I started The Alfred Gustav Press as a micro press for poetry because I wanted to work with my hands and heart in a new way or, rather, in an old way, that is, I wanted to make objects that were lovely to hold, that were made by my hand using the technology available in my home (netbook, laser jet, stapler, steel edge, blade, pen and colouring pencil). I wanted to touch each piece of paper in each chapbook. And I wanted the poems to touch others.

I want to print poems that are accessible and evocative, strong in insight and image—in other words, poems in the lyric/narrative tradition in its deepest sense—with unity of theme and/or focus of form appropriate for the short length of a chapbook.

I named the press after my father, a farmer both serious and taciturn yet not without charm and wit, sometimes melancholy, always hard working and a great lover of winter reading. The press’s selections may or may not reflect such a disposition toward life. The intention is that the poems published will exhibit some of Alfred’s (counsel-to-the-elves) acumen and Gustav’s (staff-of-the-Goths) gusto. I wanted to return to my father’s way of working, especially when he repaired machinery: slowly and precisely, patiently, with the available tools, making what was necessary with the resources at hand.

I produce (usually though not always) three chapbooks in the spring, three in the fall. Aside from a few complimentary copies, I print only as many copies as I have subscriptions, and thus I know exactly the number to produce and to whom each copy will be sent. I think of the readership as small but intense. I imagine their pleasure on receiving the chapbooks in the mail as equal to mine in producing them. Altogether, it’s an effort of guild-like pleasure keen to bring poetry to readers.

Better to get drunk and cry

Than show off your learning

In public.

Ōtamo No Tabito (665-731) translated by Kenneth Rexroth 

The Alfred Gustav Press Publications:

Series Thirty-one (July 2024):

Hannah Main - van der Kamp, Ascent and Descent

Barbara Curry Mulcahy, Countless Shards

Brian Purdy, Brief Joy in a Northern City

holm: Dear Vancouver by Al Rempel

                                                          *

Series Thirty (December 2023):

Byrna Barclay, White Nights of Russia

Jannie Edwards, Blues for a Rare Moon

Steve Noyes, The Conveyor

holm: Father Didn’t Tell Me Much by Robert Adams

*

Series Twenty-nine (July 2023):

George Galt, Reasons Not to Die Young

Marta Gassler, Double Walking       

holms:

After Boabdil by Ben Meyerson

Sleep is a Deep Pool by Kelly Shepherd

Libyan Sea by Bibiana Tomasic

 *

Series Twenty-eight (December 2022):

Kate Braid, Under a Freshly Washed Sun

Dan MacIsaac, Jazz Sessions

David William Miller, I Remember Passage

             holm: Sand in the Bed by Kevin Spenst

 *

Series Twenty-seven (July 2022): 

David Barrick, Two Dreams: Stratford and The Copyist

James Dunnigan, Windchime Concerto

Al Rempel, Behind the Bladed Green

holms: 

Who Would Believe? by Annie Deeley

Nine Pelicans by Lisa Rawn

 *

Series Twenty-six (December 2021):

Richard Capling, From Every Verge

Peter Christensen, The Circle of Willis

Charlene Kwiatkowski, ‘Let Us Go Then’

     holm:

            Shakespearean Halifax by Brian Bartlett

*

Series Twenty-five (June 2021):

Audrey Shield, In the Skin of Wild

Kurt Trzcinski, Sacred Greens

        holms:

     The Catastrophe of Us by Leona Gom

Megrim by gillian harding-russell

Cosmic Egg by Susan McCaslin

 *

Series Twenty-four (December 2020):

Pearl Pirie, Water Loves Its Bridges

Al Rempel, Deerness     

Tom Wayman, The House Dreaming in the Snow

       holm: The Sun in the Twelfth House by Connie T. Braun

*

Series Twenty-Three (June 2020):

Leona Gom, 62 Billionaires...

Ben Robinson, Keeps on Running

      holms:

         The Bones of a Prayer by Maureen McCarthy

         Pattullo by Catherine Owen

         Melancholy Girl with a Sitar by Michael Trussler

*

Series Twenty-two (December 2019):

Arthur Bull, I Step into a World

M. W. Jaeggle, The Night of the Crash

      holms:

          The World before Combustion by Nicholas Bradley

          Face and Frames by Christopher Levenson

          Against Vanishing: Pacific Cantos by Leonard Neufeldt

 *

Series Twenty-one (June 2019):

Kieran Egan, Among the Branches

   Joshua Sterlin, We, the Unextinct

holms:

Small Discriminations by J. S. Porter

        In the Space Between by Kelly Shepherd

 *

Series Twenty (December 2018):

Gary Michael Dault, Shell

R. Johnson, Uninvited Winter

Lee Ellen Pottie, worthless

holm - Bratislava Poems by David Zieroth

*

Series Nineteen (June 2018):

John Wall Barger, Dying in Dharamsala

Claudia Coutu Radmore, On Fogo

Michael Trussler, Light`s Alibi

holm – Aftermath by Russell Thornton

*

Series Eighteen (December 2017): 

Connie Braun,  Narrow Passageway

Russell Thornton, Stopping the Waves

Bibiana Tomasic, Revolutions Per Minute

holm – Lazienki Park by Rob Taylor

*

Series Seventeen (June 2017):

Robert Adams, Outposts in Sight

Marguerite Pigeon, What I’m Wearing Now

Marilyn Gear Pilling,  Estrangement

holm – A Hidden Bench by Kelly Shepherd 

 *

Series Sixteen (December 2016):

  Nicholas Bradley, Five Sudden Goats: Rocky Mountain Poems

Leif Vaage, Cariboo

gillian harding-russell, Fox Love: The Joe Fafard Poems

holm – Looking Back at What Will Come by Leonard Neufeldt

 *

Series Fifteen (May 2016): 

Ben Meyerson, In a Past Life

J. S. Porter, Of Wine and Reading 

Lisa Rawn, Ahead of Winter

holm – Small Windows by Diane Tucker

*

Series Fourteen (May 2015):

 Susan McCaslin, effortful / effortless: after Cézanne

Angeline Schellenberg, Roads of Stone

Douglas Burnet Smith, White Corvettes: Winnipeg 1950-1964

holm – Remains by Sandy Shreve

*

Series Thirteen (December 2014):

 Shane Neilson, On Shaving Off His Face

Kelly Shepherd, Fort McMurray Tricksters 

Leslie Timmins, The Limits of Windows

*

Series Twelve (May 2014):

 Catherine Owen, Rivulets: Fraser River Poems

Susanne von Rennenkampff, In the Shelter of the Poplar Grove

Calvin Wharton, The Invention of Birds

holm – The Emptying Stars by Chris Pannell

 *

Series Eleven (November 2013):

Ian Adam, Three

Annie Deeley, Brother 

Kevin Spenst, Pray Goodbye

holm – Spain Is a State of Mind by Patricia Young

*

Series Ten (May 2013):

 John Donlan, Call Me the Breeze

Maureen McCarthy, Nine Steps to the Door 

Tara Wohlberg, ‘Cold Surely Takes the Wood’

 *

Series Nine (December 2012):

 Gerald Hill, Streetpieces

Sandy Shreve, Level Crossing

Douglas Burnet Smith, Nine Kinds of Light

holm – Smoothing the Holy Surfaces by Rob Taylor

 *

Series Eight (May 2012):

 Dorothy Field, God Is

Cornelia Hoogland, Gravelly Bay 

Patricia Young, Amateurs at Love

* 

Series Seven (November 2011): 

Allan Briesmaster, After Evening Wine 

Louise Fabiani, Cryptic Dangers

Chris Pannell, Everything Comes from Above

holm – Stories of Snow by gillian harding-russell

 *

Series Six (June 2011): 

Barry Dempster, Disturbing the Buddha 

Richard Lemm, The Gold Flash

John Reibetanz, Laments of the Gorges

 *

Series Five (December 2010): 

Shane Neilson, Elision: the Milton Acorn Poems 

Rob Taylor, Lyric

Diane Tucker, Sandgrain Leaf

 *

Series Four (June 2010): 

Jeremy Harman, The Narrow Room

Nancy Holmes, Okanagan Galilee

Leonard Neufeldt, How to Beat the Heat in Bodrum

holm – The Arc We Call Horizon by Richard Therrien

 *

Series Three (December 2009): 

Brian Bartlett, Being Charlie 

Allan Brown, Excursions 

John Terpstra, Elder Son

*

Series Two (May 2009): 

Christopher Levenson, Habitat

Susan McCaslin, Persephone Tours the Underground

Matt Rader, Reservations

 *

Series One (December 2008): 

gillian harding-russell, Apples & Mice... 

Richard Therrien, Water, Language, Faith 

David Zieroth, Dust in the Brocade 

*

Subscribers have said: 'You have indeed done a superb job with these chapbooks. They are both a pleasure to hold and a pleasure to read.’ ‘I love the look, feel and feeling of the chapbooks. Very inspiring, and magical.’ ‘Instant rare books.’

Your submission

The ideal submission from you could include a long poem; a number of poems on a related theme or in a particular form; or a sequence of discrete, connected poems out of which we could make a selection. We are looking for work that coheres into a focus in the short space of a chapbook. A maximum of 13 pages of each chapbook is dedicated to the poems, so if your poems were, say, each one page long, you could send us up to 15-20 such poems to select from, fewer if the poems are longer than one page. Please use a readable font, Garamond 11 point preferred, and please number the pages. We cannot use any photographs or artwork. We only publish poets who are Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents living in Canada. Please include a bio with a list of your previous publications in journals and magazines etc.

All poems must be previously unpublished, i.e., not published anywhere, not in magazines or online. We've had some discussion about this restriction, but so far it seems to have served us well. We feel that the audience for our chapbooks is often a magazine and journal reader as well, and we want to present brand-new work. Your poems must also be available by email in a .doc or .rtf file. Include a short bio, and send your submission first by regular post with a stamped, self-addressed return envelope to this address:

David Zieroth @ The Alfred Gustav Press

1430 Chesterfield Ave. Apt 301 North Vancouver, BC V7M 2N4

We do not accept simultaneous submissions, and so we try to get back to the poets as soon as possible. Submissions are read all year round (though we tend to pause for summer). A couple of poetry lovers here—co-editors—help to make decisions. If your poems are accepted for publication, a selection is made, and then we work on order, editing, back-cover copy and afterword (focusing mostly on how you wrote the particular poems selected rather than any larger, general statement).

Then I produce each copy by hand. During that process, I arrange for you to sign the covers. When I finish production, I send you ten author copies and send the remaining copies out to subscribers and patrons to enjoy. We are a small concern (though a joyous one), and our distribution is through subscriptions only, so the numbers for each series vary. No additional copies are produced afterwards. You retain all rights to your work. There are no royalties. The time between acceptance and publication varies and can be up to a few seasons or more.

Please note: in order to publish a variety of poets, we are asking those poets who have published a chapbook with us to be aware that in general we are accepting manuscripts from them for holms (our smaller publications). We will read those manuscripts with interest and warmth. Thank you for understanding this policy (as of 2016). Also note that our list includes some poets who kindly decided to become patrons after their chapbooks were published.