Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

In this month's Beat the Heat issue, Marianne Jones takes us to Thunder Bay with Michael Minor's collection, Learning to Love a River (Signature Editions, 2018); Jean Van Loon takes us to the hospital, and Susan J. Atkinson takes us home. Ren Iwamoto offers us fruit scissors; Grant Wilkins reads hidden literary arts; Allie Duff takes us back to 1935 and Zaakirah Chubb reminds us of winter. I hope the August issue gives you some relief and distraction from the heat.

Please send me your pitches for reviews of recent Canadian poetry chapbooks and trade collections. We pay $75 per published review between 500 and 1000 words. You don't have to have lived, worked or studied in Ottawa to send a review, you just have to be a current Canadian resident.

If you are a current or former Ottawa resident, student or worker, don't forget to send us poems. We pay $40 per published poem. Please read the guidelines on the site.

Don't let the heat stop you from attending three important poetry events in the city this month: The Sawdust Poetry Series hosts its second spoken word event of the summer after killing it with Barâa Arar, Nina Jane Drystek and Nathanaël Larochete. In/Words Magazine returns from its summer hiatus with the launch of a chapbook and an album by Conyer Clayton and her musical partner, Nathanaël Larochete. above/ground press will celebrate its silver anniversary with seven readers from Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, St. Catharines and Perth. Hope to see you at one or all of these readings.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Wes Babcock
Robert Martin Evans
Margo Lapierre
Tanya Mead
Fiona Mitchell
Kemisha Newman
Catina Noble
Jade Riordan
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko
Ben Toner
Rob Thomas

We are grateful to the City of Ottawa for funding Bywords.ca once again this year.

If you have comments, suggestions, questions or hassle-free Internet access to offer, please contact me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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