some recent adventuring : someone editions (Toronto) + drift/line (Kingston) (and Calgary tonight, fyi

Oh, adventuring. Christine and I are reading in Calgary tonight as part of the single onion series, at Shelf Life Books, but you probably already know that. We've been wandering around, there and here, over the past little bit to help promote our new books: her hybrid/memoir Toxemia (Toronto ON: Book*hug Press, 2024) [see my essay on such here] and my On Beauty: stories, (University of Alberta Press, 2024). You should pick up copies if you haven't already! I mean, they would make great holiday gifts, I would think.

You probably already know I was interviewed by Alan Neal over at CBC Radio about On Beauty: I was admittedly startled by how good an interviewer he is, although I probably shouldn't be. He's been doing this a long time. It was such a good interview (and you can listen to such here). And I even wore my CBC t-shirt! Out of respect, naturally.

On Friday, November 8 I did a short reading as part of a launch over at someone editions on Dundas Street West in Toronto. Given Christine had done a Toronto Book*hug launch the prior Monday, and a Hamilton launch the night before (she had been in the area across that whole week), we managed to figure out overnight childcare so I could leave the kids in Ottawa and meet up with her in Toronto (nights out without tasks or readings seem to be a rarity for us, so we took it upon us to enjoy the small space), and drive home the following morning. We were there to help someone editions launch a series of publications in their French Letter Society project, curated by Beatriz Hausner, which including a beautifully designed letterpress publication with a small poem of mine (part of my work-in-progress "Fair bodies of unseen prose," by the way) alongside artwork/design by Someone editions printer/designer/founder Deborah Barnett (who had produced, moons back, a prior letterpress object with poems by myself and Nathanael G. Moore, actually). There was a young Toronto poet, Agata Mociani, who also had work in the series, so it was good to be introduced to her, and her work. Saskatchewan poet Mari-Lou Rowley also had a poem produced in the series, but she wasn't able to attend.

Deborah had requested I land early, to sign all the copies of the publication (I think I'd signed half the run before I was even offered a glass of wine, which was probably wise). I probably signed them all properly, I'm sure. I mean, I wouldn't do anything ridiculous as part of such a project as that. Would I?

We got to hang out with Beatriz and Deborah and meet Agata; we met "writer, researcher and book artist" James Nowak (who passed along a chapbook he'd produced), and hang out for a good long stretch with writer (and Guernica Editions founder) Antonio D'Alfonso! There were a couple of other folk as well, but I'm terrible at catching names. Either way, it was a worthy event (and you should pick up copies of these publications)

Be aware that Someone does absolutely beautiful work. You should go by their space to see some of the things they've produced.

me an' Deborah Barnett

On Sunday, November 17, Christine and I did a reading together in Kingston, alongside Kingston poet Allison Chisholm, as part of Wanda Praamsma's Drift/Line Series (the last of the 2024 season), with a musical set by Kingston musician Megan Hamilton. Allison mentioned upon stage that she'd manage to forget her glasses at home, so I made a point to only take blurry photos of her (out of respect, of course). Her reading was great! Such small, careful, delicate poems (although she should have read longer). I'm hoping there might be a further book on the horizon at some point, soon. [see my review of her debut here]

Christine was, of course, remarkable. You really need to hear her read from this hybrid/memoir collection [you can catch the video recording of her incredible performance as part of the Ottawa launch here via the Ottawa International Writers Festival, in case such intrigues]. It was lovely to be hosted by (and hang out a bit with) Wanda! And it was great to see local folk, including poets Jason Heroux (above/ground is soon producing a collaborative chapbook between him and Dag T. Straumsvag), Armand Garnet Ruffo (reading soon at VERSeFest, you know) and Eric Folsom (whom I have now known for thirty years! he was good enough to pass along a recent chapbook of his I hadn't yet seen). It was a packed (admittedly small) house! A lovely time had by all. Although, exhausted by adventuring (and the prior day's ottawa small press book fair), we crashed pretty early, and drove immediately home the following morning (where I delivered Christine back to work around noon). A day and a half or so of regular, before we're all back up into it. Calgary! Might we see you tonight?

Touch the Donkey : new interviews with Levy, Brown, Wilkins, Moseman, carisse, Nash + Praamsma,

Anticipating the release next week of the forty-third issue of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], why not check out the interviews that have appeared over the past few weeks with contributors to the forty-second issue: John Levy, Taylor Brown, Grant Wilkins, Lori Anderson Moseman, russell carisse, Ariana Nadia Nash and Wanda Praamsma.

Interviews with contributors to the first forty-one issues (more than two hundred and sixty interviews to date) remain online, including: Michael Harman, Terri Witek, Laynie Browne, Noah Berlatsky, Robyn Schelenz, Andy Weaver, Dessa Bayrock, Anselm Berrigan, Alana Solin, Michael Betancourt, Monty Reid, Heather Cadsby, R Kolewe, Samuel Amadon, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Miranda Mellis, kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberley Dyck, Junie Désil, Micah Ballard, Devon Rae, Barbara Tomash, Ben Meyerson, Pam Brown, Shane Kowalski, Kathy Lou Schultz, Hilary Clark, Ted Byrne, Garrett Caples, Brenda Coultas, Sheila Murphy, Chris Turnbull and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Stuart Ross, Leah Sandals, Tamara Best, Nathan Austin, Jade Wallace, Monica Mody, Barry McKinnon, Katie Naughton, Cecilia Stuart, Benjamin Niespodziany, Jérôme Melançon, Margo LaPierre, Sarah Pinder, Genevieve Kaplan, Maw Shein Win, Carrie Hunter, Lillian Nećakov, Nate Logan, Hugh Thomas, Emily Brandt, David Buuck, Jessi MacEachern, Sue Bracken, Melissa Eleftherion, Valerie Witte, Brandon Brown, Yoyo Comay, Stephen Brockwell, Jack Jung, Amanda Auerbach, IAN MARTIN, Paige Carabello, Emma Tilley, Dana Teen Lomax, Cat Tyc, Michael Turner, Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Colby Clair Stolson, Tom Prime, Bill Carty, Christina Vega-Westhoff, Robert Hogg, Simina Banu, MLA Chernoff, Geoffrey Olsen, Douglas Barbour, Hamish Ballantyne, JoAnna Novak, Allyson Paty, Lisa Fishman, Kate Feld, Isabel Sobral Campos, Jay MillAr, Lisa Samuels, Prathna Lor, George Bowering, natalie hanna, Jill Magi, Amelia Does, Orchid Tierney, katie o’brien, Lily Brown, Tessa Bolsover, émilie kneifel, Hasan Namir, Khashayar Mohammadi, Naomi Cohn, Tom Snarsky, Guy Birchard, Mark Cunningham, Lydia Unsworth, Zane Koss, Nicole Raziya Fong, Ben Robinson, Asher Ghaffar, Clara Daneri, Ava Hofmann, Robert R. Thurman, Alyse Knorr, Denise Newman, Shelly Harder, Franco Cortese, Dale Tracy, Biswamit Dwibedy, Emily Izsak, Aja Couchois Duncan, José Felipe Alvergue, Conyer Clayton, Roxanna Bennett, Julia Drescher, Michael Cavuto, Michael Sikkema, Bronwen Tate, Emilia Nielsen, Hailey Higdon, Trish Salah, Adam Strauss, Katy Lederer, Taryn Hubbard, Michael Boughn, David Dowker, Marie Larson, Lauren Haldeman, Kate Siklosi, robert majzels, Michael Robins, Rae Armantrout, Stephanie Strickland, Ken Hunt, Rob Manery, Ryan Eckes, Stephen Cain, Dani Spinosa, Samuel Ace, Howie Good, Rusty Morrison, Allison Cardon, Jon Boisvert, Laura Theobald, Suzanne Wise, Sean Braune, Dale Smith, Valerie Coulton, Phil Hall, Sarah MacDonell, Janet Kaplan, Kyle Flemmer, Julia Polyck-O’Neill, A.M. O’Malley, Catriona Strang, Anthony Etherin, Claire Lacey, Sacha Archer, Michael e. Casteels, Harold Abramowitz, Cindy Savett, Tessy Ward, Christine Stewart, David James Miller, Jonathan Ball, Cody-Rose Clevidence, mwpm, Andrew McEwan, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Joseph Mosconi, Douglas Barbour and Sheila Murphy, Oliver Cusimano, Sue Landers, Marthe Reed, Colin Smith, Nathaniel G. Moore, David Buuck, Kate Greenstreet, Kate Hargreaves, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Erín Moure, Sarah Swan, Buck Downs, Kemeny Babineau, Ryan Murphy, Norma Cole, Lea Graham, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Oana Avasilichioaei, Meredith Quartermain, Amanda Earl, Luke Kennard, Shane Rhodes, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Sarah Cook, François Turcot, Gregory Betts, Eric Schmaltz, Paul Zits, Laura Sims, Stephen Collis, Mary Kasimor, Billy Mavreas, damian lopes, Pete Smith, Sonnet L’Abbé, Katie L. Price, a rawlings, Suzanne Zelazo, Helen Hajnoczky, Kathryn MacLeod, Shannon Maguire, Sarah Mangold, Amish Trivedi, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Aaron Tucker, Kayla Czaga, Jason Christie, Jennifer Kronovet, Jordan Abel, Deborah Poe, Edward Smallfield, ryan fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Robinson, nathan dueck, Paige Taggart, Christine McNair, Stan Rogal, Jessica Smith, Nikki Sheppy, Kirsten Kaschock, Lise Downe, Lisa Jarnot, Chris Turnbull, Gary Barwin, Susan Briante, derek beaulieu, Megan Kaminski, Roland Prevost, Emily Ursuliak, j/j hastain, Catherine Wagner, Susanne Dyckman, Susan Holbrook, Julie Carr, David Peter Clark, Pearl Pirie, Eric Baus, Pattie McCarthy, Camille Martin and Gil McElroy.

The forthcoming forty-third issue features new writing by: Lisa Samuels, Tom Jenks, Nate Logan, Henry Gould, Sandra Doller, Kit Roffey, Leesa Dean and Scott Inniss.

And of course, copies of the first forty-one issues are still very much available. Why not subscribe?

Included, as well, as part of the above/ground press annual subscription! Which you should get right now for 2025!

We even have our own Facebook group. It’s remarkably easy.

two recent reviews of World's End, (ARP Books, 2023)

Reviews! I'm constantly complaining that my work doesn't see critical response, but my latest, World's End, (ARP Books, 2023), has already two! Thanks much to both Wanda Praamsma and Billy Mills! And did you see the one-question interview Hollay Ghadery did with me recently on the book as well, over at River Street Writing? Obviously, copies of the new book are available via those fine folk at ARP Books in Winnipeg, but I have a box or two here, if anyone is so inclined. A similar deal to some of my most recent titles: send $18 (via email or paypal to rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com) ; obviously adding $5 for postage for Canadian orders; for orders to the United States, add $11 (for anything beyond that, send me an email and we can figure out postage); for current above/ground press subscribers, I’m basically already mailing you envelopes regularly, so I would only charge Canadians $3 for postage, and Americans $6 (that make sense?)

Here's the first review of the book, kindly written by Kingston poet Wanda Praamsma as part of a group review (alongside Sandra Ridley's latest, etc) via the Toronto Star! See the original review here.

World’s End
by rob mclennan
ARP Books, 64 pages, $18

These poems take on the quality of measured breath — inhale inhale pause, exhale. Inhale, and exhale. In so doing, they slow us down, a necessary and welcome step for all, but particularly needed while moving through the births of children and their early years, as mclennan is/was. “A circle of latitude, this/rushing force/of birth; of hours. … Days fold, moments. Into/collapse, and/still.,” he writes in “The small return.” mclennan applies beginner’s mind — the ability to address everything anew — to every poem and fragment; he appears a Zen master through his meditative sequencing, though not unruffle-able to the trials. “Oh, you are stupid, death./You’re drunk; go home.” Intertwined are mclennan’s welcome lessons on process and form (“Attempt to see if sentences can breathe, take root, grow limbs.”) and the abundance of clarity gleaned from small children: “I later gift the toddler a small/plastic robot. She names it: robot.” No need to overcomplicate. These poems send that message: Simplify, breathe, look around.

Here's UK poet Billy Mills, who posted this on his blog, as part of a group review (see the original post here):

The Worlds End of rob mclennan’s title is, we are told in an epigraph, is a ‘pub on the outskirts of a town, especially if on or beyond the protective city wall’; a space that is both convivial and liminal and a tone-setter for the book.

As a poet, editor, publisher and blogger, mclennan is a key figure in a world of poets, and this community is reflected in the fact that most of the poems that make up this book have individual epigraphs from writers, the regulars in the World’s End. A sense of poetry as being intrinsic to the world weaves through the book right from the opening section, ‘A Glossary of Musical Terms’:

The Key of S

Hymn, antiphonal. Response, response. A trace of fruit-flies, wind. And from this lyric, amplified. This earth. Project, bond. So we might see. Easy. Poem, poem, tumble. Sea, to see. Divergent, sky. Deer, a drop of wax. Design, a slip-track.

This melding of the natural and domestic worlds (hinted at by the slip-track) with the world of poetry and language is characteristic of mclennan’s work here, with frequent pivots on words that can be read as noun or verb (project). The carefully disrupted syntax calls out the sense of observing from the margins. This can lend a sense of Zen-like simple complexity, a tendency towards silence:

Present, present, present. Nothing in particular.

In the poems in verse, this disruption is often counterpointed by deft assonances:

A gesture: colour match.

Describe, describe. Sarcophagi. Small bite marks
perforate the humerus.

[from ‘Cervantes’ Bones’]

The second aspect of convivial community is family and parenting; the book overflows with babies and toddlers:

Toddler’s outstretched arms,
convinced herself bigger

than she still is, asks: Let me
hold her. Two ducks,

three. The western shoal,

swift curl of seagull, her
newborn deep

and impenetrable.
The contours

of a shapeless day.

Their mother, relieved
she finally out.

[from ‘Two ghazals, for newborn’]

As the book progresses, these themes become more closely interwoven, a process that comes to a head in the penultimate section, ‘mmm’ (the final one is just two pages long, so effectively at the end of the book):

We. Are turning a boundary.

Shush. Shush. Be quiet. Shush. Restrain. Restraint. Abate. Or don’t. Could never. Can’t. I couldn’t. Please. I beg you. Silence, or.

Begat, begat. This is a copy of a document held by the Office of the Registrar General. Begat, begat. Ceaselessly exposed, and hollow. Cyclical, ends. This grown head strikes a ceiling.

Until a separation, there can be no relation. Is this true?

Parthenogenesis. Maternal instinct, strikes. If you the only one. Trade for passage, ours. Delighted. Like it was the day before the day before. Slips through the fingers.

Former mother. Birth. My wrong grammar implicates.

It’s a quietly powerful conclusion to a book that benefits from, and fully merits, careful rereading. At the start of this review, I listed some of mclennan’s many roles in the world of poetry. Let there be no doubt, the primary one is poet.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Wanda Praamsma

Wanda Praamsma grew up in Clayton, Ontario, near Ottawa. Her first book, a thin line between, appears this fall through BookThug. Her poems have been published in ottawater, seventeen seconds, and Feathertale, and several literary non-fiction pieces have  appeared in the Toronto Star, where she worked for several years as an editor. Praamsma currently lives in Kingston, Ontario.

1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Publication-wise, I’m not sure yet, but writing and finishing a thin line between was a big leap for me, out of journalism and into poetry. It solidified something I knew about myself – that I’m a poet – but didn’t enact fully until taking the time to really explore myself on the page.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I came to non-fiction first, as a journalist – but there were always poems there, too. I always saw, and still see, headline-writing as a form of poetry.

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 seems to come fairly quickly, and then I do a lot of whittling-down. Some poems come out very close to final shape, but for my long poem, I whittled and whittled quite a lot of the prose-y parts.

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?
I am very much a jotter-downer of things, and then I begin to piece things together. The long poem seems to be a form I enjoy. Everything seems to begin short, in short pieces, and then combines into a whole.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I haven’t done many readings yet but I do imagine they will form part of the process in some way. I’ve always loved reading aloud. It’s also a chance to voice how I heard it all in my head while writing.

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 have a hard time even wrapping my head around the phrase “theoretical concerns.” I’m sure they’re there, but others can figure out what they are. Certainly there are a lot of questions. The big one: who am I? and also, who are you? For a thin line between – I wanted to explore my family, on both sides of the ocean, and how I fit within that family. Art and love and death emerged from that.

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?
I see the writer’s role as the same as any artist: to uncover, unravel, reveal and expose. Within both the personal and beyond-personal (social) realms.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Fairly essential. Difficult, too. I’ve been an editor myself, and they see things you don’t. But I think every writer should be ready to protect their work – there are times when you need to be very hard-headed. (I suppose this comes more from my work as a journalist than as a poet. Editing is a different beast in the newsroom.)

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
At a crucial moment in writing my book, and not knowing if it was finished or not, a poet-friend said to me, something like, “Our writing changes. We change.” Right then, I knew it was done – or very close to being done. It was time to move on.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to critical prose)? What do you see as the appeal?
I am just starting to get into critical prose so I’m not sure yet how easy or difficult it is.

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 have a little baby now so there is no routine. I write and read while nursing, and when baby sleeps. I used to get up, do yoga, write for a bit,  read for a bit, then repeat. On days I worked elsewhere, I’d still get up and do yoga and write, but then also try to write on lunch breaks and on the ferry to and from Wolfe Island, where I used to live (now I’m on the mainland, in Kingston).

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
When my writing’s stalled, it’s generally because I have too much else going on. It means it’s time to pare down, clear the mind. Then the words come again. I need space to catch thoughts. Doing yoga, meditating, long walks – they all give me that. But also, visiting art galleries, travelling, and reading – not just poetry, but prose and books on yoga and eastern philosophy.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
There’s a line in a thin line between: the smell of parsley reminds me of my mother

so there’s that – and nutmeg, too.

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?
Visual art, especially. I like my words to spring from sculpture, pottery, painting, fibre art. I find great freedom in examining/observing/peering into other people’s work. I like to find an abstract puddle to dance in.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
For my work, particularly this first book, the Dutch Fiftiers (Vijftigers), a group of experimental writers and artists that emerged in the Netherlands and Belgium after World War II. My grandfather, Bert Schierbeek, was a member. At the time of writing this long poem, I was reading lots of the Fiftiers – not much poetry by any others – but also lots of novels, especially Haruki Murakami and Arundhati Roy.

Also important and much loved are Daphne Marlatt, Sheila Heti, Phil Hall, Alan Watts, Garcia Marquez, Neruda.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Visit Shikoku in Japan, and be a pilgrim to the 88 Buddhist temples on the island.

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’ve always been intrigued by the workings of cities, especially transit/transportation – how people move through cities and act in those buses, streetcars, subways ... so maybe a city planner of sorts ... but I don’t really believe there’s much choice when it comes to what you do – if you’re in tune with yourself, you land deep in what you should be doing – and writing is what I should be doing.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
See above, but also, when I was little, I went through a series of what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-ups, all based on TV shows(!). I wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved whales and we used to watch Danger Bay. Then we watched Street Legal and I wanted to be a lawyer. Then it was Superman, and I decided on journalist. Somehow journalist stuck, because I then went to journalism school. But, seriously, it was when I started writing for the local paper in high school that I decided I wanted to write. Then, once I was in the journalism world, I realized I wanted something more through my writing – that’s when I started writing poetry.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I just read Dionne Brand’s No Language is Neutral and loved it. Read 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami earlier this year, and both are very good. I am not so much a film enthusiast/connoisseur, but I was just given a dvd copy of Out of Africa – still my favourite.

20 - What are you currently working on?
Another long poem. And there’s a novel simmering on the far burner.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

the ninth issue of seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics is now online!

Amanda Earl
An Essay About Writing A Talk About Poetry

Brecken Hancock
Forensic Confession

j/j hastain and Marthe Reed
On Collaboration

rob mclennan
Chus Pato: three of five,

David O’Meara
The Information

Wanda Praamsma
a thin line between (an excerpt)

Jessica Smith
ekphrastic poems

The Earl, Hancock and O’Meara pieces were originally presented (as earlier versions) as talks as part of The Factory Reading Series’ VERSeFest fundraiser in November 2013

NINTH ISSUE : SPRING 2014
http://www.ottawater.com/seventeenseconds/
rob mclennan: editor
mdesnoyers : design & (re)compiler
roland prevost: founding managing editor