Back in December, I produced the latest issue of The Peter F. Yacht Club, an occasional journal loosely structured around an even looser affiliation of local writers, originally prompted around an attempt at a writer’s group we started back in the late 1990s. Part of what I’d been organizing for years is the “Christmas/holiday party” for PFYC, hosting a reading/gathering between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve for those who were able to attend (the logic being that only half of the usual crew might be able to attend, but those that could would be desperate to get out of the house). Instead of a public reading this time around, I produced a new issue, which invited work from a number of my usual go-to Ottawa poets in our loose assemblage—Cameron Anstee, Frances Boyle, Jason Christie, Anita Dolman, Amanda Earl, natalie hanna, Marilyn Irwin, Robert Hogg, Pearl Pirie, Monty Reid and D.S. Stymeist—as well as Cobourg, Ontario poet, publisher, editor, fiction writer, raconteur and small press legend Stuart Ross, who is currently the writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa (albeit remotely, from his basement view of Lake Ontario). As far as who is doing what, I know D.S. Stymeist has another manuscript he’s been polishing, as, really, do the whole of the list (I keep hoping to see full-length poetry debuts by Marilyn, Anita and natalie out in the world; and a new collection by Robert Hogg, who hasn’t published a poetry book since 1993, would be long overdue). All in good time, I’m sure.
An interesting feature of that particular issue was a piece by “VII,” self-described as “seven voices fused into one exquisite corpse.” The group is made up of former Ottawa poet Manahil Bandukwala alongside still-Ottawa poets Ellen Chang-Richardson, Conyer Clayton, nina jane drystek, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre and Helen Robertson. According to the author biography they included with their submission: “Based on the belief that seven minds are better than one and that many ideas make joyous chorus, we say: We are I and I is VII. Formed in March 2020, VII is based in Ottawa, Ontario, the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg First Nation. Our first chapbook is forthcoming with Collusion Books in Spring 2021.” And while they are working as a singular unit, it is worth noting that each are doing some interesting work individually. Most have at least produced a chapbook or two, and Margo released a full-length debut a couple of years ago. Conyer not only had her debut full-length out last year (with two full-length collections she’s currently polishing), but has been working collaboratively with Manahil, releasing a recent chapbook through Collusion Books.
Manahil is also part of the editorial collective of Ottawa-based Canthius, a literary journal that has been expanding the possibilities of their print journal through a variety of online reviews, interviews and other initiatives. As their website offers: “Canthius celebrates poetry and prose by women, transgender men, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and genderqueer/gender non-conforming writers. The magazine is published bi-annually on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabeg and the traditional territory of the Ojibway and the Mississaugas of the New Credit. Recognizing the historical underrepresentation of certain groups in the Canadian literary arts, we are committed to publishing diverse perspectives and experiences and strongly encourage women of colour, including Indigenous and Black women, to submit here.” Canthius is easily one of the most engaging centres around which literature is happening around these parts, although certainly not existing in isolation.
Our annual poetry festival, VERSeFest, turned ten years old last March, and the spring in-person event was reformed into a series of virtual events eight months later. The benefit to holding an online festival, at least, is that all of those readings are archived, and you can catch them all here, as though you were there for original broadcast. The in-person workshops run through The TREE Reading Series—a series now more than four decades strong—exist online as well, as part of their twice-monthly zoom readings. And there’s probably a ton of activity I’m overlooking while sketching out these quick notes. Have you seen,for example, the weekly interviews I’ve been conducting with current and former Ottawa writers over the past year-plus? Really, for anything related to Ottawa literature, one should always head over to the monthly literary calendar at Bywords.ca; I mean, everything you might want to know lives there. And they regularly seek unpublished poems by former/current Ottawa residents for online publication. If you’ve ever lived here, you should think about it (they even pay a token amount, which is nice).
I miss when we were able to hold in-person events for the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair, an event held twice a year since the fall of 1994, where most if not all of these individuals and publications and presses would be talking, meeting, selling and exchanging. Canada Post is just not enough. I miss being able to see what Arc Poetry Magazine has been up to, or new publications from any of our array of poet-run chapbook presses, including natalie hanna’s battleaxe press, Cameron Anstee’s Apt. 9 Press, Pearl Pirie’s phafour press, Marilyn Irwin’s shreeking violet press, Jeff Blackman’s Horsebroke Press, Amanda Earl’s AngelHousePress, Dessa Bayrock’s post ghost press and jwcurry’s 1cent (a number of these, I should mention, as well as my own above/ground press, were interviewed as part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors' pandemic-era Small Press Interactive Map). At least Amanda Earl still has her podcast, The Small Machine Talks, and Jason Christie recently founded a new small journal, n-o-b-o-d-y; Jason used to produce small items and backyard readings under the moniker Yard Press, some fifteen or so years ago when he still lived in Calgary. Might there be backyard readings again, someday? Small press fairs, perhaps?
I am hoping by the fall we can be back on schedule. We’ve a lot to catch up on.
