Editor’s Notes

Dear Readers,

Our final poems of the year come to you from Jim Davies, Joseph Kuchar, Sean Moreland and Mark Sokolwoski, all four of these men have ties to Ottawa's universities either as students or professors.

I'm always interested to know how far reaching Bywords is, how many people read the poetry we publish both on the site and in the Bywords Quarterly Journal. We receive submissions from all over the world and from all walks of life and particularly from people who are working in the arts: from visual artists and playwrights to filmmakers, dancers and sculptors, and of course, full time writers. One type of artistic media inspires and works with another.

These kinds of ties are prevalent at Bywords. Not only do we publish poetry, but also photography. Not only do we have poetry at our readings, but also music. This year we have been fortunate to have had exceptional musicians perform at our readings: Lindsay Ferguson, Kristin Bell-Murray, John Carroll and John Gillies performed for us this year. If you're looking for musical gifts, I urge you to go to Lindsay and John Carroll's myspace pages to find out how to purchase their new CDs.

Of course, if you're looking for local writing, I urge you to visit the Bywords online store where you can pick up a gift subscription to the Bywords Quarterly Journal and one for yourself, poetry books and chapbooks by writers such as Ronnie R. Brown, Jesse Ferguson, Megan Butcher and more, Bywords publications such as the latest John Newlove Poetry Award Chapbook, MetaFizz by Roland Prevost and even CDs from spoken word artists like Oni the Haitian Sensation and Steve Sauvé.

As we're ending our fifth year serving Ottawa's literary community, I want to thank all of you for your support, encouragement and participation. We'll be back in January with our fifth annual Bywords Warms the Night on January 20, featuring readers from the winter issue of the Bywords Quarterly Journal and the music of the splendid Glenn Nuotio. The reading will be in support of the Ottawa Food Bank with a food drive in conjunction with Eggspectations Restaurant at l'Esplanade Laurier. More details to follow.

Thanks to this month's voters:

Stéphanie Lafleur, Marcus McCann, Pearl Pirie, Megan Rennie, and Victoria Vernell.

If you have comments, questions or mistletoe for me, please e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca or buy me a rum and eggnog or a few glasses of champagne at upcoming readings.

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to Bywords contributors, volunteers, sponsors, readers, vendors, fellow publishers and friends. Most especially thanks to the poets who've submitted work, and to those we've published this year listed below:

Lynne Alsford, Cameron Anstee, Matt Beanish, Maxianne Berger, Oonah Berry, Stephen Brockwell, Kelly Clarke, Laura Clarke, Martin Cooney, Jim Davies, Barry Dempster, David Emery, Robert Martin Evans, Andrew Faulkner, Jesse Ferguson, Kate Marshall Flaherty, Lindsay Foran, cb forrest, Jeff Fry, Peter Gibbon, Bruce Hamilton, Kathryn Hunt, Joseph Kuchar, Ben Ladouceur, Warren Layberry, M.A. Lithgow, Anne Le Dressay, Catherine MacDonald-Zytveld, Christian Macpherson, Rod Mallet, K.L. McKay, rob mclennan, Sean Moreland, Gregory Myers, Guy Simser, Mark Sokolowski, Dani Spinosa, Dean Steadman, Carol A Stephen, Lesley Strutt, Genevieve Thauvette, Andrea Wrobel.

Here's to peace, joy and poetry in 2008.

Amanda Earl