Launch: Identities, my debut poetry chapbook on Friday the 13th!

Excited that above/ground press is publishing my first poetry chapbook, Identity, which examines the idea of comic-book superheroes and self-identity. Next Friday, Nov. 13, I will launch Identities as part of the Factory Reading Series at Anina's Café in Ottawa with fine writers, Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, Lisa Fishman, Matthew Stepanic & Rob Thomas.

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

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

Kimberly Quiogue Andrews (Ottawa ON)
Lisa Fishman (Canada/US)
James K. Moran (Ottawa ON)
Matthew Stepanic (Edmonton AB)
+
Rob Thomas (Ottawa ON)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Friday, November 13, 2026
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm
Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way

Kimberly Quiogue Andrews, American poet and literary critic, is the author of A Brief History of Fruit, winner of the Akron Poetry Prize, and two chapbooks, most recently Animals I Never Saw, winner of the Flume Press Prize. She teaches creative writing and English literature at the University of Ottawa. 

Lisa Fishman’s newest books are the novel, Write Back Now! (1366 Books, Guernica Editions, 2026) and the chapbook What! (above/ground press, 2026). She’s also the author of the fiction collection, World Naked Bike Ride (Gaspereau Press, 2022) and eight books of poetry, most recently One Big Time (Wave Books, 2025). Several earlier chapbooks include Deer 1 (Oxeye Press, 2015, 2017).

James K. Moran’s poetry and speculative fiction have appeared in many places. Moran’s spec-fic collection Fear Itself and horror novel Town & Train were published by Lethe Press. His reviews appear in Arc Poetry Magazine, Plenitude and Strange Horizons. Moran's debut chapbook is Identities (above/ground press, 2026).

Queer writer Matthew Stepanic lives and works on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton. They are a co-author of the collaborative novel Project Compass (Monto Books, 2017) and the author of Relying on that Body (Glass Buffalo, 2018), a poetry chapbook about the queens of season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race. They edit and design chapbooks for Agatha Press, and they host and co-organize VERS/E, a monthly queer poetry open mic. 

Rob Thomas used to do a decent impression of Stuart McLean. He won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2013 and lives, works, and writes in Ottawa. 

https://smallpressalmanac.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-factory-reading-series-pre-small.html

The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, November 13, 2026: Andrews, Fishman, Moran, Stepanic + Thomas,