This past weekend MA|DE finally had the opportunity to launch ZZOO in Windsor at the always supportive Biblioasis Bookshop as part of their Canadian Independent Bookstore Day celebrations. A big cheer for everyone who came out to support us; it was a packed house. We truly felt the hometown love! 🙂

This past weekend we went on the second leg of our ZZOO tour: first stop London, ON at Jenny Berkel's lovely new Little Wren Books space (cleverly collocated with a flower shop)!

Always a pleasure to chat with Andrew French for their poetry podcast Page Fright! In MA|DE's first appearance on the podcast, we talked with Andrew about ZZOO, the challenges of collaboration, what Mark and Jade have learned from each other, balancing a thousand different projects at once...

We weren't sure what to expect from a launch in Guelph, ON; Jade had never launched there and Mark hadn't launched there for several years. But Guelph well exceeded our non-expectations. ANAF was packed, and the mix of local and visiting readers, including...

Our premiere launch for ZZOO, which happened in our old home city of Toronto a couple weeks ago, ended up being a wonderful way to bring our book out into the wild for the first time. It was lovely to catch up with so many friends, to be hosted by the charming Queen Books...

The first launches for ZZOO are happening this week, starting with Toronto's Queen Books on Friday February 28 at 6pm, with @palimpsestpress.bsky.social winter authors @teagerbeza.bsky.social & Kasia Jaronczyk, and Jim Johnstone as host. Can't wait to be back in Toronto & hope to see you there!

After 6+ years collaborating together MA|DE is FINALLY GOING ON TOUR to promote our debut full-length poetry collection, ZZOO! 🐍🫏🦆We hope you'll be able to join us at one of these launches.

🙀 ‘ZZOO’ WEEKENDER — week 3 of photographically highlighting our variant covers and their pet names … this one is the SERPENTINE version (each nickname is noted on the back cover next to the bar code) — 👁 the eye on this cover is a human one (yes, we are animals too) 🪱

Time for another EXCERPT FROM ‘ZZOO’: a notable poem from the second section (of four) of the book (this one is ‘Land’) is “As the Next Day Dawned.” It deifies/mythologizes goats who learn to walk upright. Often, in real life these are simply animals born without forelegs.

HEY WINDSOR: Signed copies of ZZOO — in all 5 cover variants! — now available at @biblioasis_bookshop … we stopped in to double-sign a stack of copies yesterday … get ‘em while they last P.S. official launch scheduled at the bookstore for MAR 13 — special guest readers announcement coming soon 🙂

“The Extended Mourning of Orca-J35” originally appeared in the 7th, and unfortunately final, issue of Savant-Garde in 2022. The poem is still available to read in full on their site, if you want to get a sense of what you can expect from ZZOO: www.savantgarde.ca/the-extended...

(In the time since we wrote it, Tahlequah went on to have another calf, her third who survived, but her fourth calf, born in 2024, sadly also passed away and was again carried alongside her mother in a seeming ritual of grief.)

EXCERPT FROM ZZOO—One of our favourite poems from the first of four sections of the book (this one is ‘Water’) is “The Extended Mourning of Orca-J35.” You may remember Orca J35, aka Tahlequah, from the news in 2018, when she was observed carrying her dead second-born calf alongside her for 17 days.

On this day in 1958, the Lego brick patent was filed! To celebrate, I’m sharing a piece I created in 2008 for LEGO 50-15, a collaborative/ constraint-based writing & art portfolio celebrating the 50th Anniversary of plastic lego blocks (project organized by @derekbeaulieu.bsky.social for No Press)

First trip to Detroit of 2025 — came home with several books, including: JG BALLARD’s final short story collection in hardcover 🔥 ‘The Bridge’ a collaboratively-written horror novel ⚡️ ‘Dark Dreamers’ a book of interviews with authors 🧟‍♂️ + a few new additions to my ‘Paperbacks from Hell’ collection 📚

CALL FOR REVIEWERS Do you or your publication want a review copy of ZZOO, MA|DE's debut full-length collaborative poetry collection, out in February with @palimpsestpress.bsky.social? Message us!

PICK YOUR FAVOURITE FROM 5 VARIANT COVERS!

DID YOU KNOW you can get special signed copies of ZZOO directly from us at MA|DE HQ? Not only can you: 1) order from our publisher @palimpsestpress.bsky.social; 2) preorder from your local independent bookseller; 3) order from the big bads; YOU CAN ALSO JUST MESSAGE US!

Thanks to Rachel Poliquin for the wonderful ZZOO blurb ❤️🐊✨

Thanks @garybarwin.bsky.social thanks @tomprime.bsky.social co-blurbing the new book! Much appreciated

New year, new book! MA|DE's debut collaborative poetry collection, ZZOO, is available for preorder now from @palimpsestpress.bsky.social: palimpsestpress.ca/books/zzoo-m...

Unboxing our debut book of poetry does NOT go as we expected...

WHAT IS ZZOO? You keep hearing us talk about our (MA|DE's) debut full-length poetry collection ZZOO from Palimpsest Press. But what exactly is this book even about?

MA|DE's debut FULL-LENGTH collaborative poetry collection, ZZOO, is here! Published by @palimpsestpress.bsky.social & edited by Jim Johnstone, ZZOO stands at 124 pages & is the full & final vision of the project first glimpsed in our bpNichol Award-shortlisted chapbook A Trip to the ZZOO.

A lovely old Jimmie Rodgers record on play today while dog-sitting …

Happy to have been included in THE ANSTRUTHER READER edited by Jim Johnstone — published by @palimpsestpress.bsky.social — the reproductions of my vispo remixes of @derekbeaulieu.bsky.social (excerpted from my Anstruther chapbook ‘asemanticasymmetry’) turned out great

Visual Poets, here's a starter pack. If you aren't on it yet, please let me know and I'll add you. go.bsky.app/Tt7Ljwf

I’m in a group show celebrating ARTCITE INC’s 40th anniversary as an artist-run centre here in Windsor — the last event ever at their current location (they’ll open a new space in the spring along the Ford City strip of Droulliard)

A network of experimental lit. Ding me if I missed you. go.bsky.app/79qx91V

Anybody watching Peacock’s HYSTERIA!, a Michigan-situated late 80s ‘Satanic-Panic’ horror comedy series — featuring Bruce Campbell as the sheriff … I’m in! Here’s an article from @detroitfreepress.bsky.social about show creator Matthew Scott Kane and his Ypsi roots … www.freep.com/story/entert...

About to read the latest graphic novel HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY by collaborators Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips @seanphillips.bsky.social — but first taking a moment to admire the lovely foil titling on this hardcover edition (published by @imagecomics.bsky.social)

Spending the day at the first WEIRD WINDSOR literary event at the Green Bean Cafe; here are a few pics …

If you live in Southern Ontario (more specifically, the Windsor/Essex area), then you need to head into Windsor today for this event! A whole whack of great authors and artists will be there! Weird Windsor runs from 11 - 4 at the Green Bean Cafe. #weirdwindsor #Windsor #cmforest ##WritingCommunity

Today! Windsor's weird fiction comes out of the woodwork - can't wait to read from Misplaced! facebook.com/events/s/wei... #Windsor #WeirdFiction #BookSky

FRESH (I didn’t really ever look at Twitter — which was nice, one less thing to do — but this feels like a wormhole, so maybe I’ll give this a go … )