25th Anniversary of above/ground press at OIWF: w Ridley, McElroy + Mangold

25th Anniversary of above/ground press
with Sandra Ridley, Gil McElroy and Sarah Mangold
Hosted by Stephen Brockwell
as part of the ottawa international writers festival

"The impact of above/ground press has been so great, some authors can’t remember a time without it."
— Apt. 613

Tuesday, October 30, 2018
FREE EVENT
7pm, Christ Church Cathedral • 414 Sparks Street Ottawa

As part of its silver anniversary year, the above/ground press has produced a limited edition set of single-poem broadsides by an array of above/ground press authors.

Curated by publisher/editor rob mclennan and designed by Christine McNair, the series will be launched by Sarah Mangold, Gil McElroy [pictured] and Sandra Ridley, who will be joined on-stage by rob mclennan for a conversation on the press’s twenty-fifth year. Moderated by Stephen Brockwell.

More details on the broadsides to be announced very soon! Copies will, of course, be available at the event;

See Sandra Ridley's bio here ; Gil McElroy's bio here ; Sarah Mangold's bio here

for further information on the event and the festival, check out the link here

Gord Downie (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017)

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Gordon Edgar Downie, poet, lyricist and front-man for The Tragically Hip, has died. How much can I add? What can I say that might even be relevant?

His sense of Canadian wasn’t nationalistic, but openly inclusive, passionate, critical and uniquely lyric. There was a generosity and attentiveness to him that was quite remarkable. He worked to make us better, more aware and closer to each other.

Christine and I watched that final show on the CBC last year and were transfixed, in awe of what the Hip had accomplished over their tenure, and amazed at how CBC was aware enough to capture such an important cultural moment, both live and commercial-free.

The summer after the publication of his poetry collection, Coke Machine Glow (2001), he came through Ottawa to finally launch the book at an event hosted by the ottawa international writers festival. He opened his reading to an audience of some three hundred plus to a poem of mine, from my collection bagne: or Criteria for Heaven (Broken Jaw Press, 2001). I was floored.

Apparently at the Ottawa Book Awards ceremony the other night, Sean Wilson mentioned the look on my face as this happened. I can’t even imagine, or recall. I know throughout the reading, Gord read poems by four other poets: David O’Meara, Karen Solie, Al Purdy and Elizabeth Bishop. I hope I’m remembering that correctly. The on-stage interview was conducted by Ken Babstock.

I was already aware of a recommendation he’d made, via the Chapters.ca website (a post long disappeared). He’d been asked to recommend other first poetry titles by Canadian titles, and mentioned my first collection alongside first collections by Paul Vermeersch and, I think, Babstock and Solie as well (the list is hazy now in my recollections).

Prior to the event, as Sean and I stood in the National Archives, we spotted Neil Wilson and Gord Downie walking toward us from the entranceway, Gord holding up a copy of my book as they approached. How, I asked myself, was this happening?

After the reading, we walked with Gord into the Byward Market for drinks, and some of us took turns wearing his jean jacket; like teenagers. He seemed amused by us.

The following night, he’d left tickets for a number of us for the Blues Festival show the Hip were doing. I took my daughter Kate, and we ended up in the V.I.P. section, where she was able to meet opening performer Sarah Harmer. Kate and I walked home on air, stopping for pizza on Bank Street around midnight (the first we’d walked more than half a block without my preteen child complaining I needed a car).

It was a baffling generosity by a man who clearly had an enormous amount of time, attention and energy for everyone around him. He made things better wherever he went, and as much as he could, including, even in the months following his diagnosis, giving an incredible amount of attention to helping others.

The likes of him will not be soon this way again. Godspeed, Mr. Downie. You will be missed.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Catherine Hernandez

Catherine Hernandez is a proud queer woman of colour, radical mother, activist, theatre practitioner, writer, the Artistic Director of b current performing arts. Her one-woman show, The Femme Playlist, premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Oct 2014 as part of the afterRock Play Series co-produced by b current, Eventual Ashes and Sulong Theatre. Her other plays include Singkil, (fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company in associa­tion with Factory Theatre), Eating with Lola (Sulong Theatre and Next Stage Festival, first developed by fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre) and Kilt Pins (Sulong Theatre) and Future Folk (collectively written by the Sulong Theatre Collective, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille). She has served playwright residencies at Theatre Passe Muraille, Carlos Bulosan Theatre, Shaw Festival Theatre, Blyth Festival Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and Nightswimming Theatre. On September 21 2012, Catherine immersed herself in a lifeboat filled with filthy water for 24 hours without access to food. The event, named Operation Lifeboat, raised money and awareness for the unnatural recurring disasters in the Philippines. It involved more than 45 artists worldwide who performed each hour of the event and resulted in over 30 hours of watched video footage and more than 1100 viewers worldwide. Her children’s book. M is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book was published by Flamingo Rampant and her plays Kilt Pins and Singkil were published by Playwrights Canada Press. Scarborough is Catherine’s first full-length fiction and she is so very honoured to have received the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop Emerging Writers' Award and have been shortlisted for the Half the World Global Literati Award after just trying her hand at the art of fiction storytelling. Scarborough was written after several years working as a home daycare provider to Scarborough children. Scarborough has recently been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards.

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 feel like my work is finally reflecting my most authentic self. I have published as a children's book author and as a playwright. But full length fiction feels true for me at this time in my life.

2 - How did you come to playwriting first, as opposed to, say, fiction, poetry or non-fiction?
I am a performer so creating theatre became my first step towards being a writer.

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?
It takes months of thinking and imagining before I put pen to paper. I am a firm believer that artists must be open to change because you can always do better. That means that, no, no way in hell does the first draft look like the final draft. And that's okay. Failure to me is generous to the life of an artist.

4 - Where does a play, performance or work of fiction 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?
Depends on the work I am creating. Scarborough was the result of many stories that came together over time with a connecting narrative. The novel that I am currently writing needs to be built chronologically. Plays for me, come from stories or images that begin to manifest themselves into dialogue.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love reading. Reading helps me with failure and failure is a big part of my process. I need to publicly incubate my work to know if it sits right onto the page. If I stumble over sentences it's written wrong. If I am struggling to keep everyone's attention then it's written wrong.

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 don't dwell on these types of questions. I just know I am a conduit to the whispers of the universe. Every artist is. So if I dwell on these questions I am not doing my job. My job is to create, to fail and try again until I create something as close as possible to what the universe intended.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
To tell the truth, even if it hurts.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
No. I find it enlightening. Any difficulties I have are about me and my ego. I need to check my ego to make change and to make the work better.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Keep writing, no matter what.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (plays to fiction to children's books)? What do you see as the appeal?
It has been a wonderful challenge but not easy. I have enjoyed the challenge but I imagine not everyone is up to that.

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 try and write every day early in the morning when there is silence in my house and my chronic fatigue has not set in. Then I write until I feel I have said all I need to say for now. I spend the rest of the day working and figuring out images in my head before doing it all again the next day.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I do not believe in writer's block. I believe in doing the work needed to open your body to the universe to hear what it has to say to you. Take a walk. Dance. Eat well. Don't force it. Listen. Write when ready.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
The smell of Filipino breakfast on a Sunday morning.

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?
Living as a brown woman and dealing with microagressions every day in the form of racism and misogyny. That gets me writing pretty quickly.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
My partner, Nazbah Tom, is a Navajo poet and their brand of storytelling inspires me daily.

Rohinton Mistry

Lawrence Hill

Andre Alexis

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Travel non stop for a year, stay in destinations for a month at a time, learn the language.

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?
Oh god. This type of question doesn't suit me at all because I have done so many damn things. here is a short list:

Shoe shiner

Home daycare provider

Burlesque performer

Playwright

Marketer

Publicist

Magazine editor

Newspaper columnist

Graphic designer

the list goes on and on. I have no other desire to do anything else. I have done it all.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
When you survive trauma, a story is all you have.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

Lion

20 - What are you currently working on?
I am writing a play called Library about teaching literacy to child soldiers. It's a Theatre for Young Audiences script being developed by Geordie Productions in Montreal, with support from Banff Centre for the Arts.

I am writing my second novel, Crosshairs, which explores what would happen if LGBTQ, Black and Brown folks were forced to take arms against white supremacy.

[Catherine is currently touring, and launches in Ottawa as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival on Saturday, October 21st, alongside Martha Baillie and Ahmad Danny Ramadaan, lovingly hosted by Rhonda Douglas]

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Chaudiere Books : a profile, and our big fall poetry launch!

By now, you've seen our recent company profile over at All Lit Up (in which a story or two is slightly told), and know about our big fall poetry launch at the end of the month (Andy Weaver, Jennifer Londry, Chris Turnbull and William Hawkins at The Manx Pub, November 28th, organized by the ottawa international writers festival), right?

Chaudiere Books Fall Poetry Launch! Weaver, Londry, Turnbull + Hawkins; November 28, 2015 at The Manx

The Writers Festival is pleased to be hosting a special Fall launch for Ottawa’s own Chaudiere Books!

Co-publishers rob mclennan and Christine McNair, have another great slate of books coming your way! Join us for readings and launches by Andy Weaver (this), Chris Turnbull (continua), Jennifer Londry (Tatterdemalion) and William Hawkins (The Collected Poems of William Hawkins).

Profile of Rhonda Douglas, with a few questions, at Open Book: Ontario

My profile of Ottawa writer Rhonda Douglas, with a few questions, is now up at Open Book: Ontario. Douglas launches her first collection of short fiction, Welcome to the Circus (Freehand Books, 2015) in Ottawa as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival on April 28, and again, at Black Squirrel Books on May 8 with Nadine McInnis and Leslie Vryenhoek.

Chaudiere Books Launch with Roland Prevost, Amanda Earl and Monty Reid

Chaudiere Books Launch with Roland Prevost, Amanda Earl and Monty Reid
Hosted by rob mclennan
Ottawa International Writers Festival

Monday October 27, 8pm
Free event
Fox and Feather, 2nd Floor • 283 Elgin St.
For further information on this event, and other events in this year's Ottawa International Writers Festival, click here:
      
Ottawa’s Chaudiere Books was recently relaunched by rob mclennan and new co-publisher Christine McNair, and the Writers Festival is proud to be launching their 2014 poetry titles.

A riotous assemblage of long poems focusing on the crazy years of 1920s Montparnasse—a melting pot of artists and poets. Amanda Earl’s Kiki plays with language and form, taking the familiar first-person format of journaling to streams of language to snippets of visual imagery to present the wildness of those years, focusing on the persona of Kiki de Montparnasse, a maverick who—much like the poems presented here—cut across intellectual and artistic boundaries. Sexy and smart. Read more...  

An incisive and playful first book exploring language and space, Singular Plurals presents us with fictive—often surreal—images encapsulated in text that is layered in meaning, playful with language and polyphonous in tone. The poems explore the irregular spaces and tangential lines that separate and connect us, sometimes by gazing from a great distance, then zooming in for the close-up shot. Roland Prevost is a winner of Bywords’ John Newlove Poetry Award and a self-described “explorer of here/now’s edge.” Singular Plurals is his first full-length book of poetry.  Read more...

Garden is a cycling and recycling meditation on the garden, its edges and ecologies, throughout an entire calendar year. Award-winning poet and under-performing gardener Monty Reid explores and reinvigorates the possibilities of poetic meditation over twelve full months of his home garden in Ottawa’s east end. Read more...

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