years...)

thirteenth anniversary party/launch
Friday, August 18th, 2006 at The Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward Street, Ottawa; doors open at 7pm, readings start at 8pm (map here)
$5 at the door (includes a free chapbook)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan, above/ground press editor/founder/publisher

featuring new poetry chapbooks & readings by

Phil Hall (Toronto)
Jesse Ferguson (Ottawa)
& Wanda O'Connor (Montreal/Ottawa)

with opening & no less important readings by

Jennifer Mulligan (Gatineau)
Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa)
& Anita Dolman (Ottawa)

Author bios:

Phil Hall lives in Toronto & Perth, Ontario. He has been publishing poems since 1973. His book Trouble Sleeping (2001) was nominated for the Governor General's Award. His most recent book An Oak Hunch was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. This spring he was in writer's residence at The Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon.

Jesse Patrick Ferguson is a poet, reviewer, musician and graduate student.His work has appeared recently in dANDelion, The Nashwaak Review, Matrix and The Dalhousie Review. He is also the author of three previous poetrychapbooks: Near Cooper Marsh (Friday Circle, 2005), Old Rhythms (Pooka Press, 2006) and Commute Poems (Thistle Bloom Books, 2006) [see my recent note on him here]. In the fall of 2006, he and his fiance will be relocating to Fredericton, NB to continue their studies.

Wanda O'Connor once embraced a fond affection for trap shooting. Her work has been published in such locations as Toronto, New York, Montreal, Australia, and Fredericton, New Brunswick. She reads and reviews a variety of books that make nothing happen.

Jennifer Mulligan will still be 31 at the staging of this event. She writes poetry, screenplay-like things, and she likes to watch people. On the average day, she attributes most of her rational/emotional life to being a Virgo sun/Scorpio moon combo (imagine a Vulcan (Virgo) + an Earthling (Scorpio) = SPOCK). Her work has appeared in YAWP, Peter F. Yacht Club publications, ottawater, above/ground press broadsides, and in the chapbook Winter2 in celebration of Ottawa’s Winterlude. She is currently finishing a series of six poems based on the work of the ancient Roman poetess, Sulpicia. Some of her work is available online through www.virgosunscorpiomoon.blogspot.com

Stephen Brockwell spent the first half of his life in Montreal and the second half in Ottawa. Where he will spend the third half is uncertain. His most recent book is Fruitfly Geographic (ECW Press, 2004), which won the Archibald Lampman Award.

Anita Dolman is an Ottawa poet, freelance writer and editor. Her work hasappeared in various journals and magazines, including Grain Magazine, Geist, Utne, The Fiddlehead, Prism internationaI, Ottawater.com, latchkey.net and The Antigonish Review. Her chapbook, Scalpel, tea and shot glass, was published by above/ground press in fall 2004.

& then stay for Friday night resident dj Lance Baptiste to spin you late into the night from 10-10:30pm on..

.for more information, contact rob mclennan @ 613 239 0337 or az421@freenet.carleton.ca