Ian LeTourneau : on Emergency Flash Mob Press

 

 

 

 

Emergency Flash Mob Press is a small (micro?) chapbook press based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The first call for submissions went out in 2022, and the first 3 chapbooks (+ some ephemera) were published in 2023. Poetry is the focus, and the first two poetry titles were by Kim Fahner and Mark Sampson, but right out of the gate I wanted to start an essay series, one per year, on some aspect of poetics or craft by a Canadian poet. I’m calling this series the Entrepôt series. Entrepôt, by the way, means “a warehouse for temporary storage of goods in transit” (Canadian Oxford). Think of the warehouse as the physical book format where the ideas (goods) are in transit from the page into the great conversations taking place in contemporary literature. The first title in that series is Sue Sinclair’s At the Frog Pond: On Ecological Beauty and the Climate Crisis, which began as the keynote address at Word Feast: Fredericton’s Literary Festival in 2022.

I’m currently excited by two things: first, that UNB’s Harriet Irving Library has just purchased the 2023 chapbooks and committed to buying everything I publish for their special collections (insert Montgomery Burns tapping his fingers together and saying “excellent” here). Second, I have a great lineup for 2024, which will include my first translation chapbook. There’s lots of work still to do on that front, but being based in New Brunswick, Canada’s only bilingual province, I couldn’t not move in this direction. It helps that translation has always been a keen interest. Next year’s translation chapbook will be by Jennifer Houle, featuring English text with a parallel French translation. The following year I hope to publish an Acadian poet’s work with parallel English translation. The plan is to alternate each year. I’ll also have poetry chapbooks by Jamie Kitts, Meghan Kemp-Gee, and John Barton, and the second Entrepôt title will by Danny Jacobs, which focuses on his time spent in the Elizabeth Bishop House and on engagement with Bishop’s poetry.

I should mention submissions. Poetry manuscripts are accepted in the month of September every year and submissions to the Entrepôt series are accepted year-round.  Visit https://emergencyflashmobpress.blogspot.com/ for more information!

 

 

 

 

Ian LeTourneau is the author of 2 chapbooks and 1 full length collection. He works as Managing Editor of The Fiddlehead and in his spare time runs Emergency Flash Mob Press. He lives in Fredericton, NB.