Editor's Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

This month’s poems feature happiness at seventy, river goddesses, best intentions, and a Chinese tea called “duck shit.” I love the variety of work we publish in Bywords.ca and I hope you do too. Enjoy the issue.

June 22, 2024 is the date of the spring edition of the ottawa small press book fair. Bywords.ca will be there once more. We’ve barely missed a fair since our founding in 2003. We are having a $5 sale. You can pick up copies of chapbooks from the John Newlove Award Chapbook series and whole sets of the Bywords Quarterly Journal, which was our print journal from 2003 to 2013 for this ridiculously low price. You can also talk to me about poetry submissions and how to get your poems published by us.

The fair is a great opportunity to meet small press publishers from Ottawa and elsewhere. If you’ve never been to a small press fair before, you are in for a treat. You will be bombarded with tables full of independent books, chapbooks, letterpress broadsides, homemade paper, graphic comics, art cards and more. Sometimes there are even baked goods. I recommend doing a tour of the entire fair before opening your wallet. The good news is that small press items are usually low cost, so you don’t have to spend a fortune to get copies of limited-edition handstitched rarities. And you never know who you might meet: Michael E. Casteels of Puddles of Sky Press of Kingston is usually there with a plethora of beautiful handmade little books; I am also there for AngelHousePress with copies of my book, Beast Body Epic and numerous chapbooks. jwcurry of Room3o2 books will likely be there with rare treasures from the Canadian avant-garde; Pearl Pirie of phafours press often has numerous chapbooks and haiku work available. It’s a great representation of small press publications.

The fair has been in existence for thirty years, with fairs twice a year in the spring and autumn. Thanks to rob mclennan for continuing to make space for the little noticed unsung heroes of the small press. The fair takes place between noon and five pm, and the venue is the Tom Brown Arena near Bayview Station. Come stop by and say hi.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Dan Boland
Chris Johnson
Sarah Kabamba
Andrew Lafleche
Margo Lapierre
Stephanie Mason
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Jagjeet Sharma
Marjorie Silverman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

If you have comments, suggestions, questions, or conversation over iced Americanos to offer, please get in touch with met at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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