to those close enough to peruse, the ottawa small press book fair, fall 2026 is noon to 5pm, Saturday, November 14, 2026 at Tom Brown Arena, 141 Bayview Station Road, Ottawa.

You can buy the epub or ebook of In Praise of Small Press by Phil Hall now, or order the paper version or pick it up then.

Also, catch Phil Hall in person, Nov 24, 7pm at Perfect Books with Monty Reid and Sandra Ridley

Years keep slipping on their greased downward tracks. Claw prints, methinks. Oily paws sliding.

Pace and staying calm and consistency are the things. Everything is so incremental. But one present minute at a time.

The Jason Heroux book I read in June now has its review up at Mirimichi. And the review of a book I read in July by Angel Dionne is now up at Seaboard Review. I have two more book reviews on my slate to finish.

The 3 reviews of the fall issue, issue 9, of Haiku Canada’s online review magazine, https://hcshohyoran.blogspot.com are up.

Further to the last post of phafours chapbooks coming, I have a progress/process post up at our friendly neighbourhood Small Press Almanac group (SPA). Will there content another SPA day event before the November Ottawa small press book fair?

Also! The phafours press shop I’ve been meaning to build for a decade or so is now getting up. So now you don’t have to find me in person or at a small press fair to get chapbooks. I put up ones from the last couple years and presume, momentum staying, that I will gradually add others. It has the cover, and sample poem, reviews, and a way to buy. It’s progress.

Please don’t buy Phil Hall’s chapbook In Praise of Small Press yet. It’s not ready. Next week.

Some chapbooks from the backlist will remain for free access in digital form at Digitally Yours. You’ll notice I’ve made epubs and pdfs of newer ones for sale at a price that allows some income and some accessibility.

Hey, folks…Coming in the fall 2026 from phafours press: Little Survivors Everywhere by Kyla Houbolt (October, 2026) and In Praise of Small Press by Phil Hall (November, 2026).

One is the dip into surreal from a U.S. poet I admire. Another a walk through what he sees in small press by a Canadian poet I admire.

You can pre-order soon, paper or ebook. Hopefully that’ll be set up next week…I’ll let you know.

Here’s a DIY starter pack to print on magnetic sheets. It’s in Helvetica Neue, size 13, (when you want to add words to match).

Edit: Version 3. There are (3) 81/2 x 11 sheets. I rearranged some for best fit on page and voted some words off for better ones. 588 words/names symbols/affixes/suffixes in .doc and .pdf

I’m editing, editing. What could I do for break? I know…word games. There’s re-w-or-d-a-ble. (Not a sponsorship endorsement but word geek fun.) What else?

What do I like? Let’s see, poetry, remixing, chance operations, corpus studies, Good Omens and making stuff.

I have 5 sets of magnetic poetry. What if I made a Good Omens one? Which words are keyword bingo troped? I brainstormed some.

I have a base set, a gardening set, a CanLit set, a French base set, and some yellowed ones that I’m not sure what they were from. One of the sets came with blanks. And I have a labelmaker. We have a plan. 

So I made a thing. 

I have been setting aside those thin fridge magnets that advertisers send for 20 years or so (including ones from All Lit Up) and miraculously put them in the same place together.

If you have the same stuff, you’re set.

If you don’t, you can make your own set with 8 1/2 x 11 or A4 magnetic sheets which are thin and printable on, for $24 or so. Or heavier magnetic sheets plus adhesive paper for $12 or so more. You can google where. Probably Michael’s or other craft stores. (My computer thinks I’m in Europe so I can’t see Canadian inventory at places.

I could try selling kits but that’s a lot of work and shipping and sales and profit/loss, meh, and permissions, so I’ll copyleft it. If the Terry Pratchett Estate wants to make some, so much the better.

Here’s a DIY starter pack to print of 196 392 Good Omens words. It’s in Helvetica Neue, size 13, (when you want to add words to match).

Edit: I made two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. Have fun.

Edit’s Edit: Good lord, I kept going. I’m done. (Surely.) Version 3. There are 3 sheets. I rearranged some for best fit on page and voted some words off for better ones. 588 words/names symbols/affixes/suffixes in .doc and .pdf