Editor’s Notes

Dear Readers,

The heat is blistering this month and it’s difficult to do much of anything except shutter oneself in a dark room with the fan blowing. The July issue of Bywords.ca provides a welcome distraction from the heat. This month’s poets have been published previously by Bywords. Daniel Boland recently published his first collection of poetry: Toward the Chrysalis by the new press, Stone Flower Press. It is heartening to hear of the successes of previously published Bywords poets.

In addition to the poems, this issue features two reviews by Jesse Ferguson and Heather Ferguson, members of Bywords’ editorial board. Jesse reviews a collection of poems by Montrealer and frequent visitor to Ottawa, Jon Paul Fiorentino, and Heather reviews the latest poetry collection by local writer Marianne Bluger.

Bywords received good news recently. Our funding from the City of Ottawa has come through. We thank the City for its generous grant. In return Bywords will continue to promote Ottawa’s literary community through poetry, the web site, sales and distribution of little magazines produced by local small presses, and readings.

Bywords latest reading will take place on July 17 at 2:00 pm at Chapters downtown. It features six poets from the summer Bywords Quarterly Journal and the summer issues of Bywords.ca and drummer Danielle K.L. Gregoire. We’d love to see you there.

Thanks to this month’s selection committee:

Jesse Ferguson, Joe Goski, Megan McGrath, Kemisha Newman, Sarah Ruffolo, and Genevieve Wesley.

If you have comments or questions, please e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl