Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

September’s issue features poems by Nnadi Samuel, Doris Fiszer and Rob Thomas. Doris and Rob were recipients of the John Newlove Poetry Award. Doris won in 2017 for her poem, Zen Garden, chosen by Gillian Sze. The following year we published Doris’ chapbook Sasanka (Wild Flower). Rob won in 2013 for his poem Message in the bottles, chosen by Alice Burdick, and we published Brood, his chapbook in 2014. Every year we announce the recipient and honourable mentions in the John Newlove Poetry Award at the autumn edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival and launch the chapbook of the previous year’s winner. The time has come to do so again.

In October 2022, all being well, we will have an in-person masked ceremony where we will launch Richard-Yves Sitoski’s How to Be Human and announce the winning poem and honourable mentions for this year’s award. Watch the Bywords.ca events calendar to learn more information.

We have had 18 recipients of The John Newlove Poetry Award since we began it in 2004 to remember and pay homage to the poetry of John Newlove who died in 2003. This year will mark the 19th Award. In addition to the poets, we will also have music by returning singer/songwriter Subhraj Singh.

It is because of the great work of the selection committee, which reads between 30 and 60 poems monthly that we are able to have this award. They choose the poems for the month and then those poems are considered for the award between September and August of the following year. From the greater Canadian poetry community, we invite a poet to judge the award each year.

The Award comes with the opportunity to read at the Festival, an honorarium for reading, a copy of A Long Continual Argument by John Newlove and the opportunity to have a chapbook edited and published by Bywords.ca. It’s a community award in that the prize and honourable mentions always go to someone who is a current or former Ottawa resident, student or worker. It is our mission to promote and publish Ottawa’s emerging and established poets and we believe this mission is important. We promote Ottawa writers, publishers, bookstores and institutions and that is a vital service. Ottawa’s literary community has always been about co-operation and holding one another up. The John Newlove Poetry Award offers an exemplary model of community collaboration and support: poets who send us work; our selection committee, a local musician; the City of Ottawa which provides us with funding; the judge chosen from the Canadian poetry community and our hosts, from the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

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

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

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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