Editor’s Notes

Greetings, Readers.

Welcome to the August issue of Bywords.ca. The poems we are featuring this month speak of grief, the destruction and brutalization of a culture and its people, loneliness and resilience. I hope you enjoy the poems.

It is at this time of the year that our preparation the 2016 John Newlove Award Ceremony and Reading begins in earnest. We are in the final stages of publication of Ronald Seatter's chapbook, "Dream Punk." Ronald won last year's award for his poem "the, in therapy." I'm looking forward to the ceremony and announcement of this year's winner and honourable mentions as judged by Kimmy Beach. I will be in touch with them shortly to let them know, but they are sworn to secrecy until the ceremony. For more information on the award, please click on Newlove.

The events calendar is filling up with readings, and soon we will hear about the program of the fall edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. I hope to see you at a reading soon, either as a featured poet, an open mic participant or a member of the audience.

If you are an current or former Ottawa student, worker or resident, please remember to send us poems by the 15th of the month for publication in the next month's issue. Click on Guidelines for more information. Each poem published between September, 2016 and August, 2017 is eligible for consideration for the 2017 John Newlove Poetry Award. Our 2017 judge will be Montreal poet, Gillian Sze.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Wes Babcock
Amanda Besserer
Robert Martin Evans
Jason Lamantia
Anne LeDressay
Fiona Mitchell
Kemisha Newman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

If you have comments, questions, suggestions or a decadent treat to offer, please contact me at amanda@bywords.ca

Amanda Earl

For regular event updates, please follow us on Twitter or join our FaceBook fan page.