Editorial

Welcome to the 2nd issue of Bywords.ca. Enjoy! Thank you to the contributors and poets who submitted work for the February issues. Remember to keep submitting new poems all the time. We need a very constant stream of poetry to choose from since we’re including new poems every month.

In this issue, you will notice a new feature called Local Scene. We invite you to submit descriptions about readings and other literary events you’ve attended in the past month or so. Let’s show the world that Ottawa is an active and exciting literary hub. It is my hope that this feature will also encourage others to attend readings in Ottawa. Our first contributor is from the Bywords team: Steve Artelle. He discusses a recent reading to commemorate Archibald Lampman, former Ottawa resident and world-renowned poet who died this month in 1899. Those of us who attended got to meet the ghost of Archibald Lampman, and eat delicious lemon poppy seed cake in his former home. If you attend an event, let everyone know about it. Submit your article to editor@bywords.ca

This month I also wanted to thank you for boosting Bywords so extensively.

To rob mclennan and Patrick Meikle for their continued announcing of Bywords through e-mail lists. To Grant Wilkins for advice about printing BQJ. To Michelle April of Heritage Canada, and Mona Kiame of the Canada Council for the Arts for their funding advice. To Anne-Marie Brugger of CHUO’s UltraSound, Rob Clipperton and Carma Livingstone of CBC Ottawa and Toronto respectively, Fateema Sayani of Xpress, and Juliette O’Neill of the Ottawa Citizen for their help in promoting Bywords. To James Moran of Tree for his encouragement and advice. To Jennifer Herman of Chapters for offering to host and promote Bywords readings at Chapters. To After Stonewall, Perfect Books, Prospero Books on Bank, Prime Crime, Collected Works, Compaq Records, the Ottawa Folklore Centre, the Ottawa Public Library, National Library of Canada, the Royal Oak on Laurier, Bridgehead Café on Bank, the 2nd Cup in the Glebe and Venus Envy for allowing us to post our very large calendars on your bulletin boards.

In addition thank you to the selection committee: Steve Artelle, Erin Gouthro, Stéphanie Lafleur, and Christal Steck, our hardworking web developer, Charles Earl, and to our advisory consultant, Seymour Mayne. Wouldn’t be fun without all of you!

Finally thank you to Ottawa writers and readers, who are so friendly, and who provide constructive advice in our journey. Stay tuned for more invigorating poetry and exciting news to come! Please send any feedback to editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl