First and foremost, we are thrilled to announce that the fifth Apt. 9 title, and the first one to be fiction, will come from Michael Blouin. Blouin’s excellent first novel Chase & Haven (Coach House) recently won the ReLit Award, and was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel award. The chapbook will be excerpts from a completed, as yet unpublished second novel. If you read Chase & Haven, you’ll understand how exciting the prospect of a second novel from Blouin is (and if you haven’t read it, you should). Blouin is also the author of I’m not going to lie to you (Pedlar Press), a wonderful collection of poetry.The chapbook will be ready and available for the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair on November 28th. On a related note, Michael Blouin will be accepting his ReLit award TONIGHT at the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival. See writersfestival.org for more information.

Also for the fair, we’ve recently completed a small run of reprints of the first three titles (Monty Reid, Sandra Ridley and Justin Million). The second printing of each is an edition of 10 unnumbered  copies. So, if you missed getting your hands on one late this summer, you’ll have a second chance on November 28th. Ben Ladouceur’s The Argossey will also be available.

The press is also starting to make plans for 2010. One thing we hope to do is to expand into non-fiction titles. More specifically, Apt. 9 wants to engage with Ottawa’s literary history and is interested in producing chapbooks that deal with it, in a variety of forms (bibliographies, essays, interviews, collections of primary documents…). If you have a manuscript, or an idea for one, send us a brief abstract or proposal (250-500 words) and we will respond to you as quickly as time allows.

That’s it for now, see everyone soon!

Apt. 9 is, first of all, proud to announce that our first three poetry titles have now sold out! We’re absolutely stunned by the support we’ve received from the community in Ottawa and elsewhere, and can’t wait to get new titles into your hands. Thank you!

On a related note, a new title is ready for your hands! Ben Ladouceur’s The Argossey is printed, bound, and numbered. The book will be first available on September 30th at the In/Words open-mic at Woody’s (more concrete details forthcoming). Ben will be on hand to read, and might even sign the books if you ask nicely. He’ll also have in hand a second, beautiful new title, Alert, from Amanda Earl’s AngelHouse Press.  Ben is one of the most promising voices among younger Ottawa poets. Although he is leaving us for Europe temporarily, these two new titles will remind Ottawa why we’ve been lucky to have him, and why his return will be worth celebrating.

There are more announcements coming soon, stay posted.

So the launch was an overwhelming success. Apt. 9 cannot thank everyone who came out enough. It was fantastic to see so many people out supporting Justin, Sandra and Monty, as well as a fledgling small press. If you missed it you can see photos of the readers by Jenn Huzera here, and a photo of the bar during the reading by Charles Earl here. I couldn’t have hoped for a better launch, and can’t wait for the next event. There are remaining copies of each book, but very few.

In other news, new books are in the works and I cannot wait to get them into everyone’s hands. If all goes as planned, they’ll be on our table at the Fall edition of the Ottawa small press fair. We can announce that one of the books will be from Ben Ladouceur (soon to be a temporary Ottawa ex-pat). His book is called The Argossey. Ben is among the most exciting of the young poets writing in Ottawa at the moment, and Apt. 9 is thrilled to have such a wonderful manuscript of his in our hands.

We can also announce that the first Apt. 9 fiction title is in the works, though we’ll resist telling you who its from just yet. Stay tuned, you’ll want to get your hands on it.

As well, Apt. 9 now owns apt9press.ca, though the site is still hosted through wordpress for the time being. Thanks to Caitlin Anstee for that!

Thanks again, and see everyone soon!

Apt. 9 Press is proud to announce our first three titles:

Guzzles | Justin Million

Rest-Cure | Sandra Ridley

A Poem That Ends With Murder | Monty Reid

See Books for further information, and keep an eye on Events for an August launch.