Editor’s Notes

Hello Readers,

This month features the poems of two writers: Jamie Bradley and Dean Steadman. The former is a U of Ottawa PhD student and the latter is a force behind the current Tree Reading Series. For those of you who are considering submitting poems, remember that the July 15 deadline is the last date for which poems published on Bywords.ca will be considered for this years John Newlove Poetry Award to be announced and read at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in October. Our judge is Erin Moure whose collection Little Theatres was recently shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. The winner of the award receives one of John Newlove's books, a chance to read at the National Library and a chance to publish a chapbook through Bywords.

The summer is going fast with lots of excellent featured readers coming to the local reading series like the Dusty Owl, the Tree and Sasquatch. Bywords' summer reading will take place on July 16 and I'm pleased to announce that the very talented singer/songwriter guitarist, Scott Edmonds will be performing for us. I consider Scott to be a musician's musician. I'm still organizing the poetry portion of the show, so if you were published in May, June or July in Bywords.ca or in the Bywords Quarterly Journal, expect an e-mail from me soon.

Thanks to this month's selection committee:

Kelly Clarke, Jesse Ferguson, Kemisha Newman, Sarah Ruffolo, and Victoria Vernell.

And thanks to the unsung heroes of Ottawa's literary community who continue to organize readings, small press fairs, take photos, write about our literary happenings and publish stuff. Ottawa's literary scene is a tiger lily, vivacious and blooming. Come watch it grow. Check the Bywords calendar for upcoming events.

If you have kind words, suggestions or comments of any kind, you likely know where I live, or you can send an e-mail to editor@bywords.ca, buy me a drink at a reading, mail me a letter, skywrite something or use a series of hand waving gestures to get my attention. I'll respond in kind.

Amanda Earl