image of the inside of a cafe, with patrons seated at tables facing a stage. poet Lee Groen is on stage reading from his debut chapbook A Little Something Extra.

image of the inside of a cafe, with patrons seated and facing poet Masha Zhaksybek, on stage as a featured reader at the Grub Street Reading Series.

amazing turnout last night at the vault in nanaimo! shout out to featured readers Masha Zhaksybek + Lee Groen, and big big thanks to everyone who signed up to read at the open mic!

see you at the next GRUB STREET reading series 🐛

image of event poster: collage style background. black text on white backing reads: “a square house press presents: GRUB STREET reading series : featuring Masha Zhaksybek / Lee Groen / + open mic! / april 3, 6-8 pm at the vault five bucks/PWYC

the next GRUB STREET reading series is coming up april 3rd at the vault #nanaimo! open mic following featured readers Lee Groen + Masha Zhaksybek.

+ chapbooks and zines available for purchase, door prizes for open mic readers. bring your notebook!

thanks!

image of a yellow chapbook cover with the title, “A Little Something Extra” handwritten on a sales receipt in the centre. author name Lee Groen in the lower right corner. background is made up of multiple black and white sales receipts.

NEW from the press! we’re excited to launch Lee Groen’s debut chapbook, A Little Something Extra, as part of the next GRUB STREET reading series

friday april 3, 6-8 pm
@ the vault nanaimo

image of event poster: collage style background. black text on white backing reads: “a square house press presents: GRUB STREET reading series : featuring Masha Zhaksybek / Lee Groen / + open mic! / april 3, 6-8 pm at the vault five bucks/PWYC

the next GRUB STREET reading series is coming up april 3rd at the vault #nanaimo! open mic following featured readers Lee Groen + Masha Zhaksybek.

+ chapbooks and zines available for purchase, door prizes for open mic readers. bring your notebook!

A “no loads refused” publishing orgy Here's how indie publishing really works and what one city's extreme lit mag craze can tell us about the scene as a whole

When AI can generate this, I give up. Until then G-d keep the brave men et al maintaining Discordia

big things on the way from yr favourite nanaimo chapbook makers!

the schedule for the sixteenth annual edition of VERSeFest : Ottawa's International Poetry Festival is now online! March 24-30, 2026: readings and performances in English and French (and Polish!) by Marie-Célie Agnant, Olivia Tapiero, Sanita Fejzic, Melis...

the schedule for the sixteenth annual edition of VERSeFest : Ottawa's International Poetry Festival is now online! / @versefest-ottawa.bsky.social ;
robmclennan.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

a grizzled vet maneuver right here, folks. ya love to see it 🫡

as a zine distro & small press, we love this theme. send them yr work!

Buy this before i buy them all

image of a red chapbook cover with title “CARTOON YRSELF” and author “dalton derkson” in an off-white font. cover is overlaid on a faded background of various animation and cartoon books.

new from the press:
cartoon yrself - dalton derkson

our first publication is dalton derkson's umpteenth chapbook. "cartoon yrself" is a riff on dennis lee's "riffs" (1993) & in the short collection dalton wrestles with the rarest of poetry's muses: loss, longing & language.

info: asquarehouse.ca

see you tonight at the vault!

Elke Sorensen + Taylor Fleming
6-8 PM - open mic - $5 or PWYC

Events in Nanaimo for the week of Jan. 15 to 21, 2026 – The Discourse. These events listings are from The Hub Nanaimo, your weekly insider guide to the best of community arts and culture.

These events listings are from The Hub Nanaimo, your weekly insider guide to the best of community arts and culture.

thediscourse.ca/nanaimo/even...

big thanks to lauryn @chly.ca for this awesome write-up!

get acquainted w/ a square house & get ready for the inaugural GRUB STREET here:

Taylor Fleming is a fifth-year Creative Writing and Journalism student at VIU, and a co-Managing Editor for the 2026 issue of Portal Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Portal, GOOEY, and in the poetry anthology Winter’s Melody and the short fiction anthology Drift. She received the Kevin Roberts Poetry Award in 2024 and the Meadowlarks Award for Fiction in 2025. She has been shortlisted for Polar Expressions Publishing’s national writing competition twice, where she placed second with her short fiction piece, “A Slow Rot.” She is an editor for GOOEY Magazine’s third issue and served as secretary for The Navigator’s Board of Directors in 2025.

Elke Sorensen is a Creative Writing and Media Studies student at Vancouver Island University. She comes from Maple Ridge, BC, and is published in Cabin Radio, The Navigator, The Vintage Seeker, Healthy Debate, and Portal Magazine. She produces the podcast Elke’s on the Island for The Navigator, and hosts Likely Story on CHLY 101.7FM. Elke’s poetry collection on Bedbugs won her a 2025 CREATE! award. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Barry Broadfoot award for Journalism, and 2025 Gisele Merlet Writing Award. After graduation, Elke plans to move to the Northwest Territories to immerse herself in the stories of Northern Canadian communities.

v excited to feature Elke Sorensen & Taylor Fleming this friday at the vault for the first GRUB STREET reading series!

details: asquarehouse.ca/grub-street/

Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem. Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…

“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...”

A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.

lithub.com/renee-nicole...

image of event poster: coloured newsprint style background. black text on white backing reads: “a square house press presents: GRUB STREET, nanaimo’s newest reading series : featuring Elke Sorensen / Taylor Fleming / + open mic for poems! fiction! yr diary?!? / jan 16, 6-8 pm at the vault five bux (notaflof)

our first ever reading series GRUB STREET is happening one week from today at the vault!!

featuring Elke Sorensen & Taylor Fleming, + poetry open mic (with door prizes) to follow. hope we see you there!

the secret to being a small poetry press is that...

Wall calendar open to December 2025 with a photo of a red cardinal. Dec 15 has been marked with a glowy red orb. TEXT: poems by 251215 for 2601 issue Please. Bywords.ca

Dear current & former Ottawa students, residents & workers, I warmly invite you to send poems to Bywords.ca for our January 2026 issue. The deadline is December 15, 2025 & all the details are on Bywords.ca under Guidelines, but you can ask me questions at any time: amanda@bywords.ca. Happy December!

THIS WEEKEND! CELEBRATING THIRTY-ONE YEARS OF THE OTTAWA SMALL PRESS BOOK FAIR!

TOMORROW:
smallpressbookfair.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-...

TONIGHT! The Factory Reading Series pre-small press book fair reading, Stuart Ross, Liam Burke + Amanda Earl,
smallpressalmanac.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

screenshot of bluesky profile for this is a square house. profile picture is an image of a house shape hand-drawn in white lines on a black background. bio reads “literature, art, ephemera, etc. poetry press + distro. snuneymuxw.”

dalton & i started a little poetry press + distro! we’re hosting our first reading series and open mic in january (details to come) 🐒

follow us!

bsky.app/profile/asqu...