Ongoing notes: the ottawa small press book fair (part two,

Did you see my prior series of notes here? Or, really, my notes from the fair prior to that? I have so many notes on so many things. Should I even possibly start thinking about the dates for the fall fair? So much to do, so much to do.

[Kyp Harness, listening intently to Claire Farley at the Canthius table] Ottawa/Toronto ON: The second issue (spring/summer 2016) of Canthius, a journal of “feminism & literary arts” [see my recent interview with co-editor Claire Farley at Queen Mob’s Teahouse], includes, at the offset, a short note from the editors:

As editors of a new literary journal, we are still negotiating how best to promote gender equity. While our association with feminism could obligate us to publish works with overtly feminist themes, we’ve opted instead to offer a diversity of women and genderqueer writers space to share experiences and perspectives, no matter what those may be.

Now that they’ve two issues of their semi-annual journal under their belt (and seeking work for a third), one can’t help but be impressed by the clarity of vision editors Cira Nickel and Claire Farley have for Canthius, a journal of poetry, fiction and visual art. This new new issue includes new writing by an impressive list of writers both new and emerging, including Catriona Wright, Jacqueline Valencia, Sandra Ridley, Chuqiao Yang, Frances Boyle and Mary Ma, as well as artwork by Mary Grisey. In a certain sense, it’s far too easy to produce a first issue: the hard part is in producing a second, and a third; this becomes even more difficult without having a clear sense of what you wish to accomplish before you even begin, and their mandate is focused, open and incredibly straightforward, even as they, as they say, still work to negotiate the ways in which they can assist in promoting writing, thinking and conversation. As they infer in their introduction, if one wishes for a proper conversation of any sort, one requires the input of more than a select few.

We fail to name this right / without the words

For lapsing / lilies / wilted / in the beginning

Wind caught nothing / but your leaf unfurled

To fall. (“Dirge,” Sandra Ridley)

Given the limitations of a semi-annual journal, they’ve also been opening up their blog for further materials, including notifications, interviews, poems and non-fiction. So far, they’ve held launches for each issue in both Ottawa and Toronto (where each of the co-editors live). It will be interesting to see just how this journal continues to grow over the next couple of years.

[Meagan Black, sitting the Arc Poetry Magazine table] 

Toronto ON: From Jim Johnstone’s Anstruther Press comes Toronto poet Jessica Popeski’s Oratorio (second edition, thirty copies; just how small might the original run have been, I wonder?), the first of two chapbooks the press produced by her in 2015 (the other, which I have not seen, being The Wrong Place). According to her online bio, Popeski is a Classical Voice and Creative Writing graduate from Brandon University, and her dense and dexterous lyrics are heavy with not only a musical tone, but musical language (and even the occasional musical score). Just listen to the opening of the poem “Home Visit,” that reads: “The cat curls a lick-wet paw behind an ear, makes a straw- / skinny mew for milk. String-darned socks smoke like kippers / on the radiator, space heaters strategically sprinkled.” While certainly not pretending to be a language poet gymnast, Popeski isn’t writing a complete straight line, either, allowing her phrases and sentences the occasional pop and sing, allowing each line a bounce in its step.

Mother-in-Law’s Tongue

on the counter, reeking

Lysol. Middling green

rug moss between toes.

Wall, cerulean sky.

Cosmos contained in a

computer screen square.

Blue-headed vireos

belong in books, and

ruby-crowned kinglets,

white-breasted nuthatches.

Aurora Borealis clotting

over prairie suburb sprawl

will be watched on television. (“Last Child in the Woods”)

With Oratorio edited by Dionne Brand, I’m curious to know if Popeski’s second chapbook was as well; and if a debut full-length collection (whether by McClelland and Stewart, where Brand edits, or anywhere else) might be far behind.

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, June 17, 2016: Besserer, Rogal, Fitzgerald, Harness, Black, Carlucci, Johnstone + Laliberte,

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

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

Amanda Besserer (Ottawa ON)

Stan Rogal (Toronto ON)
Fitz Fitzgerald (Baltimore MD)
Kyp Harness (Toronto ON)

and, as the first stop on the CAROUSEL Paper Roadshow:

Meagan Black (Ottawa ON)
Paul Carlucci (Ottawa ON)
Jim Johnstone (Toronto ON)
Mark Laliberte (Toronto ON)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, June 17, 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]

author bios:

Amanda Besserer is from North Bay, Ontario, and now lives in Ottawa. She received her BA and MA in English Language and Literature from Carleton University. While there, she was a contributing editor for In/Words Magazine, and creator and editor-in-chief of Vagina Dentata, a feminist arts journal. Aside from poems, broadsides and a chapbook with In/Words & VD, Amanda's poetry has also appeared in the Loamshire Review (UK), the Steel Chisel (Canada), and The Machinery (India). Her work will be included an upcoming "best of" volume from The Machinery this summer. In the meantime, visit adbesserer.wordpress.com for poetry and prose. She is also the author of a new title from Jeff Blackman's Horsebroke Press.

Stan Rogal has been described by Stuart Ross as a bon vivant and man about town. Judith Fitzgerald referred to him as an intellectual redneck. Hedonist, harsh humourist, philatelist, fatalist, devoted oenophile, punster... whatever... his work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the US and Europe. He is the author of 20 books, the latest being a novel titled Dog The Moon, from Insomniac Press, spring 2016. He is also produced playwright. He resides in Toronto.

Though his name appeared on Josef Kaplan’s kill list, Fitz Fitzgerald still lives, often uncomfortable in his own skin. His poetry has appeared in Apartment, Octopus, Open Letters Monthly, Hidden City Quarterly, Dusie, Boog City and elsewhere. Furniture Press published Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. 17 Reasons is forthcoming from AngelHouse Press. He has read as part of the Worms series in Baltimore, the Ruthless Grip in Washington D.C., the La Tazza series in Philadelphia and Welcome to Boog City Festival in Brooklyn. He attended New College of California in the late 1990s where he studying with Lyn Hejinian and David Meltzer and participated in “A Night in the Life of San Francisco Writing” at New Langton Arts and read at Canessa Park. He has edited theoretical works by Benjamin Friedlander, Brian Reed, Peter Quartermain, Steve McCaffery, Harryette Mullen among others as part of the Modern and Contemporary Poetics series curated by Charles Bernstein and Hank Lazer. He has published poetry reviews in Rain Taxi, First Intensity, Real Pants, Fanzine and elsewhere. He lives on Quaker Hill in Baltimore.

Kyp Harness is a singer-songwriter known for the poetry of his lyrics. He has released twelve independent recordings.  He is also the author of two books: The Art of Laurel and Hardy (2006) and The Art of Charlie Chaplin (2007), both published by McFarland in the US. In March 2016, he released his thirteenth album, Stoplight Moon. In May, his novel, Wigford Rememberies was published by Nightwood Editions.

Meagan Black starts her MFA in Creative Writing this fall and is freaking out. Outside of school, her interests include working for Arc Poetry Magazine and never finishing the edits on her first YA novel. She’s won a couple of awards and been published in a couple of place, including Carousel Magazine and the internet. Visit her on her website at www.actuallyreadbooks.com.

Paul Carlucci's sophomore collection, A Plea for Constant Motion, will be published by House of Anansi in January 2017. The Secret Life of Fission, his debut, won the 2013 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Individually, his stories are forthcoming or have been published in Carousel, filling Station, The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, The Puritan, Little Fiction, subTerrain, The Malahat and others. He lives in Ottawa.

Jim Johnstone [pictured] is a Canadian poet, editor, and critic. He’s the author of four books of poetry: Dog Ear (Véhicule Press, 2014), Sunday, the locusts (Tightrope Books, 2011), Patternicity (Nightwood Editions, 2010) and The Velocity of Escape (Guernica Editions, 2008), and the subject of the critical monograph Proofs & Equational Love: The Poetry of Jim Johnstone by Shane Neilson and Jason Guriel. He’s the winner of several awards including a CBC Literary Award, The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, Matrix Magazine’s LitPop Award and This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Johnstone is the poetry editor at Palimpsest Press, and an associate editor at Representative Poetry Online. He lives in Toronto.

Mark Laliberte is a Toronto-based artist-writer-designer-curator with an MFA from the University of Guelph. He has exhibited extensively in galleries across Canada and the USA, curates the online experimental comics site 4panel.ca, and edits the hybrid art/lit mag CAROUSEL. Laliberte was recently awarded a 2016 'Comic Arts — Works-in-Progress' grant from the Ontario Arts Council; he is currently working on two full-sized comic-poetry manuscripts, BalloonCloudBubble and BLKBK. In 2016, he is releasing 3 books: 4PANEL 1 in May (through his own Popnoir Editions imprint); Free For the Taking in August, a collaborative book project with artist Micah Lexier (this is one part of a 3 book series being published by Warby Parker); and, asemanticasymmetry in October (a riso-printed remixing of selected derek beaulieu's letraset works, published by Anstruther Press).