Editor’s Notes

Dear Readers,

Welcome to 2008. Four poems are featured in this month's issue to kick-start a year of creativity and inspiration. All four contributors are current Ottawa residents and present you with an array of creative work. Enjoy.

Hope to see you at our upcoming Bywords Warms the Night V reading at Chapters on January 20 at 2pm. For the fifth year in a row, we are supporting a local charity. This year it's the Ottawa Food Bank.

You can come hear the poetry from the winter issue of the Bywords Quarterly Journal with readings by Jim Davies, Jeff Fry, Joseph Kuchar, M.A. Lithgow and Cathy MacDonald-Zytveld . Listen to the wonderful music of transplanted Newfoundlander Glenn Nuotio and drop off donations of non perishable food items. The reading will be great fun. Hope you can make it out. If you can't, please stop by a grocery store and drop off food at one of the food bank deposits or donate some money directly to the Food Bank . (www.ottawafoodbank.ca).

The Ottawa Food Bank supplies emergency food assistance to approximately 40,000 people per month. They could use your help to warm the nights and stomachs of Ottawa residents.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Andrew Faulkner, Stéphanie Lafleur, Marcus McCann, Kemisha Newman, Pearl Pirie, Megan Rennie, and Victoria Vernell.

Remember Bywords is published every month and needs you to send poetry. Check out the guidelines, which you can access by clicking on the button marked Guidelines (on the left hand side). Please don't forget to include your address and your connection to Ottawa in your e-mail.

If you have comments, questions, concerns or a few minutes to chat, please send an e-mail to me at editor@bywords.ca.

See you at the many excellent literary events in 2008.

Amanda Earl