Editor’s Notes

Dear Readers,

This month's issue features the poetry of Stephanie Farrington and Mark Sokolowski. There's a bluesy feel to the summer as the heat begins, a mellowness in the air. It's time for contemplation, afternoons spent at the beach and reading. I hope wherever you go this summer, at home in the a/c or by a lake or on a grand tour of Europe, you'll gather up our great Canadian literary journals and take a quiet moment to read them. Locally you can feast your mind on the Bywords Quarterly Journal, The Moose and Pussy and In/Words Magazine. They don't take up much physical space but open up to a world of images, words, ideas, textures and sensations.

And if you're still in town, you can enjoy the many upcoming readings, including the Bywords Summer Reading to take place at Swizzles as part of the Dusty Owl Reading Series on July 19. Hope to see you all there.

I'm very pleased to see Bywords editors and published authors engaged fully in the literary community either as reading series organizers, small press publishers, readers at local literary events, poets, poetry promoters and creators of books and chapbooks. A recent example of this was the collaboration of Jamie Bradley, Caleb JW Brasset, Christine McNair and Sean Moreland on the stunning and compelling poetry collection Dalhousie Blues (Ex Hubris, 2009). We'll soon have copies available in the Bywords.ca store.

You can find this and other books and chapbooks at the upcoming Ottawa Small Press Fair run by the Small Press Action Network - Ottawa and taking place on June 20 at the Jack Purcell Community Centre. You'll find broadsheets, zines, journals, books and comix at this great fair, which has been going on since the 90s. Don't forget to attend the pre-fair reading at the Carleton Tavern featuring writers from Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal and the post fair Pookapalooza Road Show and 15th Anniversary Reading on the 21st featuring local writers and head pooka, Warren Dean Fulton at the Umi Café. It's going to be a great weekend for literary celebrations in the Capital. Come enjoy.

Take a look at the Bywords.ca calendar of events for all of the literary activities taking place this summer and also go to Ottawafocus.com every week for the literary highlights in further detail.

Thanks to this month's selection committee

Gwen Guth, Stéphanie Lafleur, Megan McGrath, Claudia Coutu Radmore, Carol A. Stephen, JC Sulzenko, Victoria Vernell and Lindsey Woodward.

And thanks to you, the readers, contributors and supporters who make the whole experience of putting together Bywords.ca and the Bywords Quarterly Journal worthwhile.

If you have comments, questions or mint juleps to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl