Small Press Book Fair, Reviews

I’ll be at the Ottawa Small Press Fair this Saturday with new titles from Horsebroke Press (e.g., Amanda Besserer) and Apt. 9 Press (e.g., Lea Graham). The night before I’ll be at the Carleton Tavern helping to launch Amanda’s The Desert and The Flood. Stoked.

Apt. 9 Press

Apt. 9 Press will be present at the upcoming Ottawa Small Press Book Fair on Saturday, June 18th. Sadly, I will not be personally present (though for exciting reasons; I’ll be speaking at this conference in Montreal). Jeff Blackman (poet, friend, father, neighbour, gardener, and publisher of Horsebroke Press), will be running a half-Apt. 9, half-Horsebroke table. Come out to see his new exciting things, and be sure to pick up Apt. 9’s latest chapbook, Lea Graham’s This End of the World: Notes to Robert Kroetsch. We will also have backlist from Lillian Necakov, Michael Casteels, Christine McNair, and of course, copies of Five.

Packed up for the Book Fair.

Speaking of Lea Graham’s chapbook, it has received threeseparatereviews since it was published last month. We’re very happy that people are responding to it so positively! You can also find a new review…

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Year After Year

 

Of course you may go out but you must know

when I alone lay down our son, full of formula and promise

I instinctively envision single-parenthood while I sing him

“Wish You Were Here” for the hundredth night.

 

When I was seventeen I envisioned that anthem

sound-tracking my painless, accidental death

featuring my cuckolding crush weeping over my body,

as Pink Floyd synced the monitor, and up the camera went.

 

I am thirty-one and you are thirty-one. In the nursery,

our son maws gibberish in the dark. The female cat

who you correctly identify as my cat, whinges.

Oh wife, come home to me, and spoon my nervous hinges.

The Desert and The Flood

Proud to announce The Desert and The Flood, new poetry from Amanda Besserer, is now available for pre-order via Horsebroke Press.

The Desert and The Flood is the first collection of poetry from Amanda Besserer in nearly a decade. After a long hiatus, Amanda has made re-emerged with a voice both romantic and grounded. Her poems tour the wreckage of lunar accidents, hop Charybdis, and dangle their feet from the rings of Saturn. Most of all, this is the poetry of a survivor; of someone who has learned when to purr—and when to roar.

Amanda will be reading at the Factory Reading Series in Ottawa on Friday June 17 at the Carleton Tavern (FB link). The book will be available there and at the Ottawa Small Press Fair the next day, Saturday June 18, at the Jack Purcell Centre (FB link). Pre-orders via Etsy will ship on June 17.

Want a taste of Amanda’s work? Visit and follow Revolution From My Bed.