the above/ground press 32nd anniversary reading/launch/party! August 7 at RedBird,
celebrating THIRTY-TWO YEARS of continuous activity(and nearly fourteen hundred publications), Ottawa publisher above/ground presspresents:readings and chapbook launches by:
Jason Christie (Ottawa), Monty Reid (Ottawa), BeatrizHausner (Toronto), Ellen Chang-Richardson (Ottawa), Lina Ramona Vitkauskas(Toronto) + Mandy Sandhu (Toronto);
lovingly hosted by above/ground press editor/publisherrob mclennan
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 at RedBird
7pm door/7:30pm reading
$18 ; includes copies of three recent above/groundpress titles ; Tickets available via RedBird, or at the door; [see the report here from last year’s event]
author/performer biographies:
MontyReid was born in Saskatchewan, and currently lives inOttawa.He is the author of the full-length collection KarstMeans Stone (NeWest Press, 1979), The Life of Ryley (ThistledownPress, 1981), The Dream of Snowy Owls (Longspoon Press, 1983), TheAlternate Guide (Red Deer College Press, 1985), These Lawns (RedDeer College Press, 1990), Dog Sleeps: Irritated Texts (NeWest Press,1993), Crawlspace: New and Selected Poems (House of Anansi Press, 1993),Flat Side (Red Deer College Press, 1998), Disappointment Island(Chaudiere Books, 2006), Luskville Reductions (Brick Books, 2008), Garden(Chaudiere Books, 2014) and Meditatio Placentae (Brick Books, 2016),as well as a mound of chapbooks. The former Managing Editor of Arc PoetryMagazine, he was the Artistic Director of VERSeFest: Ottawa’s InternationalPoetry Festival for more than a decade.
Reid is the author of seven titles throughabove/ground press: Six Songs for the Mammoth Steppe(2000), cuba A book (2005), In the Garden (sept series) (2011), MoanCoach (2013), seam (2018), Where there’s smoke (2023) and cuba A book: twentieth anniversary edition (2025), which he will be launchingas part of this event. above/ground press produced Reportfrom the Reid Society Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022).
Jason Christie lives and writes in Ottawa with his wifeand two children and no pets. His published books include Canada Post(Invisible), i-Robot (EDGE/Tesseract), Unknown Author(Insomniac), and Cursed Objects (Coach House). He’s wrapping up a newcollection that he wrote with/against/for AI.
Christieis the author of nine chapbooks withabove/ground press: 8th Ave 15th St NW. (2004), Government(2013), Cursed Objects (2014), The Charm (2015), random_lines= random.choice (2017), glass language (excerpt) (2018), Bridgeand Burn (2021) and glass / language / untitled / exaltation (2023;second printing, 2023), which won the bpNichol Chapbook Award, as well as PSA (2025), whichhe will be launching as part of this event.
Beatriz Hausner has published several poetry collections,including The Wardrobe Mistress (2003), Sew Him Up (2010), Enterthe Raccoon (2012), Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (2020) and SheWho Lies Above (2023), as well as many limited edition chapbooks. Her bookshave been published internationally and translated into several languages,including her native Spanish, French, and most recently Greek. Hausner writesextensively about surrealism and her translations of Spanish Americansurrealist poets have exerted an important influence on her own writing.Hausner has edited journals and magazines, including Open Letter, ellipse,Exile Quarterly, as well as many of the books published during hertenure as a publisher of Quattro Books. She is the editor of Someone Editions,and its current project French Letter Society. Beatriz Hausner wasPresident of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada and Chair of thePublic Lending Right Commission. She lives in Toronto where she publishes ThePhilosophical Egg, an organ or living surrealism. Currently, with RussellSmith, she curates and runs the lecture series Soluble Fish. She willbe launching her above/ground press debut chapbook, The Oh Oh (2025).
Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winningpoet, multi-genre writer, judicial assistant, and editor of Taiwanese andChinese Cambodian descent. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen’s writing isinformed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with humanity’simpact on Earth, and their experience moving through various societies as afemme-presenting genderqueer. The author/co-author of six other poetrychapbooks, Ellen’s multi-genre writing has appeared in Augur, Anti-HeroinChic, The Ex-Puritan, The Fiddlehead, Grain, Plenitude,Watch Your Head, and more. Their debut collection, Blood Belies(Wolsak & Wynn, 2024), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert MemorialAward. They are a co-founder of Riverbed Reading Series, an editor for Room andlong con magazine, and a member of the poetry collective VII. Find out more at www.ehjchang.com. They will be launchingtheir above/ground press debut, The Moleskin Coat (2025).
Lina Ramona Vitkauskas isa Canadian-American-Lithuanian formerly from Chicago, living in Toronto. She isan award-winning, published poet & video poet. She was a 2020 recipient ofa PEN America grant for her development of an experimental poetry collectionthat adapted poems from Vsevolod Nekrasov and Bill Knott. She was also thevoice of George Maciunas’ mother in the documentary, GEORGE (directed byJeffrey Perkins) screened at MoMA and in Vilnius. Her work has been mostrecently featured in/at: Film Video Poetry Society (Los Angeles); Octopus FilmFestival (Gdansk, Poland); John Gagné Contemporary Gallery (Toronto):Post-Future Era with Kunel Gaur, Justin Neely, and Confusions (Ben Turner);Poetic Phonotheque (Denmark); MOCA Toronto (public installation); SIFF(Moldova); Newlyn Film Festival (UK); Festival Fotogenia (Mexico); MidwestPoetry Fest (US); Vienna Video Poetry Festival (Austria); and the InternationalMigration & Environmental Film Festival (Canada). Her website islinaramona.com. She will be launching her above/ground press debut, TheDeaf Forest of Cosmic Scaffolding (2025).
Mandy Sandhu is a poet based inOakville, Ontario. Her work, often in sonnet form, blends vivid imagery withsharp observation, drawing inspiration from writers like Sylvia Plath, theBeats, Dale Smith and Ted Berrigan. Mandy works at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Disability Office.She will be launching her chapbook debut, The Temporary Space of aPlacenta (2025).
for media inquires, as ever, send a note to rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail (dot) com,
