Editor’s Notes

Greetings readers,

This month's poets all have a link with the University of Ottawa: one recent graduate, one current student and one former director of the University of Ottawa press. All three poems are stylistically and thematically distinct: one is a meditative musing on a young woman watching, another a reflection on fear in an urban setting and the other a memory of a bombing in 1942. As Bywords demonstrates month after month, current and former Ottawa writers are a diverse bunch. Witness the recent poetry publication of twenty poems on OC Transpo buses. 600 people submitted poems. Ottawa's literary talent continues to blossom. A special congratulations goes to Bywords published poets who we'll be reading on Ottawa's buses: Stephen Brockwell, John Cloutier, Heather Cullen and Susan Robertson.

Also in this month's issue is a description of our most recent reading at Chapters: Bywords Warms The Night 3. We were able to raise money for Cornerstone House and collect bags of donated items to warm the nights of homeless women in Ottawa. Cornerstone House offers emergency shelter for these women. Andrea Simms-Karp, our wonderful musician from the Vanity Press, played guitar and sang beautifully. To check out her band and her music, go to The Vanity Press link in the links pages. The CD Things To Do is amazing.

One of the mandates of Bywords is to facilitate the blending of poetry with music and art. Aside from the photography from local photographers we now feature on the Bywords Quarterly Journal, we've had numerous local performers sing, play the Sitar, the diembe, guitar, the flute and keyboards at our readings at Chapters and at the National Library during the Ottawa International Writers Festival. Many of their CDs are available through the Bywords on line store.

There are many events this month all over town where you can hear both emerging and established poets read their work or even read your own. From the launch of a new zine called The Dyketionary at the Lookout on the 15th, a talk on how to write crime fiction, and a craft and zine fair, February is a full and entertaining month. Please check the Bywords calendar for information on these and other events. And if you know of any literary events in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, send the information to events@bywords.ca.

Thanks to this month’s selection committee:

Jesse Ferguson, Victoria Martin, Megan McGrath, Kemisha Newman, Sarah Ruffolo, and Betty Warrington-Kearsley.

Comments, compliments and critiques can be directed to editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl