a brief note from above/ground press :

, nearing the end of our thirtieth year,

I deliberately don’t post much on the press here, given there are ample opportunities to seek updates in other corners, if such appeals, but I wanted to at least offer a wee update on above/ground press, the chapbook press I founded back in 1993. Were you around for that? Probably not, although there was a good enough crowd at that first reading on Lisgar Street (I know Dennis Tourbin was there, as was b stephen harding). And today we’re at the ottawa small press book fair (29^th anniversary edition, at Tom Brown Arena in Ottawa’s Hintonberg), so you should probably swing by for that, if you’re able. So many updates! You might have seen that Ottawa poet Jason Christie recently won the 2023 bpNichol Chapbook Award for his most recent above/ground press title (his third time on the shortlist, all of which were with above/ground press titles), and the ‘best of the third decade’ anthology is due over the next few weeks with Invisible Publishing. I’m thinking at this point an Ottawa launch sometime in the new year, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Strange to think the press has produced sixty-six titles so far in 2023 (nearing some thirteen hundred publications in total), the press’ thirtieth (continuous) year of operation. I run annual subscriptions (everything the press produces throughout a calendar year), which I know I’m seriously undercharging for, but I spent too many years low income to want to price anybody out (I think lack of funds is not a good enough reason to not be able to participate). What might next year bring? I’m not sure, exactly. I’ve been most of 2023 working to clear a serious publishing backlog that got a bit out of hand, as well as a considerable debt the press had built up, so that has really been the focus, alongside the usual publication of titles, journals, prose chapbooks and festschrifts. And of course, various authors have also been willing to send along wee write-ups on their titles that I’ve been posting in periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. I’ve been saying for a while now that “the race to fifty years begins now,” and I’m not entirely kidding. I mean, how long can I keep this press going? I think I might just keep producing chapbooks until I fall over. Can I get to fifty years? Sixty? I’m already working on the next batch of titles right now.

And, in case such intrigues, here’s a list of the chapbooks and journals that have appeared with the press so far in 2023:

; river / estuaries, by Julie Carr and rob mclennan $6 ; Gardens in Motion, by Stephen Collis $5 ; STORY LINE, by Rae Armantrout $5 ; glass / language / untitled / exaltation (second printing, by Jason Christie $5 ; Dinosaurs of Glory, by Nikki Reimer $5 ; Send $19.99 for Supplements and Freedom, Collages and Uncreative Writing, by Noah Berlatsky $5 ; Unconsciousness Raising, by Miranda Mellis $6 ; ESTRO FLUNKY: FIELD NOTES, by MLA Chernoff $5 ; ashes, by Marita Dachsel $5 ; Report from the [ryan] fitzpatrick Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan $7 ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #39 with new poems by Robyn Schelenz, Andy Weaver, Dessa Bayrock, Anselm Berrigan, Noah Berlatsky, Rasiqra Revulva and Alana Solin $7 ; AGALMA, by Kevin Stebner $5 ; THINGS TO BUY IN NEW BRUNSWICK, by Meghan Kemp-Gee $5 ; Cartesian Wells, by Gil McElroy $5 ; This Folded Path, by Robert van Vliet $5 ; Mayday, by Stephen Cain $5 ; LIVID REMAINDERS, by Geoffrey Olsen $5 ; How to, by Heather Cadsby $5 ; An Extremely Well-Funded Study of Doors, by Evan Williams $5 ; Poetic Constructions: Poems written for the Enriched Bread Artists’ 2020 Open Studio, by Grant Wilkins $5 ; missing matrilineal, by nina jane drystek $5 ; Girl gives long-fingered self-portrait, by Sophia Magliocca $5 ; The Baroness and her Ex Read Orgasmic Toast: To Whom It May Concern, by Grant Wilkins $5 ; Groundling: On Apology, by Jennifer Baker $5 ; SONGS FROM THE DEMENTIA SUITCASE, Karen Massey $5 ; edgeless : letters, by rob mclennan $5 ; Bridges under the Water, by Jérôme Melançon $5 ; Where there's smoke, by Monty Reid $5 ; {NANCY} [an essay on Nancy Shaw], by Jamie Hilder $5 ; LALIQUE, by George Bowering and Artie Gold $5 ; Bits and Bobs, two stories by Ryan Stearne $5 ; Report from the (Pearl) Pirie Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 $7 ; errand : towards, by Brad Vogler $5 ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #38 with new poems by Samuel Amadon, Amanda Earl, Miranda Mellis, Michael Betancourt, R Kolewe, Monty Reid and Meghan Kemp-Gee $7 ; Simple Location, by Andrew Gorin $5 ; “Almost Alive” by Julia Drescher $5 ; ECHOES, by Ken Norris $5 ; Toothache, by Joseph Donato $5 ; What started / this mess, by Samuel Ace $5 ; BIRD SNOW ON HARD TRACKS, by Stuart Ross $5 ; Apogee/Perigee, by Leesa Dean $5 ; Report from the (Nikki) Reimer Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan $7 ; When a Folk, When a Sprawl, by Jessi MacEachern $5 ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #37, with new poems by Micah Ballard, Robert Hogg, Ben Meyerson, Leigh Chadwick, Junie Désil, Devon Rae, kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberly Dyck, Benjamin Niespodziany and Barbara Tomash $7 ; G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] #26, guest-edited by Adam Katz, with new work by alex benedict, Marc E. Christmas, Adam Katz and Ron Silliman $7 ; NOISE, by Jordan Davis $5 ; Report from the (Jessica) Smith Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan $7 ; LEARNING HOW TO TALK, by Nick Chhoeun $5 ; Night Protest, by Ben Jahn $5 ; Poor Rutebeuf, Translated by William Vallières $5 ; tattered sails (after un coup de des), second printing, by Derek Beaulieu $5 ; WAVE 1.0, by Isabel Sobral Campos $5 ; P E S T / (Zion Offramp 65-70), by Mark Scroggins $5 ; The Alta Vista Improvements, by rob mclennan $5 ; Report from the (Brenda) Iijima Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan $7 ; genesis, by Laura Walker $5 ; In Which Archibald Lampman / Translates Arthur Rimbaud, by Grant Wilkins $5 ; Report from the (Amish) Trivedi Society, Vol 1. No. 1, edited by rob mclennan $7 ; DEAR NOSTALGIA, by Nathanael O’Reilly $5 ; Perfumer’s Organ, by Lindsey Webb $5 ; Something or Other, by Jason Heroux $5 ; TAKE IT DOWN, by Barbara Henning $5 ; G U E S T [a jouirnal of guest editors] #25, edited by Laurie Anne Fuhr $5 ; Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal] #36 with new poems by Pam Brown, Kathy Lou Schultz, Shane Kowalski, Hilary Clark and Ted Byrne $7 ; The Peter F Yacht Club #31 “The Factory Reading Series 30th anniversary” issue / edited by rob mclennan $5 ; ONTARIO HYDRO, by Derek Beaulieu $5 ;

And of course, forthcoming chapbooks will be appearing soon by Sacha Archer, Dale Tracy, Melissa Eleftherion, Kyle Flemmer, Saba Pakdel, Lydia Unsworth, Katie Ebbitt, Colin Dardis, Russell Carisse, Micah Ballard, Cary Fagan, Amanda Deutch, Kyla Houbolt, Gary Barwin, Adriana Oniță, Blunt Research Group, Phil Hall + Steven Ross Smith, Zane Koss, Peter Myers, Ben Robinson, Terri Witek, Pete Smith and Angela Caporaso (among others, most likely). And 2024 subscriptions are now available!