Editor’s Notes

Dear Readers,

Welcome to November. This issue is an all girls issue with poems by two Lisas and a Barbara. One Lisa is new to Bywords and the other Lisa and Barbara have both been published by us before, Barbara in our first issue, in fact. We also have two articles by another female, Catharine Carroll who has written about two of our Bywords readings that occurred in October. Margaret Malloch Zielinski sent us a great review of Ronnie R. Brown's newest book, Night Echoes, so you'll find that in this women only issue too. Since I last posted Bywords has attended two small press fairs: one in Ottawa and one in Toronto and will be attending a third in Montreal before the next issue comes out.

As we reach the end of our fourth year, we bid adieu to one member of the Bywords selection committee, Jesse Ferguson, now in New Brunswick to do his PhD. Change is inevitable with any publication but I'm always sad when a member of our team decides to stop being a part of Bywords; however, I always hope they'll return to the fold and the saddlestitch eventually. The same day I heard about Jesse's resignation, I received the excellent and timely news that Melissa Upfold, our Newlove award winner for 2005, is joining the team. I'm excited to have such a talented and dedicated literary enthusiast in our midst. One door closes, another one…well, you know.

I hope you'll take advantage of the grey weather to cheer yourself up and attend a few literary events, such as the Tree's great gala of Newfoundland writers on November 25. Ottawa's literary scene gets more and more succulent, doesn't it? In today's Ottawa Citizen I read about the creation of a new University of Ottawa publication called the Puritan, which will specialize in fiction. In my blog recently I was just whining about the lack of publishing opportunities for fiction writers in Ottawa.

I'm writing this on the day after our city election. I hope the new mayor remembers that the arts are a big part of what lures people to a city and keeps them there.

We had a dumb glitch with e-mail this month, so if you sent us poems for submission but didn't receive an e-mail acknowledgement, please resend them to submissions@bywords.ca. And if you didn't send us any, send us some anyway (Click on the guidelines for info about what we accept. Also if you have question about the process, check out our FAQs where we post people's queries. Or you could e-mail me.

Thanks to this month’s selection committee:

Kelly Clarke, Jesse Ferguson, Kemisha Newman, Victoria Vernell, and Betty Warrington-Kearsley.

If you have comments, sunshine or blue sky to send our way, e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl