if you sing for me
i will give you a chapbook for free
Image description: I am wearing a green coat, standing on the lawn outside and carrying a red bag. I have blue jeans and black shoes on. I am pointing to a sign that reads “Tom Brown Arena/141 Bayview Road/Arena Tom-Brown, 141, chemin Bayview, with the Ottawa logo.
Yesterday’s 30th anniversary of the ottawa small press book fair was great fun. 55 vendors registered so the space was packed. I stayed mostly at our table while Charles wandered and talked to other vendors.
I had the honour and pleasure of doing a couple of doodle edits for poets, which was great fun.
We tabled for both Bywords.ca and me. I gave free chapbooks to people who sang. I had the pleasure of hearing everything from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, xmas carols, Beatles and Carpenters songs, sea shanties, song written by the singers and of course, Under Pressure!
I chatted with our neighbours: Sarah Corbett, a musician, writer and zine maker and Laura Blanchette, who is part of a zine collective called good golly zines.
We traded chapbooks and zines.
Image description: a zine entitled “songs that I can “Sarah” nade people with!” with a drawing of a guitar. Dotted line: Alternatively: The first songs I learned on guitar (with chords!).
Image description: A red chapbook with an illustration of a bus travelling along a road, and a flower spiralling out of its roof. Text: good golly miss trolley/a zine about OC Transpo/Laura Blanchette & friends
It was a great pleasure to chat and table with these wonderful and creative zinesters.
Here are a few photos from our table.
Image description: I am looking mischieviously over at Charles, who is talking to someone. We are in front of a pile of chapbooks on a red table cloth, our suitcase in the background. Thanks to James Moran for the photo.
Image description: I am looking up, sitting in front of the table covered in my chapbooks and also erotica anthos. I ended up taking the anthos off the table because it felt like folks were not coming to the table with those books there. Photo by Charles Earl
Image description: I am in front of the Bywords.ca side of the table, with chapbooks, and the cashbox. Photo by Charles Earl.
Afterward we chatted and drank at the Royal Oak on Wellington, which was great fun.
Thank you so much to all who attended. Thank you to the darling singers, poets who asked for doodle edits and to rob mclennan for once again organizing an excellent fair.
The pre-fair reading the night before was great fun too. It was held in a really funky cafe in Vanier, Anina’s Cafe, which was full of geodes, objects and beautiful art. The readings were lovely, as was the company.
The next ottawa small press book fair takes place in June 2025. if you want to table at the fair, it’s very reasonable. you should talk to
.