How we gather has changed profoundly over the course of the pandemic.

How gathering has been curtailed and modified has challenged us. We haven’t always executed it successfully or derived from it what we did before, in person and in beloved spaces.

But gather we have, and sometimes we’ve gained unique connections, insights and solace in these new forms of meeting.

Silent book clubs – long chronicled here – have always been about readers gathering to share each other’s company in the act of reading. The being-in-the-company-of-readers part is where the “silent” comes from, but interestingly, the gatherings were often book-ended (!) with considerably less than silent sharing of enthusiasms and challenges around one’s reading. While “club” echoes the concept of traditional book clubs, where there was something of the likeminded in choosing a single book for all participants to read and discuss, these gatherings were more like community, where any book in any form was warmly welcomed and not judged.

While we’ve missed sharing coffee and scones around a cafe table with our fellow readers, the conversation and community has continued online. In fact, we’ve been able to fling open those coffee shop doors to welcome people from around the world. It’s the comforting trade-off to not being able to meet with the people just around the corner.

When the Meet the Presses collective approached me about hosting a silent book club zoom meeting as part of the group’s second virtual small press book fair, I was delighted to be asked. I was equally delighted to realize that the silent book club model could work for other book-related communities.

Meet the Presses values small presses and the authors they publish. The organization supports the ongoing creation of new literary work in all formats and across all genres. Meet the Presses’ annual Indie Literary Market is an invitational event for independent literary publishers — presses, micropresses, zines, and journals — as selected by this volunteer collective. Since 1986, Meet the Presses has also awarded the annual bpNichol Chapbook Award. This year and last, the group replaced its the vibrant in-person market, readings and professional sessions with virtual events. The 2021 schedule featured:

• 2021 bpNichol Chapbook Award readings and winner announcement – Congratulations, Matthew James Weigel for It Was Treaty / It Was Me, published by Vallum
• Press Clips, a screening of a collection of short videos from small presses across Canada – available for replay here (part 1) and here (part 2)
• Small Press Silent Reading Group

A cozy (for zoom) gathering of about 10 writers and publishers gathered for the Small Press Silent Reading Group. In the notably non-silent portion of the meeting, we celebrated the bounty of small press beauty, largely but not exclusively in chapbook form, that has been capturing our hearts and minds and helping us all get through challenging times. The following is part of that cascade of small press delights.

I was fortunate to enjoy two silent book club meetings the day of the Meet the Presses event. Here are all my silent book club book and chapbook selections, all lined up.

• Andata Express
• Jung Origami by Sacha Archer (Penteract Press)
• Foundry by Gregory Betts (Red Fox Press)
• Dear Birch, by Margaret Christakos (Palimpsest Press)
• Bridge and Burn by Jason Christie (above/ground press)
• Paper Poems by Brian Dedora (Red Fox Press)
• A field guide to fanciful bugs by Amanda Earl (above/ground press)
• Myself A Paperclip by Triny Finlay (Goose Lane Editions)
• Snowbound and Other Poems by John Greenleaf Whittier (Little Leather Books, 1921)
• goodbye, already by Ryanne Kap
• I Will Be More Myself In The Next World by Matsuki Masutani (Mother Tongue Press)
• Me Then You Then Me Then by Kathryn Mockler and Gary Barwin (knife fork book)
• Ask About Language As If It Forgets by Hoa Nguyen (knife fork book)
• Inside Ocean Größt’s Time Capsule by Astra Papachristodoulou (Penteract Press)
• Mouthfuls of Space by Tom Prime (Anvil Press)
• Moth Funerals by Gaia Rajan (Glass Poetry Press)
• from The Book of Bramah by Renee Sarojini Saklikar (above/ground Press)
• Bramah and the Beggar Boy by Renee Sarojini Saklikar (Nightwood Press)
• Numbers by Adam Seelig (Alphabet Press)
• In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale (New Directions)
• On the Menu by Jacqueline Valencia and Jennifer Chin (inPrint Collective)

Interestingly, the discussion segued into observations about how many forms of reading can provide distraction, solace and more during trying times. Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney was just one example … but the best tribute was to – wait for it – Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, delivered in a captivating, rhapsodizing near-rap. Riding that wave of singular energy, we departed the zoom room to enjoy our respective allotments of silent reading bliss.

Thank you to Gary Barwin and Tali Voron to inviting me to host and take part in a special silent book club gathering that tells me yes, communities of those devoted to beautiful words beautifully assembled will always find a way to celebrate.