Editor’s Notes

Greetings All.

The Bywords Summer Heat reading in July went swimmingly. Chapters gave us a great venue; the poets read moving poetry, and Beautiful Nubia seduced the audience with spirited and inspiring music! See the local scene section this month for Bywords editor Krisha Wignarajah’s description. Stay tuned for the next reading at the end of October-Bywords Autumn Mystique.

A summer in Ottawa is not a slumberfest after all.

I encourage you to experience this vitality yourselves. Attend two upcoming poetry events. On August 20, Tree is hosting an outdoor reading, A Midsummer Night’s Tree, at Strathcona Park, 8 pm. Bring your own poems or poetry from others you admire and read by the light of the moon (or perhaps an itty bitty booklight?).

On August 28, above ground press is celebrating its tenth anniversary with music and poetry at the 3 Kings Pub on Holland Avenue starting at 8 pm. With lots of amazing readers, a congenial host and heavenly music, this event should not be missed.

Please consult the calendar of events for more information about these and other scintillating activities to inspire us all.

Finally, I’d like to remind you to submit unpublished poems for our first theme-Bywords Autumn Mystique. These poems may deal with the world of spirits, magical and serendipitous experiences, any strange phenomena that science cannot fully explain or anything your muse conjures up when you think of the mystical world. This theme was chosen to inspire you, and to fit with the month of October—a time for remembering lost loved ones, luxuriating in a pile of fallen leaves, biting into crisp apples, and celebrating both the modern and ancient traditions of Halloween.

The deadline is September 15. If we have a few, we’ll put them up on our website for the October issue, and we will also feature them at our Small Press Book Fair table in October. Mystical poems under 45 lines long are welcome. Send poems to submissions@bywords.ca, and mention that they are for Bywords Autumn Mystique.

Thank you to this month’s selection committee: Stéphanie Lafleur and Megan McGrath.

If you would like to volunteer, have comments or advice or money!, please e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca.

Thanks for bearing with us due to the power outage delays.

Amanda Earl