NOW AVAILABLE: The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books)--and the first review!

My collection of short, short stories, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014) is now available, with an Ottawa launch at The Manx Pub (as part of David O'Meara's Plan 99 Reading Series) on May 10, 2014. Hooray!

And the book has even received its first review! Thanks to The Small Press Book Review.

And of course, I was recently featured on the Chaudiere Books blog. Thanks much to Ottawa artist Danny Hussey for allowing us to use his incredible artwork on the front cover (the second title of mine with Hussey's artwork gracing the cover).

If you wish for a copy of the collection, drop $18 into my PayPal "donate" button (above) (add $1 for US, and $2 for overseas) and I'll mail you a copy. Sound good?

book launch! Ground rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013

Produced to begin the re-launch of Ottawa literary publisher Chaudiere Books, co-publishers rob mclennan and Christine McNair invite you to the launch of Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013.

Co-sponsored by our friends at the Ottawa International Writers Festival and The Manx Pub, the event will feature readings by three of the book’s contributors: Sharon Harris (Toronto), Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa) and Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa). The event will be (lovingly) hosted by Chaudiere Books co-founder, editor and co-publisher rob mclennan.

5pm, Saturday, December 7, 2013
The Manx Pub
370 Elgin Street, Ottawa

Sharon Harris is a Toronto artist/writer whose poems have been anthologized in The Broadview Introduction to Literature, The Last Vispo, and Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry. She is the author of chapbooks from bookthug, In Case of Emergency Press, and above/ground, and her first full-length collection, Avatar, was published by The Mercury Press. She has written articles for Geist, The Globe & Mail, and Open Book Toronto;  is a past contributor to Torontoist and Word Magazine; and her work has been published in The National Post, dANDelion, The Capilano Review, Drunken Boat, The Volta, broken pencil, and Vallum. I Love You Toronto, her exhibition of photographs, appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television across Canada.

Marilyn Irwin’s [pictured] work has been published by above/ground press, Arc, Bywords, and New American Writing. A graduate of Algonquin College’s Creative Writing program, she has three chapbooks: for when you pick daisies (2010), flicker (2012), and little nothings (2012). She won Arc Poetry Magazine’s Diana Brebner Prize this year.

Stephen Brockwell cut his writing teeth in the eighties in Montreal, appearing on French and English CBC Radio and in the anthologies Cross/cut: Contemporary English Quebec Poetry and The Insecurity of Art (both VéhiculePress, 1982). George Woodcock described Brockwell's first book, The Wire in Fences (Balmuir, 1987) as having an extraordinary range of empathies and perceptions. Harold Bloom wrote that Brockwell's second book, Cometology (ECW Press, 2001), held rare and authentic promise. Fruitfly Geographic won the Archibald Lampman award for best book of poetry in Ottawa in 2005. His Complete Surprising Fragments of Improbable Books is newly out from Mansfield Press. Brockwell currently operates a small IT consulting company from the 7th floor of the Chateau Laurier and lives in a house perpetually under construction.

Working out of Ottawa, poet and publisher rob mclennan’s baby, above/ground press, marks a second decade of the production of broadsheets, chapbooks, magazines, and anthologies that trace out the best shapes of the best of contemporary Canadian (and, increasingly, international) poetry. From the span of that second ten of years, he has compiled this book of traceries: a selection of work by writers ranging from the likes of the late Artie Gold, and Robert Kroetsch, to the living derek beaulieu, Rachel Zolf, Eric Folsom, Natalie Simpson, etc., all collected here as representative of a decade’s aesthetic count.

                        from Gil McElroy’s “Introduction: An Integral”

Edited by rob mclennan, with an introduction by Gil McElroy, Ground Rules features writing from the second decade of one of the most active micro publishers in Canada, selected from a series of hundreds of publications lovingly edited, produced and distributed by editor/publisher rob mclennan. A follow-up to Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003), Ground Rules includes a wide range of work by Artie Gold, Mark Cochrane, Suzanne Zelazo, derek beaulieu, Stephanie Bolster, Amanda Earl, Nathanaël, Lisa Samuels, Rachel Zolf, Sharon Harris, D. G. Jones, Julia Williams, Eric Folsom, Gregory Betts, Natalie Simpson, Aaron Tucker, Monty Reid, William Hawkins, Emily Carr, Cameron Anstee, Helen Hajnoczky, Marilyn Irwin, Stephen Brockwell, Robert Kroetsch and rob mclennan.

Copies of the book will be available at the event. See the OIWF link to the event here.

"Six Questions For..." rob mclennan on above/ground press

I responded to Jim Harrington's interview series, "Six Questions For...," on above/ground press, in which I discuss what annoys me sometimes about submissions, a history of authors and titles, where I might go now, and this year's twentieth anniversary of the press, including teasers toward a big event on December 7, 2013 (not October anymore) at The Manx Pub.

Chaudiere Books: our rebuilding year,

Since Ottawa literary publisher Chaudiere Books was founded by Jennifer Mulligan and rob mclennan in 2006 the press has produced an impressive thirteen titles of poetry and fiction (including a couple of anthologies) by writers both emerging and established. Originally founded in part to advocate for the enormous amount of literary activity around Ottawa, Chaudiere has produced single-author titles by a number of locally-based writers including Nicholas Lea, John Newlove, Anne Le Dressay, Monty Reid, Pearl Pirie, Marcus McCann, and Clare Latremouille. Attempting to engage Ottawa writers in a conversation with writers across Canada, the press has also produced works by Meghan Jackson, Michael Bryson, and Joe Blades. Unfortunately, due to a series of life events and sundry other things, the press has been unable to keep to a regular schedule since 2010.

Co-founder Jennifer Mulligan officially left the press earlier this year to focus on her work in film and Ottawa poet, designer, and book conservator Christine McNair has stepped in to fill the role of co-publisher. With the assistance of Monique Desnoyers (web designer) and Stephen Brockwell (sage advice); we've been enormously busy over the past few months (apart from the fact that McNair and mclennan are expecting a child any day now) working towards a return to a proper publishing schedule, beginning with the publication of our first new title in December.

This is a rebuilding year for Chaudiere Books, and we will be announcing an Indiegogo Campaign in January 2014 which will feature a whole slew of incentives from our backlist; new and old limited edition rarities from writers both new and established; and a few surprises. The campaign will coincide with announcements of forthcoming titles and launches in 2014.

The first title of the official Chaudiere Books re-launch is Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013, edited by rob mclennan with an introduction by Gil McElroy. In many ways, Chaudiere Books has always been the trade extension of the chapbook publisher above/ground press and this title cements and even clarifies the associations between the two presses.

Ground Rules features writing from the second decade of one of the most active micro publishers in Canada, selected from a series of hundreds of publications lovingly edited, produced and distributed by editor/publisher rob mclennan. A follow-up to Groundswell: best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (Broken Jaw Press, 2003), Ground Rules includes a wide range of work by poets Artie Gold, Mark Cochrane, Suzanne Zelazo, derek beaulieu, Stephanie Bolster, Amanda Earl, Nathanaël, Lisa Samuels, Rachel Zolf, Sharon Harris, D. G. Jones, Julia Williams, Eric Folsom, Gregory Betts, Natalie Simpson, Monty Reid, William Hawkins, Emily Carr, Cameron Anstee, Helen Hajnoczky, Marilyn Irwin, Stephen Brockwell, Robert Kroetsch and rob mclennan.

“Working out of Ottawa, poet and publisher rob mclennan's baby, above/ground press, marks a second decade of the production of broadsheets, chapbooks, magazines, and anthologies that trace out the best shapes of the best of contemporary Canadian (and, increasingly, international) poetry. From the span of that second ten of years, he has compiled this book of traceries: a selection of work by writers ranging from the likes of the late Artie Gold, and Robert Kroetsch, to the living Derek Beaulieu, Rachel Zolf, Eric Folsom, Natalie Simpson, etc., all collected here as representative of a decade’s aesthetic count.”

                        from Gil McElroy's “Introduction: An Integral”

The Ottawa launch of Ground Rules is scheduled for Saturday, December 7th 2013 at The Manx Pub and is sponsored by the Ottawa International Writers Festival. Lovingly hosted by rob mclennan, the event will feature readings by three of the book’s contributors (to be announced over the next couple of days). Watch for details via the Chaudiere Books blog, as well as our Facebook page!

lovingly,

Christine McNair and rob mclennan

publishers

David O’Meara, A Pretty Sight

Memento Mori

A mariachi band has just begun;

the cantinero muddles lime, ice and mint.

Is it industry, folly or perverse fun

to lounge here, behind my glasses’ darkly tint,

reading elegies in the sun?

Ottawa poet, Plan 99 Reading Series organizer/host and bartender David O’Meara’s fourth trade poetry collection, A Pretty Sight (Toronto ON: Coach House Books, 2013), his first title in five years, is his largest to date, at slightly over one hundred pages. Following his poetry collections Storm still (Ottawa ON: Carleton University Press/Harbinger Series, 1999), The Vicinity (London ON: Brick Books, 2003) and Noble Gas, Penny Black (Brick Books, 2008), O’Meara has emerged as a poet of human awareness, contemplation and mortality, engaged in the metaphor-driven lyric and exploring the minutae of questions that have held the attention of philosophers for millennia. As he opens the poem “How I Wrote,” “You must change your life, but first, / wait a few minutes.” Opening up some of his previous structures, O’Meara plays more with form and the line in this collection than he has in previous works, as well as poems that stretch out in length, and also includes poems on some of his travels over the past few years, including “In Kosovo,” “‘That’s Where the American Helicopters Landed,’” and the poem “So Far, So Stupid” (“All those selfies I posted / look really great.”). I suspect his time as a bartender at The Manx Pub might have influenced the shorter, nearly throwaway poem “Umbrage,” the centre of which includes:

If a past disorder caused you trouble,

be it gastrointestinal, tooth or sinus,

if a privileged birth raise you in a bubble,

I’m afraid that’s no excuse, your Highness,

for the back-stabbing habits of an asshole.

If you’re really itching to put me in my place,

fine, let’s drop the gloves, and like Picasso,

I’ll happily rearrange your face.

The poems in A Pretty Sight provide a meditative, slow depth and weight, and perhaps more than a passing interest in the moon. “[T]he moon’s milky glow / hung in its pure potential. / stalled like those satellites of paper,” he writes, as the second-last stanza of the four-page “‘In Event of Moon Disaster’” poem. The poems in this collection, and, increasingly, in all of O’Meara’s collection, display an attempt to map and comprehend, whether it be the larger world, classical figures, pop culture, the future or even simply the musing of an evening stroll. “But I don’t forget, and don’t know why / the title haunts me;” he writes, in the poem “The Tennis Courts in Winter” (most likely the tennis courts at Gladstone and Cartier Streets), suggesting “it might have something to do / with potential.” And as O’Meara understands, potential can sometimes be a very dangerous thing.

Silkworms

Home-grown for extra income,

they’re warmed in the wait

of a standard light bulb

till the egg forms a worm, small

like a hair. Each one feasts

on mulberry, a month-long course

of shiny leaves, chubbing themselves

into a pale, lazy wiggle.

They wish to be a kimono cloud,

ball of fog, white

shrouds spun for their own ghosts

as they nod off to a creaking dream

of legs and wings. They wish

they were metaphor.

To let them stretch would tear

sleek work, so each cocoon

is dropped in a rolling boil, their

lives pinched out like fingers

on a match head.

The strands are reeled on a row

of spools,

and the cocoons jig and iridesce

until the corpse is undressed.

[David O’Meara launches A Pretty Sight with the assistance of Mike Dubue (Hilotrons) as part of the ottawa international writers festival at Knox Presbyterian Church, Friday, October 25, 2013 at 6:30pm]

en route : Ottawa's Literary Scene Stacks Up

An article on Ottawa literary stuff by the talented and generous Noah Richler has appeared in En Route magazine, with mentions of myself, Elizabeth Hay, The Factory Reading Series, The Manx Pub, Raw Sugar Cafe and David O'Meara. Despite the suggestion that I recommended Bridgehead, I in fact recommended Second Cup, where I've sat most mornings for more than a decade. A fine article and an appreciated spotlight. Most likely on newsstands now!

fwd; Ottawa's own Arc Poetry Magazine presents QuArc!

Launch and reading: Saturday July 23
5 pm

The Manx, 370 Elgin
featuring readings by Ahradana Chouduri, Michael Lockett, Colin Morton and Bruce Taylor

*

The summer 2011 issue of Arc Poetry Magazine and the eminent Waterloo, Ontario-based journal The New Quarterly is a special, science-themed flipbook. The QuArc issue offers readers two great Canadian literary magazines in one, with two full-colour art features, and contributions by Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Christian Bök, Don McKay, Joan Thomas, and many more.

This Saturday's launch event at the Manx pub features issue contributors from Montreal, Ottawa and environs bringing us code, critters, momentum and microorganisms.

Arc and The New Quarterly are offering a special cooperative subscription deal, offering readers a one-year subscription to both magazines for 38% off the regular price.

* more information:  Katia Grubisic, Editor ; Arc Poetry Magazine ; editor@arcpoetry.ca

John Lavery post-memorial/wake note:

A note by Steven Heighton, read in absentia at yesterday's memorial/wake for John Lavery [see my obit for him here]:

For years, John and I, who both loved to run (I mean it made us feel good, alive, like suffering yet vital creatures)--for years John and I had talked about getting together for a long run.  Next time I go out for an hour with my dog in the woods north of Kingston, I'll imagine John's with us, and as I pant and chuff and stumble along, trying to keep up, he'll chastise me, in impeccable French, for misconjugating a Spanish verb in one of my novels, and I--after telling him again how I felt about his prose--I'll give him shit, in crude English, about leaving us with just one novel, about leaving us with too few short stories, about leaving us here to raise a pint in his honour without him.  About leaving us.