Following is a broad swathe of books & zines that were picked up by Ahadada Books at Montreal’s Expozine. A few reviews will follow once I have the opportunity to read through these finds. Where possible, I have supplied a link to the publisher or ordering information; please, if you know of a better link — let me know! Click on the thumbnail to get a more detailed scan of the cover image.

Matrix 68, editors Fiorentino & Allan; Erin Moure, Paul A Tosh, Suzanne Dery, Corey Frost, Stephen Heighton, Bill Bisset, Billy Mavreas

Scientific Breakdown, S. James Curtis

Squirt: The Ketchup Collection, Kathryn Hunt, Stephanie Regan, Catherine MacDonald-Zytveld, Robyn Olm, E Steven Zytveld, Steve Curtis, Carolyn Weiss, Regan Stansfield

Bi-Dyke Liliane in Don’t be a Crotte, Leanne Franson

Monster Island! 2, editor Billy Mavreas; Harold Chackowicz, Salgood Sam, Marc Bell, Leila Majeri, Carolos Santos, Francis Hitchings, Jake Brown, Young Adonis, Jesse Bochner, Andy Brown, Marc Ngui, Shawn Jefferies, Sara Tonin, Francis Hithings, Egerton Sykes, Zachary Silberberg, Patrick R. Burger, Joe Ollman, John Mavreas, Owen Plummer, Meaghan Garner, Helene Brosseau

Querencia #6, J. B. Staniforth

Querencia #8, J. B. Staniforth

Fish Piss, Vol. 3, No. 1, editor Louis Rastelli;

Vallum Vol. 2, Issue 2, editors Joshua Auerbach & Eleni Zisimatos Auerbach; George Elliot Clarke, Medbh McGuckian, A.F. Moritz, Heather Spears, Stephanie Bolster, Eamon Grennan, John Kinsella, Philip Hobsbaum, Peter Redgrove, Rupert Loydell

Exploding Head Man, Ian Ferrier

Bywords Quarterly Journal, Vol. 2, Issue 3, various editors, i.e. Amanda Earle, Charles Earle, Steve Artelle; Kim Stouffer, Barbara Phillips, Adele Graf, Margaret Malloch Zielinski, Ronnie R. Brown, Marianne Bluger, John Cloutier

Blood Orange, Amanda Charlotte Earl

Stationaery, Issue 2, editors Daniel Spitzberg and Ilya Zaychik; Anca Szilagyi, Uzodenma Okehi, Aliya Pabani, Nathaniel G. Moore, Patrick Eamonn, Matthew Hollet, Paul Kremsky, Melissa Reiter, Daniel Cambil

We’re recently back from Montreal and, despite the dipping mercury and a light dusting of snow, we’re warmed by the afterglow of Expozine. It was an amazing event, proving that Montreal is a fertile ground for the mini, micro, and small presses, cartoonists, and zinesters. We picked up a lot of small mags, books, and ephemera! We’ll make a note of things received and recommended over in Notes & Queries, when we have a chance to scan some images and leaf through the reams. It’s going to be a fun week!

Until then, enjoy the short clips of the event that we’ve put up. Of course, more pictures, reviews, and scans coming shortly!

Hi-Fi Version (2:33) [4.5 MB]

Lo-Fi Version (2:33) [2.5 MB]

Special thanks goes to Billy Mavreas, Louis Rastelli, and the volunteers and organizers of Expozine.

[Note: Scans and annotations are up in Notes & Queries!]

David Howard is a major New Zealand poet. He sent us his Collected Poems 1980–2000 (Steele Roberts Ltd.) to be considered for the Dark Poetry Project. Here are two fine poems from that collection:

Charm

I’ll ride your smile
into the night. Here,

take the nails
from my index fingers
for security: I’ll come

back. Carefully
adjust your kiss
until it slips

under this collar
bone. Open

my body: pick
the rib that carries
the curve of your breast–

set
that bone between
an oak and an elm

as a cradle
for our child.

Inter Alia

1.
Winded, this tree
fell: you said
‘resting’

and reached
through its rings to
me, breathing

lightly.

2.
You reached
through the hole in the apple
where the worm turned

to me.

3.
Now the wind shakes us until we
slip off the edge of our dream.
Fugitives, we cower

under the wing of the screech-owl
who nested in the fallen tree,
who chewed on the knowledgeable worm.

Nancy D. Tolson is an assistant professor at Illinois State University where she teaches both Black and Children’s Literature. Her publications include essays in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, African American review, and theafricanamerican.com. Her creative writing can be found in Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering and Tales of Africa (1999). She and her husband are currently being raised by their three children Kenneth, Kinnethia and Kindyl.

These excellent poems draw on both children’s story telling and the African-American experience.

Momma’s Boys

They moved the body
What?
They moved the body yesterday
Where were you suppose to be?
At the house waiting for Momma.
Why weren’t you there?
She never came. So I went looking for her.
Why did you go there?
That’s where she was, wasn’t it?
What did you see?
They were digging her up.
Who was?
The white people on the hill, George, Abe, and Truman.
Where did they put her?
In the trunk and drove off. She was mad.
Did you follow them?
Yeah.
Where’d they go?
Behind the gate!
Then what?
They tried to bury her again.
Where?
Behind the gate in front of the house.
Where?
In front of the house, behind their gate.
The front?
Yep, I saw them.
What did you do?
Nothing.
Nothing? Why didn’t you do something?
Momma took care of them.
How?
Thunder struck them.
All three?
All three.
What did you do?
I rolled them in the hole they dug for her.
Where’s Momma now?
In the car.
In the trunk?
No, she drove me here.

Night Visitor

I smelled Daddy last night in my room.
That old cologne he wore filled my nose.
Jimmy smelled him this morning when he got up.
He woke me up with his smell.
He sat and rocked in his rocking chair in the corner.
He said I reminded him of Momma.
He laughed, missing those front teeth.
He said that I even snored like her.
I asked why didn’t he just look at Momma
Since she was dead too
He said cause Momma wasn’t there.