Ongoing notes: the ottawa small press book fair (part three, : Lillian Nećakov + LM Rochefort,

[Aoife's small press fair debut, selling copies of her books ; see part one here; see part two here] Be aware the next ottawa small press book fair is November 14 at Tom Brown Arena, yes? And the above/ground press thirty-third anniversary event, by the way, will be on August 22^nd at Anina’s Café in Vanier, which is pretty exciting. Have you caught this year’s above/ground press  anniversary sale? And don’t forget that myself and above/ground press will be attending the Fisher Library Small Press Fair in Toronto on September 19! Unfortunately, I’m unable to get to this year’s Meet the Presses event in November, but you should, if you are able.

Toronto ON/Grand Lake NB: The latest from Toronto poet Lillian Nećakov [see my review of her latest, a book-length collaboration with Gary Barwin, here], and further to russell carisse’s sider0xylon press, is the chapbook MARIA (2026), hand-produced in an edition of twenty-five copies. Set as a collection of extended prose-pieces, Nećakov’s endless, surrealist, chapbook-length epistolary prose-sentence exists as a rush, presented by a nameless narrator to an unseen, unknown “Maria,” writing a mad push, and both the typesetting and ink smell provide even further an association with the work of jwcurry. A curious, delightful and even slightly disturbing text. Is there a curry echo here, purposefully? As the chapbook ends:

Maria thank you I’ll pull out your teeth not just for the fold I’m a man with a gun Maria my hands are shaking for you there’s a truck out back it’s goddamn heaven I tell you my skull is this big with the commandments I said it on the tv thank you I’m wearing it Maria everyday like a leash.

[russell carisse] 

Ottawa ON: LM Rochefort has been such a fixture in the Ottawa poetry/literary scene for so long, attending readings and workshops, including reading and publishing her own work, that it is a bit surprising to see that only now are we seeing her chapbook-length debut (although already in a second printing), Living with the Animals (Pinhole Poetry, 2026). There is always something clean and precise about Rochefort’s lyric, a descriptive and exacting density, one that provides not only a narrative patter but one thick with imagery and detailed attention.

Schoolyard Moose

A moose’s antlers rise above the chain-link fence
Pale orange and yellow leaves echo tree’s underbelly 

Children dawdle, huddle, peek at treasures in closed fists
A few remaining flowers scream this space is still a garden 

Buckskin shade imitates pale yellow chrysanthemums
Even moose know the colour of slighted love 

Morning ruckus stilled by a shot of anesthetic
The beast lolls in the back of a red pick-up 

Cold rain drips gloss on the painted world
At the day’s fallen washed clean

 

[post-fair hijinks]