Editor’s Notes

Welcome to the February 2004 Issue of Bywords.ca

It’s not surprising that our three poems this month all have a winter theme. Canada’s harsh winters may bedevil us, but they also inspire. This month’s poets invite you to waltz, shiver and warm yourself by the fire.

Speaking of warmth, thank you to all of you who attended and participated in our January reading at Chapters, Bywords Warms The Night. Please click on Local Scene to read Catharine Carroll’s wonderful account of the afternoon.

Sue Garvey, director of Cornerstone asked me to pass on the following message:

Dear Amanda and Bywords Friends,
I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful opportunity to join you at Bywords yesterday, and for your generosity in thinking about making the day an occasion for homeless women. Your kindness in bringing along gifts and other necessities for women was greatly appreciated. Please extend my gratitude to your other colleagues who took part!
We sent Sue off with two large bags thanks to your donations.

A big thank you to everyone who participated: the audience, the readers, our flutist, Rozalind MacPhail, my co-organizer Charles, co-host Seymour Mayne, Jennifer Herman and Chapters management and staff, the New RO for putting us on the evening news (!) and finally Stephanie and Sarah for selling BQJs at our table and guarding the candy hearts.

Organization for the April reading is now underway! If you have any suggestions for a title/theme, please let me know.

We have received excellent response to our plans for a feature on John Newlove to be published in our April issue. Please send poems for or about John. We will still have our regular monthly poems, so don’t forget to send along poems which fit the guidelines. Click on Submissions to the left. The deadline for our April issue is March 15. Poems go to submissions@bywords.ca.

I would like to welcome a new member of the selection committee this month, Sarah Ruffolo, an English student at the University of Ottawa.

Thanks to our selection committee: Stéphanie Lafleur, Megan McGrath and Sarah Ruffolo.

For all groups facing City of Ottawa funding cuts, our fingers are crossed. I urge everyone to send a letter to City councilors. Regardless of the results, let’s all work together to ensure the long term flourishing of Ottawa’s rich Arts, Culture and Heritage programs.

If you have comments or questions, please feel free to e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Currently reading Blue by George Elliot Clarke, Moving in Alone by John Newlove, Love Where The Nights Are Long-An Anthology of Canadian Love Poetry edited by Irving Layton, 5 Muses by Michelle Tracy
 
A small sample from my wish list: A Creation Song by Max Middle, House Built of Rain by Russell Thornton, The Adultery Poems by Nancy Holmes, White Stone: The Alice Poems by Stephanie Bolster