Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

Welcome to the March issue, which contains five poems and rob mclennan's review of Franzlations [the imaginary Kafka parables], Gary Barwin, Craig Conley and Hugh Thomas 2011, New Star Books, Vancouver BC.

At the time the issue goes on line, we'll be in the middle of VERSeFest, Ottawa's annual poetry festival. I hope you've had the chance to enjoy the variety of poetry at the festival. Stay tuned next month for the Ottawa International Writers Festival which puts on a fine literary program twice a year. Ottawa is blooming with literary events of all kinds all year round for you to enjoy as both writer and reader.

Remember, if you know of any literary events that are not in our calendar, make sure to drop me a line and we'll add them. It can be spoken word, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, writing circles, book clubs, festivals, launches, discussion panels and more. Bywords' mission is to make sure that no one misses an event because they don't know about it. We need you to help us accomplish this mission. Not only do we post these events on our calendar, but we also send them out daily via our FaceBook page and Tweet them from our Twitter account.

Our social media policy is the same as our general promotional policy for Bywords. We'll promote and diffuse information about literary, spoken word and nonfiction activities taking place in the National Capital Region. We post events on our calendar, while items which have require more details, such as contests, workshops, publishing news, and calls for submission are posted in the bywords.ca news. It is my responsibility as managing editor to take care of getting the information to you so that you are well-informed about the local literary scene, and I take this responsibility very seriously.

Thanks to our selection committee:

Janie Beriault
Gwen Guth
Beth Ann Hubbert
Pamela Mosher
Kemisha Newman
Claudia Coutu Radmore
Sarah-Grace Ross
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

Next month may be National Poetry Month, but in our Nation's Capital, we celebrate poetry daily with readings, books and a strong literary community of readers and writers.

If you have questions, comments or a fresh bouquet of tulips to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca. If you see me at a reading, drop by and introduce yourself, I'd love to chat with you.

For regular event updates, please follow us on Twitter or join our FaceBook fan page.

Amanda Earl