Editor’s Notes

Greetings Readers,

I hope you enjoy the October issue which features work by Ottawa poets, S.J. Atkinson and Jennifer Pederson.

October's literary events calendar is crammed full of readings, book signings, launches, spoken word showcases, storytelling, workshops and festivals. I hope you'll have time to sample the variety of events offered this month.

One of these events is the Eleventh Annual John Newlove Poetry Award, which takes place during the Ottawa International Writers Festival on October 27. Once more I will be hosting the reading. Rob Thomas, last year's John Newlove Award recipient, will be reading from his chapbook, "brood" (Bywords, 2014); we'll hear music from local singer-songwriter, the Companionship Registry (James Missen) and poetry from this year's honourable mentions and winner along with poems by John Newlove as we celebrate his fine work. This year the event will take place at the Fox and Feather Pub on Elgin Street, upstairs at 6:30pm. The event is free. I'd love to see you there.

Shortly after the Ottawa International Writers Festival will be the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair at the Jack Purcell Centre on November 8. Please stop by the Bywords' table for copies of chapbooks from the John Newlove Award Chapbook Series. We make only 126 copies of each chapbook so this is a good opportunity to stock up before they are out of print. Several chapbooks are already sold out.

If you have lived, worked or studied in Ottawa, you are welcome to send us poetry. Please take a look at the guidelines on the site.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Beth Ann Hubbert
Jason Lamantia
Fiona Mitchell
Pamela Mosher
Kemisha Newman
Carol A. Stephen

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or a hot cup of apple cider to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

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

Amanda Earl