25th Anniversary of above/ground press

with Sandra Ridley, Gil McElroy and Sarah Mangold

Hosted by Stephen Brockwell

In Person Poetry

Admission

Free

Tuesday

Oct , 2018

7:00pm

Eastern

Christ Church Cathedral

414 Sparks Street • Ottawa

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The impact of above/ground press has been so great, some authors can’t remember a time without it.

Apt. 613

As part of its silver anniversary year, the above/ground press has produced a limited edition set of single-poem broadsides by an array of above/ground press authors.

Curated by publisher/editor rob mclennan and designed by Christine McNair, the series will be launched by Sarah Mangold, Gil McElroy and Sandra Ridley, who will be joined on-stage by rob mclennan for a conversation on the press’s twenty-fifth year. Moderated by Stephen Brockwell.

Books available for purchase at every event: Proceeds support our free children’s literacy programs.

The Authors

Gil McElroy

Gil McElroy is a poet, visual artist, curator, and visual arts critic. He has published four books of poetry with Talonbooks, a collection of art writing with Gaspereau Press, and a memoir about his father and what it was like growing up a military brat during the height of the Cold War that was also published by Talonbooks. His visual art has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, and he has curated exhibitions for numerous art galleries. He’s also published numerous chapbooks, and in 2013, was cowinner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award for The Merton Lake Propers published by Baseline Press in London, Ontario. He currently lives in Colborne.

Sandra Ridley

Sandra Ridley is the author of five books of poetry: Fallout; Post-Apothecary; The Counting House; Silvija, a finalist for the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize; and Vixen, winner of the 2024 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She has won the bpNichol Chapbook Award, Saskatchewan Book Award for Publishing, the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, and the Toronto International Festival of Authors’ Battle of the Bards. Additionally, she has been a finalist for the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award, the Ottawa Book Award, the Archibald Lampman Award, the ReLit Award for Poetry, and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. She has also been nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s KM Hunter Artist Award for Mid-Career Writer and for the Ottawa Arts Council’s Mid-Career Artist Award. Ridley has taught poetry at Sage Hill Writing, Carleton University, and has had the honour of being a mentor with Ottawa’s Supportive Housing and Mental Health Services “Footprints to Recovery” program for people living with mental illness. An audio performance of her chapbook “Lift” was presented on CBC’s Sound Exchange. Her work has been anthologized and translated into German and French. Sandra grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and lives in Ottawa.

Sarah Mangold

Sarah Mangold is the author of the poetry collections Household Mechanics (New Issues, selected by C. D. Wright), Electrical Theories of Femininity (Black Radish Books) and Giraffes of Devotion (Kore), as well as many chapbooks, most recently, A Copyist, An Astronomer, and a Calendar Expert (above/ground). She is the recipient of fellowships and supported residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Willapa Bay AiR and Artist Trust. She founded and edited Bird Dog: a journal of innovative writing and art, which featured longer poems and emerging women poets. She lives and works in Seattle.