Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

All the poets published in this month’s issue have never been published by Bywords.ca before. That’s a rare occurrence and worthy of note. We celebrate both those who submit often and those who are submitting for the first time.

Speaking of celebrations, October 20 is our annual party, the John Newlove Poetry Award. You can attend in person, watch the livestream or watch the recorded video later. The event takes place at the Ottawa International Writers Festival and it is free. Simply show up, wear a mask and enjoy the music of Subhraj Singh, the launch of Richard-Yves Sitoski’s chapbook, How to Be Human, which will be available at the event and is already at the store, and the announcement and readings of this year’s recipient and honourable mentions. More information is available on the Writers Festival site.

At the event, in addition to commemorating the poetry of John Newlove, and celebrating the award recipients, we also make a fuss over all who contribute to the award and to Bywords.ca: the Festival, which is in its twenty-fifth year this year, our judges for each year, the City of Ottawa, our advisory board, the editors of the chapbook, Elephant Print, the local printing company that prints the chapbook, our musicians and our selection committee. I am very grateful for the support and participation of all these individuals and organizations, along with those who share the events and activities we post on the events calendar and in the news on social media. I am also grateful to local publishers, writers and event organizers for making Ottawa a thriving literary city. If you can, please come out and join us on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 7pm to celebrate.

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

If you have comments, questions, suggestions or comfortable Hallowe’en costumes to offer, please contact me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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