Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

Welcome to the October issue of Bywords.ca. In this issue we experience Kathleen Klassen's plum-honey twilight, Mahyar Mazloumi's memories of migration, the cotton-crisp memories of Willow-Marie Power, Susanne Fletcher's secret mouse, and Vera Hadzic's protest song. These are poems of both trouble and comfort, feelings which represent the times we are in.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Ellen Chang-Richardson
Robert Martin Evans
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Helen Robertson
Marjorie Silverman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

We are unable to gather in person to celebrate the John Newlove Poetry Award. Instead like all other readings this year, we will be gathering virtually. On October 26, 2020 at 7:30 pm, please join us for the music of Kimberly Sunstrum, the readings of this year's honourable mentions and award recipient, and the launch of What the Haruspex Read in the Small Hours of My Body by David Groulx.

You will be able to watch the event on Facebook Live or attend on Zoom via the Ottawa International Writers Festival and the Ottawa Public Library. Please register ahead of time if you can. If you aren't able to attend live, you will be able to watch the recording afterward. I admit that preparing for this event is a bit more complicated than usual after sixteen years of organizing it with the great help of the Festival, but the technical staff of the Ottawa Public Library has been amazing, and I'm feeling good about it.

The event and the award commemorate the great poetry of John Newlove, a Prairie poet who lived in Ottawa for the last twenty years of his life. Each participant receives a copy of A Long Continual Argument: The Selected Poems of John Newlove, edited by Robert McTavish and published by Chaudière Books in 2009. The book is now available through Invisible Publishing.

The award winner will also have the opportunity to publish a chapbook thru Bywords.ca and will launch it at next year's award ceremony. You can purchase a copy of David's chapbook, along with all the other chapbooks in the John Newlove Poetry Award Chapbook Series in the Bywords.ca store.

The event is also a celebration of all those who are part of the Bywords.ca team: our advisors, our selection committee members, and the editors of the chapbook each year. Without these wonderful volunteers, we could not put out a monthly poetry magazine or hold this event. We are also grateful to the City of Ottawa for funding received in 2020 and in previous years. And finally, we are thankful to all the poets who send us work, and to all of you who read the issue. Thank you for supporting Bywords.ca.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or photographs of flowers to offer, please feel free to e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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