what we did on our summer staycation, (part two,

[see the first part of our travels here] Two days (again) at Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls, where I hobbled around in my boot, protecting my still-healing broken foot. Where I was unable to go into the water, which allowed a bit more time with notebook, pen; with reading.

Mother-in-law met us there, with six year old nephew in tow, which allowed for some good cousin visits (Christine's brother moving from England to Halifax this summer, which should allow some more-often cousin visits, perhaps). Our young ladies don't get to see any of them that often [although we were in London not long ago, where our young ladies enjoyed a good handful of cousin days].

Day two included a visit to Christine's great-uncle Charlie in Thorold, to see how he's been keeping. On the way back, catching a freighter through the Welland Canal: That boat is so long! Aoife declared. It must be a million Aoifes! (Christine looked it up: apparently "one million Aoifes" is equivalent to 232 metres).

The children, Christine and Oma even played laser tag (Rose came in fourth place, naturally). We all played a round of mini-putt golf. I sat on the step with notebook and reading material during both evenings, and caught a visit (again) from the local skunk, who toddled by both nights (and even the next morning). He was uninterested in whatever it was I was doing. Before we left, both young ladies and nephew their faces painted.

Back in Picton another few days, we landed just in time to catch the latest PEP Rally at the bookstore, curated by Leigh Nash and Andrew Faulkner of Assembly Press (Christine reads at same in September, by the way), with readings by Sneha Madhavan-Reese, Spencer Gordon and Matthew Tierney! What are the odds? I don't even recall the last time I heard either Spencer or Matthew read.

Curious to start going through Spencer's latest, and I haven't even seen Matthew's yet. And did you know that novelist Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer lives rather close? Was good to see her again (we thought the last time we'd seen each other was at the final Scream in High Park in Toronto, which would have been more than a decade ago).

And, once back at father-in-law's place (where we'd deposited the young ladies, just prior to heading to the reading), another three days of attending them, poolside. Another three days of reading, although we did manage a dinner, just the two of us. Up on a hill, way way up above the water. Did you know a small lake in those hills? And a brewery? A view along the water's edge to nearly-Kingston, nearly-Napanee. Point north, where Roblin Mills, or where my birth mother lives. Point east, where the wind farm sits on the horizon. Point east, where a tower sits, near the town of Bath.

In Picton, where the young ladies saw a handful of turtles along the water's edge, and Rose named one "Reginald," taking a forty-minute video (with my phone) of her new best friend and his adventures. Where they sat at the water's edge.

And then, Sunday afternoon, back to Ottawa. Aoife remains, spending some solo time with gran'pa and his wife for a few days, whereas Rose a day-camp began Monday morning.

VERSeFest 2024 : a report from the ground,

Our fourteenth annual poetry festival, VERSeFest: Ottawa's International Poetry Festival, happened last weekend, four venues across four nights, with more than two dozen poets [including Monty Reid, left, being introduced by Jennifer Baker], and was a resounding success, I don't mind saying. The festival got knocked around a bit across the Covid-era, so this is the first festival with myself as Artistic Director, with a brand-new board of directors for VERSe Ottawa, the organization that looks after the whole thing. And did you hear that three of our four nights held capacity crowds? Every night held incredible readings, without a low point across the board (although there were frustrations about accessibility across a venue or two).

Thursday, March 21, 2024: Avant-Garde Bar, 7pm
Anita Lahey, Monty Reid, Marjorie Silverman, Laila Malik
    hosted by Jennifer Baker / Arc Poetry Magazine,
Daniel Groleau Landry, nina jane drystek + MayaSpoken
    hosted by Allison Armstrong

Opening night held some strong readings, with returned-to-Ottawa poet Anita Lahey reading from her latest collection, offering an Ottawa poem or two. Ottawa poet Marjorie Silverman [above] not only offered a reading from her debut, and a Billings Bridge Mall poem, but her debut as a reader at VERSeFest! Laila Malik [left], another poetry and VERSeFest debut [see the recent interview here], startled the crowd with the strength of her reading (it is such a good book). And Monty Reid, longtime Artistic Director, anchored the whole first set with his own debut reading at VERSeFest (if you're staff or on the board you can't be scheduled, so we had to wait until he left, don't you know).

As part of the second set: it was good to hear new work from returning VERSeFest performer Daniel Groleau Landry; nina jane drystek did some very cool looped sound work (I know nina is shopping a full-length manuscript; once that is out, it is going to be incredible); and MayaSpoken is simply remarkable.

Friday, March 22, 2024 : Happy Goat, Laurel, door 7/reading 8pm
Amanda Earl, DS Stymeist, IAN MARTIN, Mary Lee Bragg
    hosted by Stephen Brockwell
Susan McMaster, Sneha Madhavan-Reese, Shane Rhodes
    hosted by rob mclennan

Amanda Earl, of course, is a stellar reader, and her new book is grand. DS Stymeist [above], also read from a new book, and, akin to Monty Reid, was also debuting as a VERSeFest reader, having spent time as President of the VERSe Ottawa board (and thus, unable to read until after he stepped down). MaryLee Bragg read from her own newly-published book, but the highlight of the entire event (sorry, everyone else) had to be Ottawa poet IAN MARTIN [left] (yes, the upper case is deliberate), who really did provide surreal humour and a quiet, odd warmth through their set. You should be paying attention.

The second set held a reading by the very sparkly Ottawa poet Susan McMaster, who has a new book as well. Sneha Madhavan-Reese provided a sharp and curled straight-lined performance for her latest title (which I've been hearing some very good things about). Hopefully this isn't Shane Rhodes' [left] final Ottawa performance before he and his family move to Australia later on this year (you knew about that, didn't you?). I've really been enjoying his settler-work, playing off the novel (and subsequent film) that provided him his name. (Don't go, Shane! Shane, don't go!)

Saturday, March 23, 2024 : Redbird, 8pm
Stephen Brockwell, Jaclyn Piudik, Chris Turnbull, Derek Webster
    hosted by rob mclennan
Sandra Ridley, David O’Meara, Madeleine Stratford
    hosted by Zishad Lak

Board member (and Ottawa poet) Stephen Brockwell [above] provided a shorter set as last-minute fill-in, reading for Mark Goldstein, who wasn't able to make the event (he's doing fine, but just couldn't make it). Chris Turnbull [see the recent interview here] opened her reading, launching her latest book, with some poems by Phil Hall, to acknowledge the new book Goldstein edited and published, celebrating Hall and his work. It was interesting to hear Jaclyn Piudik [left] read, a poet I've only started reading lately. She has a new book as well, and made a point of opening with some poems by Mark Goldstein. And Derek Webster was just great. He read a poem that played off the work of Al Purdy. Who wouldn't love that?

Sandra Ridley [left; see the recent interview here], launching her latest from Bookhug Press, was her usual evocative, coiled calm, enough to quiet any room. Working in both English and French (as well as translation, Madeleine Stratford's performance had a liveliness and humour across hushed tones. And Ottawa poet David O'Meara, another former VERSeFest Artistic Director (before Monty), reading a handful of new poems, was the anchor that held all in place.

Sunday, March 24, 2024: Spark Beer, door 7pm/8pm
AJ Dolman, Myriam Legault-Beauregard, Nduka Otiono,
    hosted by Madeleine Stratford
Rhonda Douglas, Jason Christie, Klara du Plessis + Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi,
    hosted by rob mclennan

Our closing night! It was great to hear Ottawa poet AJ Dolman [above; see the recent interview here] launching their long-awaited debut full-length collection, a box of which landed in just enough time to catch our event (there will be a proper, full launch coming up). And great to hear poet and Carleton University prof Nduka Otiono [left] for the first time! He had a critical selected poems not long back from Wilfrid Laurier University Press that was quite interesting. And lovely to catch a reading blending English and French from poet Myriam Legault-Beauregard from her new book, already leaning into a second printing!

Rhonda Douglas was good enough to provide a short opener of new poems (and curious for me to realize I've known her longer than I've known anyone else around here, having participated in a poetry workshop at the University of Ottawa alongside her and Joseph Dandurand, among others, during 1992-3). It was very nice to celebrate Ottawa poet Jason Christie's [left; see the recent interview here] last fall bpNichol Chapbook Award win through his reading, both from the award-winning chapbook as well as through a handful of new poems. I would think he's but the second Ottawa-based bpNichol winner, after Chuqiao Yang (I presume we'll have more, soon enough). And then, Montreal-based Klara du Plessis [see the recent interview here] and Toronto-based Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi [see the recent interview here] closed out the event, and the festival, through a stellar collaborative set, which included their own individual works, as well as them reading from their recently-published book-length collaboration. There's an incredible amount of activity going on with those two, both individually and combined, that is worth paying attention to. Wow.

You probably also saw the new issue of The Peter F Yacht Club that was launched as part of the festival, holding poems by numerous of our readers and performers? I also had copies of the soon-to-release tenth anniversary issue of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], given there were poems within by Amanda Earl and Conyer Clayton. We also had a basket of books leftover from our fundraiser, offering for the sake of donations (although it took two days, unfortunately, to discover that the QR codes we printed didn't actually work).

Given our hugely successful fundraiser, it didn't seem right to ticket all of the events, so three of our four nights were unticketed (honestly, so much of the fundraiser, whether time, books, chapbooks or cash came from at least half that crowd), but there were plenty of folk donating, still, across those four days, which is hugely appreciated by everyone on the board. Thank you so much to The City of Ottawa, Arc Poetry Magazine and The League of Canadian Poets for their ongoing support, and to Spark Beer, RedBird [left], The Happy Goat and Avant-Garde Bar for allowing us the use of their spaces. As many of you know, events such as these don’t occur in a vacuum, and I must thank the help of our current VERSe Ottawa board: Allison Armstrong, Frances Boyle, Stephen Brockwell, Éric Charlebois, David Currie (who really went above and beyond across the course of this entire thing, so thank you) and Zishad Lak for their ongoing and essential work. And Helen Robertson, who ran our book table! Helen is a delight. Of course, an essential thank you to outgoing director Avonlea Fotheringham for keeping the festival alive across the Covid Era, and Rod Pederson, who began this festival in the first place.

[left: Khashayar "Kess" Mohammadi, Chuqiao Yang + Cameron Anstee mid-break, Closing Night] With our rebuilding year, this was a smaller and more Ottawa-localized festival than prior years (unable to cover hotels and travel, for example), so we are hoping to do another version of this in the fall ("fall into versefest," or something akin to that), as well as hopefully announce our next round of poets laureate at the same time. With luck, we can return next spring with a fully-rebuilt festival! And in case you are wishing to donate, you can catch the donate page on our website. Maybe we'll see you at our next event! Otherwise, you know you should be checking out www.bywords.ca for all Ottawa-area literary events, yes? Monthly calendar! New poems!

new from above/ground press: Hyland, Swensen, Mangold, Etherin, Reid + a summer poetry workshop collection,

PLANE FLY AT NIGHT
(Tuscaloosa Notebook Poems)        
MC Hyland
$5 
See link here for more information

Seventeen Summers
Cole Swensen
$5 
See link here for more information

Cupcake Royale
second edition
Sarah Mangold
$5 
See link here for more information

Danse Macabre
Anthony Etherin
$5 
See link here for more information

Seam
Monty Reid
$4 
See link here for more information

bodies and breath
a summer poetry workshop chapbook
edited by rob mclennan
$4
featuring new writing by: Marie-Andree Auclair, allison calvern, Allie Duff, Laurence Gillieson, Janna Klostermann, Leah MacLean-Evans, Sneha Madhavan-Reese and Billie Moss 
See link here for more information

keep an eye on the above/ground press blog for author interviews, new writing, reviews, upcoming readings and tons of other material;

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
November-December 2018
closing out the press' 25th anniversary year
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy of each

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) 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). Scroll down here to see various backlist titles (many, many things are still in print).

Review copies of any title (while supplies last) also available, upon request.

Forthcoming 2019 chapbooks by John Newlove, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Franco Cortese, Dale Smith, Heather Sweeney, Ralph Kolewe, Ben Meyerson, Isabel Sobral Campos, Mary Kasimor, Andrew K Peterson, Virginia Konchan, Evan Gray, Joshua Collis, Dennis Cooley and Jennifer Stella, the 20th issue of Touch the Donkey, further issues of G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] (with forthcoming issues guest-edited by Stuart Ross, Brenda Iijima, Anthony Etherin + others), as well as the 27th issue of The Peter F. Yacht Club, just in time for VERSeFest 2019!

Also: have you seen the 25th anniversary essays by multiple above/ground press authors? There might even be more appearing (who knows!)

And there’s totally still time to subscribe for 2019, by the by. Can you believe the press turns twenty-six in 2019?

12 or 20 (small press) questions with D.S. Stymeist on Textualis Press

Textualis Press, established in September 2014, publishes limited-edition, hand-bound poetry books on high-quality paper.

D.S. Stymeist’s poems have appeared in numerous magazines, including The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, The Dalhousie Review, Steel Chisel, Ottawater, and The Fiddlehead. His work was featured as the Parliamentary Poet Laureate’s Poem of the Month (February 2015) and was short-listed for Vallum’s 2015 poetry prize. He teaches poetics, Renaissance drama, and aboriginal literature at Carleton University. He grew up as a resident of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, is the editor and founder of the micro-press, Textualis, and is the current vice-president of VERSe Ottawa. His collection, The Bone Weir, is forthcoming with Frontenac House.

[Textualis Press will be participating in the fall 2016 edition of the ottawa small press book fair on November 26]

1 – When did Textualis Press first start? How have your original goals as a publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the process?

Textualis Press started in late 2014, and its goals haven’t changed much. Give it time. On a practical level, I’ve learnt how to solicit, edit, manufacture, and distribute small books. I’ve certainly learnt that a hell of a lot of labour goes into making small books. While perhaps not strictly educational, I’ve also met and gotten to know many local writers, artists, and readers through this process; running a small press has certainly helped me become a fuller member of the Ottawa arts scene.

2 – What first brought you to publishing?

I saw that a number of other small book publishers in my adopted community of Ottawa (above/ground, Apt. 9) were producing chapbooks featuring the work of local writers and deriving a lot of pleasure in the process.  I wanted to escape the stultifying atmosphere of academia, serve my local community, bring new work to readers, and learn the craft of making small books. Setting up a small press seemed like the best way to accomplish all of this.

The craft aspect of small book publishing especially appealed to me. As a critic and writer, I spend far too much time in my own head, which at times can be a very inhospitable place. Book manufacture requires a special kind of manual labour, it requires focus, precision of physical movement. Through the repetitive gestures involved in the scoring of cover stock, the folding of paper, and the stitching together of chapbooks with awl, needle, and waxed cord, one enters a more meditative state. The conscious mind stops “thinking” as it becomes too involved with coordinating movement. In a way, the small book maker becomes a small machine—this is a peculiarly comforting thing to me. (I was born in Detroit, the birthplace of assembly line manufacture, so perhaps mindless industry is in my blood.)

I also became acutely aware that there were many fine poets in Ottawa who had very little publishing exposure at the small press level. I felt that if I could help to publicize and share their work, I should. Beyond providing immediate local exposure, these kind of small press books can be valuable stepping stones to larger projects and potentially enable access to trade presses and wider readership. In other words, they can help empower emerging artists.

That being said, the mandate of Textualis is not solely to foreground the work of emerging artists, but also to provide a venue for more established artists to participate in publishing in a craft form, or to publish at a local level in order to further their ties to the community.

3 – What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing? 

Small publishing has some natural advantages in comparison to “big” publishing. For one thing, I can use expensive paper materials and labour-intensive techniques that no commercial press could justify in the production of a commercial product. I’m not profit driven, so I don’t have to worry too much about readership and market forces—I can simply publish writing that I enjoy, that I find value in. I can only hope that others will enjoy it too.

My responsibilities as a publisher, and I think this is true for trade publishing as well as small publishing, are to provide an accurate, well-designed, attractive material vehicle for the poet’s verse.

4 – What do you see your press doing that no one else is?

I’m not sure that any press can offer unique content or form, but I think that the experimental and avant-garde poetry communities in Ottawa are already fairly well-served. My press titles offer striking subject material thoughtfully wedded to form. The poems should be readable, apprehendable, emotive, stylistically adept, and arresting. Perhaps the press attempts to operate as a rear-guard to the avant-garde.

5 – What do you see as the most effective way to get new chapbooks out into the world?

Readings, press fairs, social media, word of mouth, and recruiting poets who can champion their work.

6 – How involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer more of a light touch?

As an academic who has marked thousands of undergraduate essays, I’ve had to learn to step back from an overly directive approach and become more of a mid-wife, assisting the writer where there might be need. Editing, I think, at its best is a dialogic process, where there is give and take on both sides.

7 – What are your usual print runs?

A typical print run is 60-80 copies. Depends on how long my particular stock of specialty paper holds out.

8 – How do you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary Geddes when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House Press’ editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press, including Victor Coleman and bpNichol. What do you think of the arguments for or against, or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?

I’ve never imagined that Textualis would be a vehicle for my own writing. I don’t trust myself with my own work—I need the restraining, correcting, second-sight influence that a publishing house with professional editors provides. However, self-publishing can allow emerging and/or radical authors to have something to distribute to potential readers; this can be invaluable, for if you wait for trade presses to recognize the brilliance of your manuscript in their slush piles, you could wait a very long time indeed.

9 – What, as a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing? What is your biggest frustration?

I’m very proud, amazed really, with each of the little books I’ve put together. My biggest frustration is that I often have to import paper from the States, as the range of quality papers available in Canada is severely limited. Another huge frustration is finding machines that will run the cover stocks that I use without spitting them out, shredding them, our chewing them up in some inaccessible part of the printer. Oh yeah, and the price of ink cartridges—a corporate scam if I ever saw one.

10 – Who were your early publishing models when starting out?

I like the whole punk DIY ethic. One of the first times I really encountered it was in San Francisco in the 80’s, where Aaron Cometbus was selling a series of little zines of his memoirs about his travels, living on the streets, and the whole bay area punk scene. The guy was a fabulous writer, and he was writing about stuff no mainstream press would touch at the time. He didn’t have access to commercial publishing, so he did it himself.

The other end of the spectrum, I do a fair bit of critical work on crime pamphlets published in Renaissance England. Predating the periodical press, these little books reported on the spectacular crimes of their day and often featured lurid woodcuts to accompany the reportage. Designed to be cheap, easily digestible, and somewhat tawdry, they were nonetheless real works of craft and artistry. The kinds of paper I use and the stitching that I do with my own press is not so far off from that which publishers from the very earliest days of print would use.

11 – How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals? 

At some point in the future, I will develop an online presence for the press. Have to find the time. [ed. note: he finally found the time]

12 – Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?

At the moment, I’m not taking unsolicited submissions. The books take a considerable time to produce, and with the responsibilities of taking care of my daughter, teaching, and organizing VerseFest, I find that I can only realistically produce 2-3 titles in a calendar year.

13 – Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.

Vivian Vavassis’ chapbook, XII does a superb job in forging coherences between short lyrical poems to construct a compelling narrative of desire, loss, and the human need to recognize and be recognized by another. She effectively weaves motifs, like the honeycomb, through an elliptical series of poems—departing from an image only to have it reappear in an altered guise.

Vivian’s imagery is particularly fresh and evocative, “Loving you, I became a long-limbed trapeze artist.”

There is much in Sneha Madhavan-Reese’s Variations in Gravity that captivates: the precision of her intellect, the range of her subject material, the care with which she uses language, but perhaps above all else, her compassion, something we’d all like to see more of in the world. I have a particular fondness for the variety of her object-poems; in “Dinoflagellates,” she describes these minute beings, on which so much life depends, with linguistic flair:

            Whirling whips, these

            single-cell drifters

            flail their flagella

            and spin in the tide.

I’ve been a long-time admirer of Stephen Brockwell’s playful and politically pungent verse, and I think that “Where Did You See It Last” contains some of his best work. In “Marathon Water Station, 24 Mile Waypoint,” his alexandrines take longer and longer to say as the people in the race get slower and slower—this is simply a tour-de-force performance by a poet at the height of their powers. The articulation of his observations can simply knock a reader off their perch: “Old scotch strider, knobbed knees buckle under his kilt…”

12 or 20 (small press) questions;