Editor’s Notes

Hi all,

We’re knee deep in July rain and Bywords is inundating you with a flood of poetry this month. So come on in, get your feet wet and splash around with us a bit.

On July 18 at 2:00 pm, be sure to come to Bywords Summer Wonder: An Afternoon of Poetry and Music for the launch of the Bywords Quarterly Journal’s summer issue. We have a roster packed full of poetry with 9 poets reading and the talented Mélissa Laveaux performing on her acoustic guitar and singing.

This month saw the return of the Bard Reading Series at the Royal Oak II. Robert Craig and Seymour Mayne hosted the evening with panache and even organized baked potatoes for the crowd of hungry poets. BARD stands for Bums, Artists, Reprobates and Desperadoes. We were all out in full force on this tropical Sandy Hill evening. With enough pressure from the Ontario Potato Poets or OPP, perhaps we can cajole the organizers into holding this smashing event on a more regular basis again.

To cool us down, Tree held its newly annual Mid-Summer Night’s Tree in Strathcona Park between the willows. Unlike the regular Tree readings, this event focuses completely on its open set. Readers read their own work and “cover” poems. The multi-talented Stephen Brockwell closed the evening as the sun was setting with two of his own witty songs accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar. Mosquitoes, poets and Tree hosts walked off into the sunset, refreshed and ready for the next Tree.

You’ll notice that Bywords now has an e-store. Click on the store button to the left. We will sell not only BQJs, but also well-written poetry by Ottawa writers. Our first offering, Wild Clover Honey and The Beehive, by Peter Norman and Stephen Brockwell, is selling fast. We also offer you the opportunity to pay for your subscription to the BQJ and to make a donation if you would like to help us pay for printing and mailing costs. We don’t have enough money to print very many calendars, so if you could help us out, you’ll see more calendars around town.

Thank you to the City of Ottawa for awarding Bywords a small grant to help cover our costs for the rest of this fiscal year. We couldn’t run Bywords without the City’s contribution.

A final thank you to this month’s selection committee: Joe Goski, Stéphanie Lafleur, Sarah Ruffolo, Betty Warrington-Kearsley and Christine Zadorozny.

Amanda Earl