Editor’s Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

In this month's issue Andrew W. French offers a review of Curtis LeBlanc's Little Wild (Nightwood Editions, 2018) and poems by Rachel Small, Maureen Korp and Elizabeth Emond-Stevenson. While LeBlanc deals with issues of toxic masculinity in Little Wild, Emond-Stevenson's "Rabbit from Ravensbruck" concerns a woman who had been imprisoned in a German women's only concentration camp during World War II, while Small's "garbage moon and feminist day" rebels against the male gaze, and Korp's "Brooklyn Road, Syracuse" offers wisdom from nature. Thanks to all the contributors for their words and thanks to all who submitted poems and review pitches.

It is the sweet season. Ottawa is blooming and we have reached a one million people population milestone. The new slogan is "Canada in One City," which is better than the last one, which was "Technically Beautiful." The slogan is supposed to refer to the combination of urban and rural areas that make up the City and, its diversity.

I have spoken to numerous editors at magazines across Canada to learn how they ensure the publications they are part of are inclusive and welcoming of women, 2SLGBTQQIA, D/deaf, disabled and BIPOC writers, and anyone else excluded because of systematic oppression from the lingering effects of Colonialism and white privilege. I have drafted a new statement for Bywords.ca based on these conversations and my own research. Notice I use the word, "drafted." It is in the "About Bywords" section and in our guidelines.

Please feel free to contact me with your thoughts and any improvement ideas. I believe this mission and the statement are works in progress. Our mission in everything we do, from the calendar of events and news to the poetry we publish and the award we administer, is to promote and publish the work of current and former Ottawa residents, students and workers and to represent the diversity of the City. If we're not doing so, it's not up to you to do the work, but it is up to us and I will be constantly working to ensure that we do so. I am always open to suggestions.

Speaking of guidelines, please read our review guidelines, which you can find as part of the general guidelines on the site and in the News section, under Calls. We had to revamp these guidelines to make sure that readers can trust the reviews we publish. I don't believe that reviews should be written by relatives or close pals. Reviewers should choose works to review independent of author involvement. Reviews should be objective and critical engagements. In future, we will strive to publish reviews that are free from cronyism and collusion, and concise at 400 words or fewer. Thanks to selection committee member, Rob Thomas, for updating our review guidelines. I hope to receive a lot of pitches for reviews over the summer. We currently have reviews until September.

We've also added an essay category for those who want to write a more in-depth critical engagement of the work.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Robert Martin Evans
Margo Lapierre
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko
Rob Thomas

And finally, thanks to all of you for reading, submitting poetry and reviews, events for the calendar and items for the news.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or a bouquet of peonies to offer, please contact me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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