Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

The poems in this month’s issue evoke winter and grief, healing and oceans, trauma and dreams, peonies and neglect. I hope you enjoy the issue.

I am pleased to announce that the City of Ottawa is funding our 2022 year once more. Gratitude to the City. The funding makes it possible for us to pay our contributors.

We are currently finalizing Richard Yves-Sitoski’s chapbook, How to Be Human, which will be launched as part of this year’s John Newlove Poetry Award at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. I can already tell you that it has a gorgeous cover, created by the artist Catherine Jones. Our judge for this year’s award, Jacqueline Valencia is working on her decision now. I will be able to let the recipient and honourable mentions know later this month and everyone else will find out in October at the Writers Festival event. Giving the news to the Newlove Award recipient and honourable mentions is one of my favourite Bywords.ca duties. One of the reasons why I ask for the telephone numbers of those who submit their work is so that if they win, I can call them and let them know.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Dan Boland
Chris Johnson
Sarah Kabamba
Margo Lapierre
Stephanie Mason
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Sonia Saikaley
Jagjeet Sharma
Marjorie Silverman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

I hope you are enjoying the sun and getting a chance to read a lot of poetry.

If you have questions, suggestions, comments or a Wordle answer to share, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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