Editor’s Notes

Greetings dear readers,

I hope you enjoy the two poems published in this month's issue by one of our regulars, Christian McPherson and by a recent transplant to the Ottawa area, Jane Kerrison. After reading their poems, please visit their sites to learn more about them and their work. While you're at it, please go visit the blogs and links pages on our site to get information about local authors, publishers, associations, reading series, bookstores, literary journals, community radio stations hosting literary activity, and more.

Bywords.ca is a community organization with a mission to provide residents of the National Capital Region with information about the area's literary activity and to promote and publish poets with an Ottawa connection. We receive a great deal of help in that mission, from the City of Ottawa and from members of the community.

One of our stalwart supporters was David Dollin who sold our John Newlove Poetry Series chapbooks at the Ottawa International Writers Festival each autumn. I was sorry to learn that David passed away recently. On behalf of Bywords.ca, I send condolences to his family and all who knew him. David was always helpful and made sure that our chapbooks, so easily lost amongst the spines at the Festival book tables, had prominent position. He was always looking for ways to ensure that we sold more copies. I appreciated his support very much. I will miss him.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Robert Martin Evans
Jason Lamantia
Anne LeDressay
Pamela Mosher
Kemisha Newman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

Thanks to all of you who send us event information, poetry and news each month. Bywords.ca wouldn't be able to serve the needs of Ottawa's readers and writers without you.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, readings, poetry or other ways to support the literary community to offer, please contact me at amanda@bywords.ca.

For regular event updates, please follow us on Twitter or join our FaceBook fan page.

Amanda Earl