Editor’s Notes

Greetings Summer Readers,

The August issue contains an empire of poetry, a review, an article and photos of last month's reading. The poems accepted this time around are the final candidates for the 2005/2006 John Newlove Poetry Award. There are 52 poems in the running this year. Erin Moure will select the winners and honourable mentions, joining previous judges Gary Hyland and Stuart Ross in a new Bywords tradition that we'll continue through the years. We'll announce the winner and honourable mentions at the John Newlove Poetry Award Celebration at the Ottawa International Writers Festival on Thursday, October 5, 2006.

Aside from the poetry, you'll also find Catharine Carroll's article on the Bywords Summer Reading, which took place at Chapters in July and photos of some of the participants.

Selection committee member Betty Warington-Kearsley's review of Terry Ann Carter's new book of poetry "Transplanted" is another fine addition to this issue this time around.

As the summer draws to a close, you'll notice plenty of events on the literary calendar, including Synaesthesia at Arts Court, an innovative melding of poetry, theatre, visual art and music. Above / ground press holds its thirteen anniversary at the Mercury Lounge. What better place to celebrate the angry teen years? Venus Envy will host a reading of GLBT literature the following week, and the Tree Reading Series will feature Andrew Steinmetz.

Hope you enjoying this month's lightning, high winds, fire works and poetry.

Thanks to this month’s selection committee:

Jesse Ferguson, Kemisha Newman, Sarah Ruffolo, and Victoria Vernell.

If you have comments, gold coins, large cheques or champagne to offer, please drop me an e-mail at editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl