Editor’s Notes

Greetings dear readers,

The poems in this month's issue celebrate the quiet, bemoan the noise, and contemplate the lull. I hope you enjoy the issue.

Thanks to a summer slow-down in submissions, we conducted a vigorous social media campaign to solicit poetry from current and former Ottawa residents, students and workers. You responded wonderfully. Our selectors had over one hundred poems to choose from for this issue and for the next two months. Please keep sending us poems, keep sharing our call with fellow poets, on social media and anywhere you can think of.

On October 21, I hope to see you at the 2016 John Newlove Poetry Award as part of the fall edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The recipient and honourable mentions will read; we will launch Ronald Seatter's chapbook, "dreampunk," and Andrea Simms-Karp will share songs from her new project, Naviger. The evening will be great fun and there will be a surprise voice. It's a free event. Come say hi, buy Ron's chapbook and Andrea's cd, and listen to some great poetry and music.

We're looking forward to the Ottawa International Writers Festival, which takes place from October 20 to October 26 with a few events happening before and after. This festival is a perfect opportunity to enjoy contemporary literature, food, politics, history, culture and ideas. There are few things more satisfying as the nights grow dark and cold, than to curl up with a good book you purchased at the Writers Festival book store, run by Perfect Books.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

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

If you have comments, suggestions, questions or a hot toddy to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl

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