Editor’s Notes

Happy December Readers,

Hope your stockings are hung by the chimney with care and all that.

Our three poems this month are from Nick Lea, Heather Cardin and Greg Myers. There's a whimsical quality to all three pieces that goes somehow with this fog and unseasonable warmth. Why don't you pull up a chair (the comfy one in the corner), settle down and wax philosophical with this month's poems. Perhaps you'll be inspired to muse and write one of your own in response.

I have two exciting pieces of news:

1. Marcus McCann is joining the Bywords selection committee in 2007.
2. The January reading, Bywords Warms The Night, will include the music of Lindsay Ferguson, who is one of Ottawa's best singer/songwriters.

We were saddened to hear of the fire at Swizzles, the location of readings for our literary soul sister, the Dusty Owl. Hopefully the pub will be back in business in January. In the meantime don't forget to attend the Owl's Chocolate House fundraiser for the Foodbank on December 17, taking place at the Saw Gallery at 7pm and featuring the musical stylings of Dave Lauzon. Should be a hoot!

May your holiday season be peaceful and may you get lots of poetry books by local authors as gifts! Subscriptions to the Bywords Quarterly Journal make nice stocking stuffers and last minute gifts. Click on Quarterly Journal to subscribe.

Thanks to this month’s selection committee:

Kelly Clarke, Megan McGrath, Kemisha Newman, Sarah Ruffolo, Melissa Upfold, Victoria Vernell, and Betty Warrington-Kearsley.

If you have any comments, mistletoe or rum-spiked eggnog to offer, please e-mail me at editor@bywords.ca or stop me on the street, in a bookstore or at a reading.

Amanda Earl