the ottawa small press fair, fall 2015 edition: November 7

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

    the ottawa

    small press

    book fair

fall 2015 edition

will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2015 in room 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre (on Elgin, at 320 Jack Purcell Lane).

“once upon a time, way way back in October 1994, rob mclennan and James Spyker invented a two-day event called the ottawa small press book fair, and held the first one at the National Archives of Canada...” Spyker moved to Toronto soon after our original event, but the fair continues, thanks in part to the help of generous volunteers, various writers and publishers, and the public for coming out to participate with alla their love and their dollars.

General info:

the ottawa small press book fair

noon to 5pm (opens at 11:00 for exhibitors)

admission free to the public.

$20 for exhibitors, full tables

$10 for half-tables

(payable to rob mclennan, c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9; paypal options also available

Note: for the sake of increased demand, we are now offering half tables.

To be included in the exhibitor catalog: please include name of press, address, email, web address, contact person, type of publications, list of publications (with price), if submissions are being considered and any other pertinent info, including upcoming ottawa-area events (if any). Be sure to send by October 31st if you would like to appear in the exhibitor catalogue.

And don’t forget the pre-fair reading usually held the night before, at The Carleton Tavern! (readers tba)

BE AWARE: given that the spring 2013 was the first to reach capacity (forcing me to say no to at least half a dozen exhibitors), the fair can’t (unfortunately) fit everyone who wishes to participate. The fair is roughly first-come, first-served, altough preference will be given to small publishers over self-published authors (being a “small press fair,” after all).

The fair usually contains exhibitors with poetry books, novels, cookbooks, posters, t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, scraps of paper, gum-ball machines with poems, 2x4s with text, etc, including regular appearances by publishers including above/ground press, AngelHousePress, Bywords.ca, Chaudiere Books, Room 302 Books, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Ottawa Arts Review, Buschek Books, The Grunge Papers, Apt. 9, In/Words magazine & press, Ottawa Press Gang, 40-Watt Spotlight, Puddles of Sky Press, room 302 books, Touch the Donkey, Phafours Press and others.

The ottawa small press fair is held twice a year, and was founded in 1994 by rob mclennan and James Spyker. Organized/hosted since by rob mclennan thru span-o.

Come on by and see some of the best of the small press from Ottawa and beyond!

Free things can be mailed for fair distribution to the same address. We are unable to sell things for publishers who aren’t able to make the event.

Also: please let me know if you are able/willing to poster, move tables or distribute fliers for the event. The more people we all tell, the better the fair!

Contact: rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com for questions, or to sign up for a table

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, June 12, 2015: Irwin, Steadman, Cumming + Ross,

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

The Factory Reading Series
pre-small press book fair reading
featuring readings by:

Marilyn Irwin (Ottawa)
Dean Steadman (Ottawa)
Alicia Cumming (Kemptville)
+ Stuart Ross (Coburg)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, June 12, 2015;
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
The Carleton Tavern,
223 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale; upstairs)

[And don’t forget the ottawa small press book fair, held the following day at the Jack Purcell Community Centre]

A graduate of Algonquin College’s Creative Writing program, winner ofArc Poetry Magazine’s 2013 Diana Brebner Prize, and a 2014 Hot Ottawa Voice, Marilyn Irwin’s work has been published by above/ground press, Arc, Bywords, In/Words, and New American Writing, among others. Her previous chapbooks include for when you pick daisies (self-published and above/ground, 2010), flicker(above/ground, 2012), little nothings (self-published, 2012), and tiny(In/Words, 2014). for when you pick daisies was printed in full for the third time in the anthology Ground rules: the best of the second decade of above/ground press 2003-2013 (Chaudiere Books, 2013). Her most recent chapbook the blue, blue there was published by Apt. 9 Press. She is currently working on her first full length manuscript, runs shreeking violet press and lives with her two cats in Ottawa, Ontario.

Dean Steadman’s [pictured] work has been published in Canadian journals and e-zines, as well as in the anthology Pith and Wry: Canadian Poetry(Scrivener Press, 2010). He was a finalist in the 2011 Ottawa Book Awards for his poetry collection, their blue drowning (Frog Hollow Press, 2010). His second poetry collection, Après Satie —For Two and Four Hands, will be published by Brick Books in 2016. AngelHousePress will be publishing his chapbook, Worm's Saving Day, in June, 2015.

Alicia Cumming is an English-as-a-Second Language support teacher based in Kemptville, Ontario. She became inspired to examine our expectations and experiences of womanhood after spending time in community settings where social norms for women were critically questioned. Much of her work seeks to focus on how such norms, innocuous as they may seem, deeply suppress the autonomy of women. Website: aliciacumming.tumblr.com

Stuart Ross published his first literary pamphlet on the photocopier in his dad’s office one night in 1979. Through the 1980s, he stood on Toronto’s Yonge Street wearing signs like “Writer Going To Hell,” selling over 7,000 chapbooks. He is the author of more than 15 books of fiction, poetry and essays, most recently Further Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (Anvil Press, 2015) and A Hamburger in a Gallery (DC Books, 2015). Stuart’s many chapbooks include three released in 2014—Nice Haircut, Fiddlehead (Puddles of Sky Press), A Pretty Good Year (Nose in Book Publishing) and In In My Dream(BookThug)—and others from Room 3O2 Books, The Front Press, Apt. 9 Press, Silver Birch Press, Pink Dog Press and his own Proper Tales Press, which he launched 36 years ago. He is co-translator of My Planet of Kites, by Marie-Ève Comtois (Mansfield Press, 2015). Stuart is a founding member of the Meet the Presses collective and has his own imprint, “a stuart ross book,” at Mansfield Press. Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario, and blogs at bloggamooga.blogspot.ca.

the ottawa small press book fair : june 12-13, 2015

The spring 2015 edition of the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair, an event more than two decades old, is but a month away! Be sure to come by the Jack Purcell Community Centre on Saturday, June 13 from noon to 5pm.

Some of the participating literary presses and journals this time around include 40-Watt Spotlight, above/ground press, AngelHousePress, Apt. 9 Press, Arc Poetry Magazine, Bookburner Press, BuschekBooks, Bywords, catkin press, Chaudiere Books, GiddyPigs, The Grunge Papers, In/Words magazine & press, Ottawa Press Gang, ottawater, phafours, Puddles of Sky Press, Quattro Books, Renaissance Book Press, room 302 books / 1cent, Textualis Press and Touch the Donkey. Come on by and see some of the best of the small press from Ottawa and beyond!

And: our regular pre-fair event at The Carleton Tavern includes chapbook launches by Marilyn Irwin and Dean Steadman, as well as other authors tba!

the ottawa small press fair, spring 2015 edition: june 13

span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

    the ottawa
    small press
    book fair

spring 2015 edition
will be happening Saturday, June 13, 2014 in room 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre (on Elgin, at 320 Jack Purcell Lane).

contact rob at rob_mclennan@hotmail.com to sign up for a table, etc.

"once upon a time, way way back in October 1994, rob mclennan and James Spyker invented a two-day event called the ottawa small press book fair, and held the first one at the National Archives of Canada..." Spyker moved to Toronto soon after our original event, but the fair continues, thanks in part to the help of generous volunteers, various writers and publishers, and the public for coming out to participate with alla their love and their dollars.

General info:
the ottawa small press book fair
noon to 5pm (opens at 11:00 for exhibitors)

admission free to the public.

$20 for exhibitors, full tables
$10 for half-tables
(payable to rob mclennan, c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9;

send by June 1 if you would like to appear in the exhibitor catalogue.

note: for the sake of increased demand, we are now offering half tables. for catalog, exhibitors should send name of press, address, email, web address, contact person, type of publications, list of publications (with price), if submissions are being considered and any other pertinent info, including upcoming ottawa-area events (if any).

And don't forget the pre-fair reading usually held the night before, at The Carleton Tavern! (readers tba); also,

BE AWARE: given that the spring 2013 was the first to reach capacity (forcing me to say no to at least half a dozen exhibitors), the fair can't (unfortunately) fit everyone who wishes to participate. the fair is roughly first-come, first-served, but preference will be given to small publishers over self-published authors (being a "small press fair," after all).

the fair usually contains exhibitors with poetry books, novels, cookbooks, posters, t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, scraps of paper, gum-ball machines with poems, 2x4s with text, etc, including (at previous events) Bywords, Dusty Owl, Chaudiere Books, above/ground press, Room 302 Books, The Puritan, The Ottawa Arts Review, Buschek Books, The Grunge Papers, Broken Jaw Press, BookThug, Proper Tales Press, Phafours Press, and others. happens twice a year, founded in 1994 by rob mclennan and James Spyker. now run by rob mclennan thru span-o. questions, rob_mclennan@hotmail.com

free things can be mailed for fair distribution to the same address. we are unable to sell things for folk who can't make it, sorry. also, always looking for volunteers to poster, move tables, that sort of thing. let me know if anyone able to do anything. thanks. for more information, bother rob mclennan.if you're able/willing to distribute posters/fliers for the fair, send me an email.