The Ottawa small press fair went off on Saturday.

There was a constant shifting crowd coming thru. Attendance was up and lots of new people had tables.

Sunnyoutside from Buffalo, NY. They had all kind of letterpress set fiction and poetry.

I took a photo too late — Warren’s bunny ears were off.
Pooka Press from Vancouver (and the corner of the Arc table). With some books by Catherine Owen who couldn’t stay in town quite long enough for the fiar.

The Ottawa Arts Review people were organized and had short shifts of people manning the table. It’s always easier than one person for 5 or 6 hours.

The youngest visitor to the table. (The one on the right. 😉 )

This was early afternoon when tables are still getting set up. Pedlar Press and next to it The Workhorsery. Pedlar Press put on a sale for an hour that caused a jostle of excitement.

My phafours table with a flutter book for the day. All those copies went.

So did all the pickles and cake. [Mental note: remember to make pickle cake next time. Thanks Dave!]
And all but one of the Poems-for-All mini books.
There were about 3 dozen tables. And I took far fewer photos than normal. Ah well.
But I ended up meeting and chatting with lots of people which is better than photos. And even with the trading, I sold a few books, made $15 past the cost of renting a table, the cost of what we had to sell, and what I bought from other tables.

There were a bunch of new tables of people bitten by the publishing bug, including this one by university student and public speaker Karisa Kamali. The Art of Attitude, a book on confidence with proceeds going to Children’s Aid.

I believe one of these was First Class Press is printing set up by the bookstore at Algonquin College (That link goes thru their FB page since their bookstore site hasn’t added info about it.) A couple people were talking about their rates being better than what they pay to print. I didn’t make it that far over on that side of the room myself.
Part of the advantage of going is seeing new titles in person, riffling thru copies, getting caught up in reunions with people who might be on either side of the table. And comparing notes on what printing costs or calls for writing. Shop talk and of course, discovering goodies, new titles to enjoy.

Postscripts for Dark is closing its call for the second issue and here Sean Moreland puts his marker flourish on one.

This lady had graphic novels, (is that what those are called), purely visuals and in French. I made a mental note of her press name and naturally, the mental note got lost somewhere.
The next one will be November. Same place as its been since 1994 — Jack Purcell Centre.

There are already a number of tributes to Kroetsch posted [for those who have only read his name and not heard it, tha’s pronounced like “encroach” without the “en”], including Shane Rhodes at Arc, Gerald Hill, Shelley Banks, The University of Alberta Press, Armin Wiebe at CBC, Laurie Anne Fuhr, filling station, Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal and rob mclennan at Branta
All the Dead Husbands, a Robert Kroetsch chapbook has been put online at the Olive reading Series site here. A snippet from his Second thoughts exemplify the simple, direct but considered with room for wit.

2 Second Thoughts
I persist in believing that watching paint dry
is not such an idle activity.
Belief is an invitation to doubt.
The sun on the hoarfrost, for a moment,
looks everlasting.
That’s why we hide gold in vaults.

It puts one in the mind of Frost, and gold, and its habit of going away.
span-o (the small press action network – ottawa) will present a tribute/memorial reading for Robert Kroetsch Friday, July 15, 2011; doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm at The Carleton Tavern, 223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

Reading Site Condition by Monty Reid (Apt. 9 Press, 2011) is humbling. As with any of his work he walks that line between what is visible and implied, what is accessible and that simultaneous twist to another level of depth that so many try for with their narrative papercut endings but you see it coming.
His poems are concrete and specific and plain-language but don’t talk down to the reader. The poems move towards the reader and the reader can step towards the poem as an equal.
The poems open outward in a way that makes sense after you’ve heard it yet you didn’t see it coming. You never can anticipate and yet never feel cheated either. Take

Glove
One glove is lost.
The other says ‘hold on to me
hold on to me’.
It knows.

That’s what attention to craft for decade will do sometimes.
It is not just having a voice but what you use it for. What does the poem choose to say?
“What irradiates the poetry and compels the reader is a quality of wisdom[…], that the poem is a trawl, not just talk.” ~Seamus Heaney on Czesław Miłosz’s centenary at The Guardian [via The Page]
Cameron Anstee of Apt. 9 Press will be at the small press fair on Saturday (as will I with my phafours table).
Apt. 9 & above/ground author Ben Ladouceur will be part of the Pre-Press reading Friday night at the Carleton Tavern along with fellow readers Adam Thomlison, Amanda Earl and Jim Smith. Jim Smith is a Mansfield Press author and Mansfield will have a Thursday night reading in Ottawa as well.
After the small press fair, that evening, Once Upon a Slam has the season finals of storytelling.
Sunday is the first of 3 spoken word ekphrastic response to the Caravaggio exhibit with performancs taking place in the gallery at 2pm Sunday June 26, 6:30pm Thursday July 21 and the third of three at 2pm Saturday August 13. Mark Doty did it. This time, four spoken-word poets will, Mehdi Gonny-Hamdad, Rusty Priske, Marjolaine Beauchamp and Kevin Matthews.
Conditions are good for good poetry.
And good books. Tips on writing books.

Funny, I was just reading his words.
The news of Robert Kroetsch’s car accident has been moving as a slow undertow thru the Canadian poetry community for a couple hours now.
I only met him and heard him read a couple times, only have a couple of his books, but was struck by what a kind, good-humoured and sweet man he is. Humble and observant. Rare.
He was a steering hand for mentoring others. His ripples will surely continue outward past his lifetime.

On Tuesday, June 28th you’ll have a chance to do a Pre-Tree workshop with Brenda Leifso.
It’s free and on a drop-in basis. Doors open at 6:30 and the session starts at 7:45 to wrap in time for the Tree Reading Series. (Next features will be Carolyn Smart and Julia McCarthy.)
Brick author and freelance editor Leifso has been bringing to the table some wonderfully enriching poems and facilitates entering poems.
I’ve been stumped on some writers and poems, getting a blank wall. By sitting with a poem, asking questions — what effect the writer might be reaching for, how do they get the effect, and asking how successful they are, we in a group come to a richer understanding of what we’re looking at. People suggest how these poems work, what they see and don’t. It’s a wonderful give-and-take atmosphere.
So much of the time we read a poem and like it or don’t. This considers the how and why. Coming to anything through people who love that thing is the best way to go. There’s an atmosphere of respect and a desire to share what sparks.
It’s the last session of Leifso’s workshop cycle. The next ones will be lead by L.M. Rochefort. Every few weeks the facilitator changes so the catalyst and the aesthetic changes. This way anyone who wants to pass time with poetry can get a changing set of it.
There’s often time in workshops to bring your own work. Some facilitators assign (optional) homework. Some give reading pages. Some focus on techniques, some on themes. Drop in whenever you can on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.