The Anstruther Reader, ed. Jim Johnstone

 

The pragmatism of a girlentering a room, drying her hands
the eroticism of a girldrying her hair, head bent

Contrary to commonbelief, hair cannot get wet.
I wash with my head bentforward beneath the faucet
sweeping forward into thestream, abstracting  the nape to a line.
The lines of my hair allsingular.
Collectively immersed inwater, there is a wetness,
but still each hair,taken separate, is solid.
Solids dissolve, do notlet water pass through them.
It is the divisionbetween strands then, which is wet,
and creates the illusionof drench.
Same with a shirt. It is thespaces between the threads I clean. (Klara du Plessis)

Iam deeply pleased to see the two hundred and seventy-two pages of the anthology The Anstruther Reader (Windsor ON: Palimpsest Press, 2024), edited by Toronto poet and editor Jim Johnstone, who co-founded the chapbook publisher Anstruther Press back in 2014 with his wife, designer Erica Smith. Subtitled “Ten years ofPoems, Broadsides, and Manifestoes,” The Anstruther Reader dips in andthrough a selection of work across the first decade of chapbook-making across apress that has produced work by a wealth of poets across Canada, from Klara duPlessis to Jenna Lyn Albert to Manahil Bandukwala to Shazia Hafiz Ramji to Fawn Parker to Tolu Oloruntoba to Cassidy McFadzean to Shane Neilson to Michael Prior. One could see Johnstone’s thick and thorough introduction to this volumeas an extension of the work he did through his critical volume Write Print Fold and Staple: On Poetry and Micropress in Canada (Kentville NS:Gaspereau Press, 2023) [see my review of such here], as he speaks of working toexpand the boundaries of the press, deliberately attempting to mentor young poetsand produce numerous debuts, and assembling an editorial board of young writersfrom various corners of the country to assist with editorial selection, to allowfor a broader range of writing to appear through the press. As he writes:

When I published TheNext Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry in 2018,I characterized the group of Canadian poets selected to appear in the book asthe selfie generation. This cohort had published three books or less at thetime, and were adept at bridging the digital divide by synthesizing multiplepoetic styles simultaneously. Self-referential and self-assured, their poemsmoved quickly, as if they employed hyperlinks, “harnessing the echo chamber ofthe internet into a malleable, impressionistic music.” These characteristicsstill stand in The Anstruther Reader, though the poets are different. Readon and you’ll find representative samples from sixty Anstruther authors, selectedto present the story of the press through the voices that have come to defineit.

Sixtyauthors representing the press is an enormous heft of activity, and Johnstoneeven includes a complete checklist/bibliography of publications at the back ofthe collection, which is marvellous. Publications are listed by year and, onewould presume, in order of publication, although the checklist leaves out printruns or any more specific dating (I’m aware that certain titles were producedin initial runs of thirty or forty, while other publications went throughmultiple print-runs). In my review of The Next Wave, I wrote of how Icompared Johnstone’s editorial work—from his chapbooks through Anstruther Pressto trade titles through Palimpsest Press—to that of fiction editor JohnMetcalf: you might not be interested in everything they might be offering, andthe work will have a distinct flavour to it, but much of it will be of a highenough quality to impress. As editors, I trust their judgement, even if I mightnot care for the work of every writer or title in their roster. I still hold tothis rather general overview, although I have to acknowledge that the core ofJohnstone’s interest, the highly crafted first-person metaphor-drive narrativelyric poem, does occasionally expand to include more experimental approaches (workby Derek Beaulieu, Dani Spinosa and Gary Barwin appear in this collection, forexample). Either way, the quality of the work in each of the Anstruther titles I’veseen are rigorously high, and publication through Anstruther has providednumerous authors the push into subsequent full-length publication. The work andcareers of numerous of the authors listed here have flourished since the publicationsof their Anstruther titles, in no small part thanks to Johnstone and Smith’songoing work.

Near the Garden (of Eden)

The sky looks mean. I getinside
to perk coffee to drinkon-deck,
waiting for the storm’sadmonishment,
its precaution. The toads
and crickets puncture thegrassy
lot with their calls—I’mnot jaded,
but I think of Him, howHe
could’ve intervened moreby now.
The air seems swollen. Everything
is suspended. Last timethe weather
failed, a gale pushedthrough,
leaning our bracedsaplings over
as the rain curtaincrossed
the intersection. Here,lightning strikes
the sky with a quick,forked tongue. (Shawn Adrian)

There’ssomething wonderfully archival about a collection such as this, assembling aportrait of a range of activity, specifically small press chapbook production,that might otherwise appear quite ephemeral, even geographically localized (as mostchapbook presses usually are, although Anstruther does seem to have a ratherbroad geographic reach). A collection such as this, produced through PalimpsestPress, offers the benefit of bookstore distribution, something nearly andcompletely impossible across chapbook production. One can point to othercollections over the years attempting to assemble a larger, single portrait ofpublishing activity, from bill bissett’s infamous the last blewointmentanthology, vols. 1 and 2 (Toronto ON: Nightwood Editions, 1985/86) to StanDragland’s New Life in Dark Seas: Brick Books at 25 (London ON: BrickBooks, 2000) or the two-volumes produced to celebrate the first decade of GaspereauPress: Gaspereau Gloriatur: Book of the Blessed Tenth Year, Vol.1: Poetry(Kentville NS: Gaspereau Press, 2007) and Gaspereau Gloriatur: Book of theBlessed Tenth Year, Vol. 2: Prose (Gaspereau Press, 2007), both of whichwere edited Michael deBeyer and Kate Kennedy. None, one might note, wereproduced to collect or document chapbook presses (although one might argueblewointment leaned that way with much of their publishing history, andGaspereau has had a lengthy history of chapbook production alongside tradevolumes), and all I can recall across Canada for such activity, beyond thethree anthologies I edited to celebrate decade-markers through above/groundpress—GROUNDSWELL, best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (FrederictonNB: Broken Jaw Press/cauldron books, 2003), Ground Rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 (Ottawa ON: Chaudiere Books,2013) and groundwork: the best of the third decade of above/ground press 2013-2023 (Toronto ON: Invisible Publishing, 2023)—would be Hammer andTongs: A Smoking Lung Anthology (Vancouver BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1999),edited by Brad Cran, acknowledging the chapbook publishing he did in Victoria,and later, Vancouver, across the 1990s with Smoking Lung Press. Why aren’t therefurther collections around chapbook presses? I would love to see something ofthe four-plus decades of Stuart Ross’ Proper Tales Press, or even had a presssuch as Very Stone House collaborated on a volume of their 1960s and 70s work. Whynot housepress, or pink dog or Rahila’s Ghost Press? Too much of this activitygets lost, overlooked. It happened, is happening; this is important, even ifyou aren’t paying attention. You should be paying attention.