Editor’s Notes

Happy Spring Everyone!

To celebrate please enjoy the exotic worlds we present in our three poems this month. Contemplate the roses with John; Travel to an exotic land with Michael, and revisit the ice storm with Margaret.

On April 18, Chapters Downtown hosted Bywords Springadelic: An Afternoon of Groovy Poetry and Music, marking the one-year anniversary of our readings at the store. This reading was also the launch of our spring issue of the Bywords Quarterly Journal. To read more and to see pictures for our delightful event, please go to Catherine Carroll’s delightful article. Don’t forget to come out for our summer reading in July..more details to come.

The Ottawa literary scene is blooming with events this spring. Charles and I enjoyed hearing Heather Spears at Tree and Collected Works, Margaret Atwood at the National Library, and the amazing musical and poetic stylings of Detroit’s bereted bard ML Liebler at Sasquatch. Fresh from the exciting Canada Europa festival brought to you by the wonderfully supportive and inspiring Wilsons as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, literary enthusiasts can still tickle their fancies with other events which will occur this spring. Always attend the regular reading series throughout any given month. In May go to launches by writers’ groups and hard working poets. In June take a fiction writing workshop offered by the City, and don’t forget to get yourself out to the Spring Small Press Book Fair to take place at the Jack Purcell Community Centre on Saturday, June 12 rain or shine. Meet local and out-of-town publishers and writers, and most importantly, come out to buy a few of the excellent small press publications especially the Bywords Quarterly Journal!

We have now been in your hands and on your computer screens for well over a year. Thank you so much for your support. If you have any suggestions about ways we can serve Ottawa’s literary community better, please let me know by e-mailing editor@bywords.ca. I am very interested in what you have to say about Bywords and how we can flourish. See you at upcoming events!

Thanks to the selection committee this month: Joe Goski, Megan McGrath, Sarah Ruffolo, and Betty-Warrington-Kearsley

Amanda Earl