Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

Our two featured poems evoke wine, drugs, Sylvia Plath and the Chinese poets in this month's issue. Hope you enjoy.

Are you a social media person? If so, I hope that you know that Bywords has a Twitter account: @bywordsdotca. Every day on both the Twitter account and our Facebook Fan Page, we send out links and information about literary and spoken word events happening that day. It's a great reminder of what's going on in our beautiful city. And for longer term planning, you can head to the calendar on the site and the news.

We've started a new campaign on Twitter to encourage Ottawa and former Ottawa poets to submit poetry. It includes the hashtag #wewantyrbywords. I would appreciate it if you would follow us on Twitter and retweet our calls. The more people who know about Bywords and our quest to reflect the diverse range of poetry written by current and former Ottawans, the better. Ottawa has a reputation as a dull city. Bywords.ca, with its overflowing calendar and monthly poetry, debunks this myth.

Are you an emerging writer who would like help with your writing? There are several series in town that have free or reasonably priced workshops, such as the Tree Reading Series, In/Words' Writers Circle and now the Sawdust Poetry Series. Check out the Bywords.ca calendar for more information.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

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

If you have comments, questions, suggestions or a candle-lit evening of conversation to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

See you at an upcoming reading!

Amanda Earl

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