Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

In this month's issue, long-time Ottawa resident Peter Haley gives us the joy of spring, while former Ottawan, Dawna Proudman finds joy in the company of poets. Frequent contributor Blaine Marchand narrates the body and the language of machines, while new contributor Kim Fahner gives us the alphabet of the body. I hope you enjoy the issue.

The 18th Annual John Newlove Poetry Award Ceremony and Reading was a lovely and well-attended event. Congratulations to this year's recipient, Richard-Yves Sitoski, and honourable mentions Kathleen Klassen and Cara Goodwin. Thanks to Megan Misztal, last year's recipient for sharing poems from "Vestiges," her chapbook. You can obtain a copy of it from the Bywords.ca store. And a big thank you to musician, John Ian for his beautiful performance. You can purchase his music on his Bandcamp page.

If you weren't able to attend the reading, you can now watch it on the Ottawa Public Library's YouTube page with close captioning provided as well. Thanks to our judge for 2021, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, to the Ottawa Internatational Writers Festival and the Ottawa Public Library. Thanks to the City of Ottawa for funding received this year and previous years.

To have your poems considered for this year's award, you must be a current or former Ottawa student, resident or worker. Poems published on Bywords.ca between September, 2021 and August, 2022 are eligible for consideration. The judge for the 2022 John Newlove Poetry Award will be Toronto poet, Jacqueline Valencia. To find out more about the award, please click on Newlove on the left-hand side of Bywords.ca.

VERSeFest's annual poetry festival is now underway with both live-streamed and in-person events at Knox Presbyterian Church. 80 poets from around the world will be reading. Visit VerseOttawa.ca for details.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Dan Boland
Chris Johnson
Sarah Kabamba
Stephanie Mason
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Marjorie Silverman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or a way to adjust to the time change, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl

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