Jordan Abel, Dad Era

 

A dad is garbage is gone.

First my father disappeared and then my mother
            abandoned all rational thought.

Did you know that my father taught me
            nothing at all?

To be creative. To be loving. To be generous and kind
            and human were all lessons that I learned
            alone in the snow.

The latest from Edmonton-based poet, editor and prose writer Jordan Abel, a book I hadn’t known was coming, is the book-length lyric suite Dad Era (Toronto ON: Coach House Books, 2026). Following an array of award-winning titles such as the novel Empty Spaces (Toronto ON: McClelland and Stewart, 2023) [see my essay on such here], the memoir, NISHGA (McClelland and Stewart, 2021) [see my review of such here] and his third poetry title, the Griffin Poetry Prize-winning Injun (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 2016) [see my review of such here], Dad Era sits, as one might suggest, a self-contained follow-up to the content of NISHGA, stitched together as a book-length suite of first person declarations directed at, and prompted by the birth of, his young daughter, Phoenix. “I have been alive long enough to know that I / don’t know anything.” he writes, early on in the collection. “You are a person and I love you.” A bit further down, as he offers: “I can’t wait for you to beat me at Mario Kart.”

This is, as the title suggests, the beginning of a new and fresh era in the author’s life. Set as a book-length meditation on and around fatherhood, fathers and being present, Abel composes a lyric around the experience (and joys and anxieties and terrors and intimacies) of and around new fatherhood, following a trajectory of similar explorations by other contemporary poet-fathers, including Calgary poet Richard Harrison’s Big Breath of a Wish (Toronto ON: Wolsak and Wynn, 1998), Dallas, Texas poet Farid Matuk’s This Isa Nice Neighborhood (Chicago IL/Denver CO: Letter Machine Editions, 2010) and My Daughter La Chola (Boise ID: Ahsahta Press, 2013), California poet Dan Thomas-Glass’ Kate & Sonia (Houston TX: little red leaves, textile series, 2011) [see my review of such here] and Toronto poet Dale Martin Smith’s Flying Red Horse (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 2021) [see my review of such here]. As well, once any of us become a parent, one immediately begins to assess (or reassess) one’s own parents, seeing those relationships, for good or for ill, with fresh eyes. For Abel, the ongoing loss, through absence, of a father is clearly profound, and underlines across the length and breadth of this collection. As he articulated through NISHGA, his father’s life, as well as the lives of his father’s parents, were impacted directly and profoundly through the Residential School system, introducing a rippling effect of generational trauma that Abel clearly (and obviously) wishes to keep from negatively impacting his own parenting, and his daughter, Phoenix. “I am no expert in racial passing but I do know that / declining invitations to the Calgary / Stampede is one of the most necessary / things I’ve ever had to do.” he writes. “Did you know that all we had to do to arrive here / on the couch in front of our giant flatscreen / was just to survive an attempted genocide?”

Dad Era is charming, and at time, devastating; stitched together with little wisdoms, observations, declarations, admissions, questions and negotiation, offering a poetics of loss, placement, inquiry and illustration. He offers some lovely lyric curls and trails, even across dark passages and paths, attempting to see through that dark into something else, something beyond and truly possible; something directly prompted by this pure gift of parenting, and the opportunity to consciously and purposefully do and be better. “Do you know that family is sometimes just the / people you’re around? Just the people / you choose?” he writes. “I don’t know everything about being sober, but I do / know that if I kept drinking and kept doing / drugs I’d probably be dead by now.” A few pages later:

Did you know that we are both indebted to the
            contours of the North Saskatchewan River? 

May your happiness swell outward from every time
            I said yes to ice cream for breakfast. 

Did you know that being a parent feels a lot like
            being kicked repeatedly in the face while
            doing a puzzle that’s trying to run away
            from you? 

A father is absent is missing.

I used to think that living and dying in Burnaby was
            a real possibility. 

The greatest moment I had with my dad was not a
           real thing.

Composed as an endearing, open-hearted lyric, Dad Era articulates threads of grief, anxiety and loss, wishing to be better than his own father, and better than he himself had been. As the lyric presents, Abel is already aware, being both present and attentive, that he is different, and that he is and can be present, and joyous, and celebratory. This book, in itself, is a gift, both to his daughter and to himself, allowing an open-hearted possibility around, among other things, an eventual forgiveness. As he writes on the final page of the collection:

If I can pass on some wisdom that I learned the hard way
            it is that you are loved and you belong here. 

I do something wonder what would happen if we just let
            you live at Zoo Camp for the rest of your life. 

Did you know that Indigenous joy ‘is an ethics
            of resistance’?

 

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Diedre J. Halbot

Diedre J. Halbot is a writer, essayist, and horror enthusiast from Newfoundland and Labrador. She was raised in the Bay of Islands, where her family is from, and now resides in Bay St. George South. The people and places of her youth have been a constant source of inspiration and motivation for her work and she has a passion for sharing stories of her French-Indigenous heritage. She works in Environmental Science, and her hobbies include bullying politicians online, birdwatching, and trying to seem cool (and failing) around her teenage daughter. Little Spoons (Breakwater Books, 2026) is her first book.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Little Spoons is my first and only novel for now. Before writing it, I wrote screenplays and short stories. A novel is a very different beast in comparison; it takes much more time, planning, and editing. The process was challenging but incredibly enjoyable. I also feel that my perspective as a reader has changed as a result of writing my first book because I'm picking up on things I never considered before until I did it myself.

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
My favorite type of book to read is one that has an addictive quality, whether that be romance or thriller. I knew when I decided to write a book that I wanted to invoke that same feeling in my reader that I felt from my favorite books. That feeling where you tell yourself, "One more chapter," then the next thing you know, you've read the whole thing.  Fiction made sense for this reason.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
Starting is easy; it's finishing that's the hard part. I consider myself a very creative person and I get my ideas through reading or lived experiences. As my ideas come to me I will either begin straight into writing or map them out, the process is incredibly quick. The issue I struggle with is execution and my own self-doubt. It's very normal for me to get halfway through a project, then decide to shelve it because I no longer enjoy how it's progressing. The first draft is exactly that, and there is still an opportunity to fine-tune it and change things, for this reason my first and final drafts are very different but that's comforting for me to remember. The hardest part is completing your first draft of any project.

4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I know exactly what my goal is when I sit down to write, often taking time to map out the story so that it's paced well and has a good storyline. Sometimes though if an idea feels good, I'll just start writing then let my characters decide where they want to go.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I really enjoy interacting with my community, meeting people and hearing their stories or feedback is very encouraging. Reading my own work isn't something I get much value from, however when I have discussions or answer questions with readers, I find that to be very productive.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I'm a simple gal and I like writing stories for the purpose of enjoyment. I appreciate literature that is introspective, inspirational or educational but I'm not writing to shift perspectives or anything. As a reader, I turn to books for comfort and enjoyment, as a writer I want to offer that escape to my reader. A book doesn't always need to be life-changing or challenge the way you think; sometimes, a book is just a thing you pick up because you want to shut your brain off and escape. That's what I want my writing to provide, an enjoyable escape.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Writing has always had a role in culture, I personally am a huge proponent of reading as I believe it helps to expand your ability to think critically, creatively and have a more enhanced worldview. Writers have the ability to introduce the reader to new thoughts, perspectives and circumstances, all of which helps an individual to become more well-rounded, and understanding.  The role of a writer is to be honest, even in fiction, to deliver to the reader something real which they can take with them into their own day-to-day lives.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Working with an editor is absolutely essential. It's scary to share your work with someone and trust them, but as a writer, it's easy to get too invested in your story. An outside perspective is essential to fine-tuning the work.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
"Just do the thing." 

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (fiction to essays)? What do you see as the appeal?
Essays are challenging in their own way as you try to pack a lot of information into a short piece, and fiction is challenging as you attempt to pace the story in such a way to maintain attention without ending too early. The two have their own appeal, but jumping from one to the other is challenging as the writer's mindset needs to shift.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I personally refer to writing as my "Night job", I have a day job which keeps me busy. I am a heavily routine person so it never feels difficult or forced, when I was editing my book I would work til 4, exercise, eat, then write from 6-8 pm and maintain that schedule Monday to Friday. Treating writing like its a job ensures you show up, clock in and get your work done. This is the mentality that has worked for me.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Books. I always find inspiration in books.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I grew up on a farm in the Bay of Islands, so unfortunately, home smells like manure, dirt and dried salt fish.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I've always been incredibly influenced by nature. I love how it shapes places and people; for this reason nature or landscapes are a common theme in my work.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I believe that stories come from experiences, but they don't necessarily need to be your own. It would be somewhat narcissistic to believe that I could write solely from my own life and expect others to be heard and seen. Meeting people and asking questions is a way that I am able to expand my worldview and create work that is more welcoming and understanding.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I'd love to write a biography of someone inspirational to me. I've been interested in the idea of a biography of Emile Benoit, I love his work so much and he's the most iconic person from my home region. I love sharing stories, I feel he would have a really good one.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I'm very happy with my career outside of writing; up until this point, writing has been a hobby, a creative outlet. If I never publish another book, I'd be ok with that, but I'll always enjoy writing.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I like books :) 

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
The best book I've read lately has been Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I was a huge fan of the show so after 8 seasons of watching it, I picked up the first novel. I will always champion that books make great film and television, the book always being the better of the two. 

20 - What are you currently working on?
A laptop.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Spotlight series #121 : Hajer Mirwali

The one hundred and twenty-first (the tenth anniversary of this series!) in my monthly "spotlight" series, each featuring a different poet with a short statement and a new poem or two, is now online, featuring Toronto-based Palestinian and Iraqi writer Hajer Mirwali.

The first eleven in the series were attached to the Drunken Boat blog, and the series has so far featured poets including Seattle, Washington poet Sarah Mangold, Colborne, Ontario poet Gil McElroy, Vancouver poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Ottawa poet Jason Christie, Montreal poet and performer Kaie Kellough, Ottawa poet Amanda Earl, American poet Elizabeth Robinson, American poet Jennifer Kronovet, Ottawa poet Michael Dennis, Vancouver poet Sonnet L’Abbé, Montreal writer Sarah Burgoyne, Fredericton poet Joe Blades, American poet Genève Chao, Northampton MA poet Brittany Billmeyer-Finn, Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer from Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1 territory) poet, critic and editor Joshua Whitehead, American expat/Barcelona poet, editor and publisher Edward Smallfield, Kentucky poet Amelia Martens, Ottawa poet Pearl Pirie, Burlington, Ontario poet Sacha Archer, Washington DC poet Buck Downs, Toronto poet Shannon Bramer, Vancouver poet and editor Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Vancouver poet Geoffrey Nilson, Oakland, California poets and editors Rusty Morrison and Jamie Townsend, Ottawa poet and editor Manahil Bandukwala, Toronto poet and editor Dani Spinosa, Kingston writer and editor Trish Salah, Calgary poet, editor and publisher Kyle Flemmer, Vancouver poet Adrienne Gruber, California poet and editor Susanne Dyckman, Brooklyn poet-filmmaker Stephanie Gray, Vernon, BC poet Kerry Gilbert, South Carolina poet and translator Lindsay Turner, Vancouver poet and editor Adèle Barclay, Thorold, Ontario poet Franco Cortese, Ottawa poet Conyer Clayton, Lawrence, Kansas poet Megan Kaminski, Ottawa poet and fiction writer Frances Boyle, Ithica, NY poet, editor and publisher Marty Cain, New York City poet Amanda Deutch, Iranian-born and Toronto-based writer/translator Khashayar Mohammadi, Mendocino County writer, librarian, and a visual artist Melissa Eleftherion, Ottawa poet and editor Sarah MacDonell, Montreal poet Simina Banu, Canadian-born UK-based artist, writer, and practice-led researcher J. R. Carpenter, Toronto poet MLA Chernoff, Boise, Idaho poet and critic Martin Corless-Smith, Canadian poet and fiction writer Erin Emily Ann Vance, Toronto poet, editor and publisher Kate Siklosi, Fredericton poet Matthew Gwathmey, Canadian poet Peter Jaeger, Birmingham, Alabama poet and editor Alina Stefanescu, Waterloo, Ontario poet Chris Banks, Chicago poet and editor Carrie Olivia Adams, Vancouver poet and editor Danielle Lafrance, Toronto-based poet and literary critic Dale Martin Smith, American poet, scholar and book-maker Genevieve Kaplan, Toronto-based poet, editor and critic ryan fitzpatrick, American poet and editor Carleen Tibbetts, British Columbia poet nathan dueck, Tiohtiá:ke-based sick slick, poet/critic em/ilie kneifel, writer, translator and lecturer Mark Tardi, New Mexico poet Kōan Anne Brink, Winnipeg poet, editor and critic Melanie Dennis Unrau, Vancouver poet, editor and critic Stephen Collis, poet and social justice coach Aja Couchois Duncan, Colorado poet Sara Renee Marshall, Toronto writer Bahar Orang, Ottawa writer Matthew Firth, Victoria poet Saba Pakdel, Winnipeg poet Julian Day, Ottawa poet, writer and performer nina jane drystek, Comox BC poet Jamie Sharpe, Canadian visual artist and poet Laura Kerr, Quebec City-area poet and translator Simon Brown, Ottawa poet Jennifer Baker, Rwandese Canadian Brooklyn-based writer Victoria Mbabazi, Nova Scotia-based poet and facilitator Nanci Lee, Irish-American poet Nathanael O'Reilly, Canadian poet Tom Prime, Regina-based poet and translator Jérôme Melançon, New York-based poet Emmalea Russo, Toronto-based poet, editor and critic Eric Schmaltz, San Francisco poet Maw Shein Win, Toronto-based writer, playwright and editor Daniel Sarah Karasik, Ottawa poet and editor Dessa Bayrock, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia poet Alice Burdick, poet, writer and editor Jade Wallace, San Francisco-based poet Jennifer Hasegawa, California poet Kyla Houbolt, Toronto poet and editor Emma Rhodes, Canadian-in-Iowa writer Jon Cone, Edmonton/Sicily-based poet, educator, translator, researcher, editor and publisher Adriana Oniță, California-based poet, scholar and teacher Monica Mody, Ottawa poet and editor AJ Dolman, Sudbury poet, critic and fiction writer Kim Fahner, Canadian poet Kemeny Babineau, Indiana poet Nate Logan, Toronto poet and editor Michael Boughn, North Georgia poet and editor Gale Marie Thompson, award-winning poet Ellen Chang-Richardson, Montreal-based poet, professor and scholar of feminist poetics, Jessi MacEachern, Toronto poet and physician Dr. Conor Mc Donnell, San Francisco poet Micah Ballard, Montreal poet Misha Solomon, Ottawa writer and editor Mahaila Smith, American poet and asemic artist Terri Witek, Ottawa-based freelance editor and writer Margo LaPierre, Ottawa poet Helen Robertson, Oakville poet Mandy Sandhu, New Westminster, British Columbia poet Christina Shah, poet, critic, curator and former publisher Geoffrey Young, Calgary poet Anna Veprinska, American expat poet in London Katie Ebbit, Brooklyn poet Nada Gordon, Kingston poet Jason Heroux, Vancouver poet Scott Inniss and Lethbridge-based Brazil-born poet Carlos A. Pittella!
 
The whole series can be found online here.

National Poetry Month 2026 : Chaudiere Books blog,

In case you weren't aware, I've been posting daily poems all April for National Poetry Month over at the Chaudiere Books blog by an array of poets from Canada and beyond, with the entire 2026 series now available online. This is the thirteenth year I've been curating poems for same, and you can catch links for the entire series over here. 

Here are the poets with new work posted for 2026: enjoy!

Maleea Acker ; Junie Désil ; Jordan Davis ; Cole Swensen ; Chris Johnson ; Catriona Strang ; Noah Sparrow ; Eve Luckring ; Conor Mc Donnell ; Stephen Brockwell ; Han VanderHart ; Rahat Kurd ; Nancy Huggett ; Emily Shafer ; Jon Cone ; Laura Farina ; Jen Tynes ; Jason Christie ; Jane Shi ; Jed Munson ; Pearl Pirie ; Michael Goodfellow ; Charlie Petch ; Daphne Marlatt ; Andy Weaver ; Jessi MacEachern ; Carla Harris ; Melissa Powless Day ; Zane Koss ;

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Daniel Moysaenko

Daniel Moysaenko is a Ukrainian American poet, translator, and critic. His work has appeared in Chicago Review, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review, The Nation, Poetry, and The Poetry Review. He practices law and lives in Ohio’s Chagrin Valley.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

I felt like I could breathe. It made me feel less delusional about my long commitment to and sacrifices for poetry. This more recent work is, for the first time, project-bound: being about the war in Ukraine. So it is more thematically cohesive as well as more direct and contextualized than my previous work, which not only arose from questions and silences but continued to dwell there, rather than moving onto higher ground.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?

I recited poems every week in Ukrainian school, which I attended from kindergarten through junior year of high school. And I read more poetry than anything else as a child. My brain more naturally gravitates toward the poetic line and its practice of attention, as opposed to plot or character development. The music, I think, first drew me into the poem, deeper and deeper until I found myself in a tunnel unlike the world created by fiction or non-fiction. Though I still read plenty of it, fiction was less of an interest—as a writer of things—compared to poetry when young, and that mostly stuck.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

My work often originates as a collection of flotsam and jetsam, but goes through multiple forms, requiring months of accumulation, erasure, revision, and editing. I write discrete lines, or full stanzas with no anchor. Then I mull it all over, add to the existing lines or combine them. Or I write a long, sloppy ramble, which does not work at all, and I later slice it up. Occasionally, if lucky, a poem comes out whole without much effort and without needing much revision at all. Funnily, those turn out to be my favorites (though not always others’ favorites). So my writing is both quick and slow. Writing projects are going on at all times, at various stages of development, in the same way I have multiple books open for reading at once.

4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

A poem usually begins with an image for me. I tend to write short pieces that either stand alone or sidle up against other short pieces to become stanzas or sections of a serial poem. Over the years, I have noticed that having the concept of a “book” helps direct me, so that I am not casting around aimlessly for months or even years producing poems whose only relationship is that my ever-mutable mind wrote them.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

Orality is extremely important to the process. The poems’ sound is largely—twinned with image—my entry. If it doesn’t sound right, it’s gone. Public readings are a community-sustaining way of showing this to others. Though they take a lot out of me, I do enjoy giving readings, enacting the work and guiding readers’ through the way I hear the book.

6 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

I think it would be prudent if the role of the writer in the U.S. were cultural bellwether, counsel, attaché.

7 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

I do not find working with an editor to be difficult, having spent more than a decade being workshopped and taking advice from editors. I really value them. Outside suggestions or queries are useful as quick correctives for a problem I had missed, or as opportunities to rethink a decision and either reapproach that crux or reaffirm my underlying reasoning. All of that, I think, strengthens the work.

8 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to translation to critical prose)? What do you see as the appeal?

It has been a natural state for me to move among poetry, translation, critical work, and fiction. I may spend months or years focused on one or two, toggling between them, and then find myself drained. Other genres rush in to fill the space left and reinvigorate me. Translation, especially, recharges the mind for my own poems. There, you are both creating and kneeling at the mercy of existing language, balancing between fidelity and estrangement, mimicry and imagination, domestication and foreignization, to mold a poem in English that does to an English speaker what the original did to readers of that language. Switching modes feels like stepping out of an airport in the tropics and taking off your parka. So I never have writers’ block per se. There’s always some other kind of writing I could be doing if one type is coming up dry. And the genres necessarily challenge one another. Is this really a narrative poem or a story that hasn’t been completed? What form best serves this idea? What can this form do that the others cannot?

9 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

With a “9-5” job, I write when I can: a snippet in the early morning, something after dinner, a few hours on the weekend. The trick for me has been to keep the mind engaged with the literary, with the way a poet attends to the world, at least for a few dedicated moments every day; that may not be actual writing, but it keeps the writer in my mind alive.

10 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I turn to international writers to pull me out of the milieu and habits of U.S. literature.

11 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Geranium, river clay, lilac, pipe tobacco.

12 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

Many forms influence my poems: nature’s patterns and morality, visual art’s clarity and invention, architecture’s stories, the way music moves structurally and emotionally.

13 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

Here is an incomplete list of poets: George Oppen, Etel Adnan, Paul Celan, Tomas Tranströmer, W.S. Merwin, Alejandra Pizarnik, Amelia Rosselli, Wallace Stevens, Serhiy Zhadan, Wisława Szymborska, Franz Wright, Jack Gilbert, Jean Valentine, Mark Strand, Yannis Ritsos, Rosmarie Waldrop, Chika Sagawa, Anne Carson, Nathaniel Mackey, John Ashbery, James Tate, Louise Glück, Cole Swensen, M. NourbeSe Philip, Susan Howe.

14 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

I’d like to learn how to grow grapes and make wine. I’d like to learn a few more languages. I’d like to build a cabin. I’d like to write a book that requires me to change my life in some manner in order to write it.

15 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

I might have stuck with music and pushed past the, at times, frustrating drudgery of going over a bar again and again. Or I may have more seriously pursued astrophysics or psychology, when professors in college offered opportunities to work in their labs and I chose poetry instead—which seemed to encompass every discipline plus the intangible.

16 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I just found myself writing (as transcription, transfiguration, exorcism, reclamation). It was the one thing I compulsively did that would make an entire day go by, quickly, with joy, absorbed in the practice.

17 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

I am late to these, but nevertheless: Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald; Casting Deep Shade, C.D. Wright. 

18 - What are you currently working on?

I am revising a novel I began in late 2014, set in New England, which I workshopped with Noy Holland. And I am developing a second novel that charts a Ukrainian family’s journey from World War I through the Cold War. Also, I am polishing a third poetry collection largely written during the pandemic about what it means to tend, to take care of the earth, loved ones, yourself, and those who do not want the help you are able to give.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

 

new from above/ground press: Zhang, Yeager/Burgoyne, Rudy, Harder, Solomon, Bolster, Baker + mclennan, The Peter F Yacht Club #36 + Touch the Donkey #49,

; My Little Sister, Elena Zhang $6 ; TAKE COVER, EVERYONE, Clara Yeager and Sarah Burgoyne $6 ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #49 : new work by Joel Chace, Andrew Brenza, Jake Kennedy, Hannah Brooks-Motl, Salem Paige, MA│DE and Sara Gilmore $8 ; Consequences, Susan Rudy [prose/naut #33] $6 ; pinion, Shelly Harder $6 ; Misha Solomon’s BIODÔME: A Bestiary after Stephanie Bolster, Misha Solomon $6 ; BIODÔME: Twentieth Anniversary Edition, Stephanie Bolster; with an introduction by Misha Solomon and new afterword by the author $6 ; The Peter F Yacht Club #36 : 2026 VERSeFest Special, with Gwen Aube, Frances Boyle, Melissa Powless Day, Michelle Desbarats, Amanda Earl, Lucia Farinon, Jen Jakob, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Margo LaPierre, T Liem, D.A. Lockhart, Karen Massey, Emma McKenna, rob mclennan, Pearl Pirie, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Monty Reid, Declan Ryan, Robyn Sarah, Misha Solomon, Grant Wilkins, Lydia Unsworth + Jumoke Verissimo $6 ; Wee Walk, Jennifer Baker $6 ; Origin stories, rob mclennan $6 ; 

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March-April 2026
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy of each

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button (above). See the prior list of recent titles here, scroll down here to see a further list of various backlist titles, or click on any of the extensive list of names on the sidebar (many, many things are still in print).

keep an eye on the above/ground press blog for author interviews, new writing, reviews, upcoming readings and tons of other material; and you know above/ground press has a substack now? sign up (for free!) for announcements, and even new features! catch recent/forthcoming interviews with Misha Solomon, John Levy, Shelly Harder, Sarah Burgoyne, ryan fitzpatrick, J.R. Carpenter, Travis Sharp, Jon Cone etc.

With forthcoming chapbooks by: Jon Cone, Mrityunjay Mohan, Dag T. Straumsvåg, Stuart Ross and Jason Camlot, rob mclennan, Fred Wah, J.R. Carpenter, Daphne Marlatt, ryan fitzpatrick, David Phillips and probably others! (yes: others,

AND 2026 SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE STILL AVAILABLE (but you probably already know that,

the ottawa small press book fair, spring 2026 edition: June 20, 2026

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

   

 the ottawa
    small press
    book fair

spring 2026 :
will be held on Saturday, June 20, 2026 in the Main Hall of the Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Avenue (at Lyon St. S),
[note new location: Tom Brown closed for renovations!]

“once upon a time, way way back in October 1994, rob mclennan and James Spyker invented a two-day event called the ottawa small press book fair, and held the first one at the National Archives of Canada...” Spyker moved to Toronto soon after our original event, but the fair continues, thanks in part to the help of generous volunteers, various writers and publishers, and the public for coming out to participate with alla their love and their dollars.

General info:
the ottawa small press book fair
noon to 5pm (opens at 11am for exhibitors)

admission free to the public.
$25 for exhibitors, full tables
$12.50 for half-tables
(payable to rob mclennan, c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9; paypal options also available

Note: due to demand, we offer half as well as full tables (because not everyone needs a full table, and this allows more exhibitors to participate). this fair will also have fewer table spots than recent fairs, so be aware that this will limit author space more than usual,

To be included in the exhibitor catalogue: please include name of press, address, email, web address, contact person, type of publications, list of publications (with price), if submissions are being considered and any other pertinent info, including upcoming Ottawa-area events (if any). Be sure to send by June 6th if you would like to appear in the exhibitor catalogue.

And hopefully we can still do the pre-fair reading as well! details TBA
: and we're on Bsky now! that's exciting, yes? follow us!

BE AWARE: given that the spring 2013 was the first to reach capacity (forcing me to say no to at least half a dozen exhibitors), the fair can’t (unfortunately) fit everyone who wishes to participate. The fair is roughly first-come, first-served, although preference will be given to small (literary) publishers over self-published authors (being a “small press fair,” after all).

The fair usually contains exhibitors with poetry books, novels, cookbooks, posters, t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, scraps of paper, gum-ball machines with poems, 2x4s with text, etc, including regular appearances by exhibitors including: above/ground press ; Anvil Press / A FEED DOG BOOK ; Apt. 9 Press ; Arc Poetry Magazine ; Manahil Bandukwala ; battleaxe press ; Jessica Bebenek ; Book*hug Press ; Bird Lips Zine ; The BumblePuppy Press ; Bywords ; Dave Cooper ; CreateSpace ; Amanda Earl ; Elliott Dunstan ; equitableEducation.ca ; Good Golly Zines ; The Grunge Papers ; John Haas ; Seymour Hamilton ; Heartlines Spec ; Horsebroke Press ; Kersplebedeb Publishing (LeftWingBooks.net) ; Paragon of Virtue Press / la presse POV ; phafours press/Writebulb app/Pearl Pirie ; Proper Tales Press ; Puddles of Sky Press ; Raccoon Comics ; ROOM 3o2 BOOKS ; Sarah's Zines ; Simulacrum Press ; shreeking violet press ; swooncor ; Tel # Publishing ; Things in my Chest ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] ; Turret House Press ; Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair ; Wyrdsmyth Press ; etc etc etc.

the ottawa small press fair is held twice a year (apart from these pandemic silences), and was founded in 1994 by rob mclennan and James Spyker. Organized/hosted since by rob mclennan.

Come on by and see some of the best of the small press from Ottawa and beyond!

Free things can be mailed for fair distribution to the same address. Unfortunately, we are unable to sell things for publishers who aren’t able to make the event.

Also: please let me know if you are able/willing to poster, move tables or distribute fliers for the event. The more people we all tell, the better the fair!

Contact: rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com for questions, or to sign up for a table.