November 15, 2023 Events
also editor's notes from new issue
Ottawa Reads YA
Web: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/blogs/ottawa-reads-ya-back-november
author talks and workshops, free and open to everyone
November 15 - Jonathan Bécotte Événement virtuel 19h s'inscrire: biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/node/626198
November 18 - Pascale Lacelle 2pm Ottawa, Public Library, Greenboro branch, 363 Lorry Greenberg Dr.
Perfect Books
Time and Place: 258A Elgin
Web: perfectbooks.ca/
readings, signings; accessibility note: 1 stair up to store; Additional accessibility via walkway from Somerset Street
November 15 - Kevin Hearne for A Curse of Krakens, in conversation with Amal El-Mohtar 7pm
November 18 - Barbara Fradkin and Mary Jane Maffini 1pm
November 20 - Roger Florschutz with The Peruvian Book of the Dead, 7:00-8:30
November 28 - Daniel Allen Cox and Marcus McCann 7:00-8:30
CKCU FM Literary News
Time and Place: Every Wednesday at 9:30 am.
Web: cod.ckcufm.com/programs/414/info.html
Reports, features and interviews in English, French and German. Hosted by: Hans G. Ruprecht and Helmut Zobl Airs: Every Wednesday from 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM
Asian Sounds
Time and Place: Every Wednesday at 6:00 pm. CKCU FM 93.1
Web: cod.ckcufm.com/programs/91/info.html
music from the Indian sub-continent and showcases events taking place in Ottawa. The show hosts conduct a number of interviews with local artists, musicians, and writers.
Riverbed Reading Series Season 4
Time and Place: 7:15 pm. SAW, 67 Nicholas and virtual
Web: www.riverbedreads.ca/
November 15 - iteration three: Martin Gomes, bassam, Chris Johnson
Storytelling Open Mic
Time and Place: 7:15 pm. Ottawa South Community Centre (aka The Old Firehall), 260 Sunnyside
Web: www.ottawastorytellers.ca/all-ost-events/2023/9/20/storytelling-open-mic-gpcx4
free and open to all
Greetings Dear Readers,
November’s issue features wagons full of wooden blocks, pink-popsicle sunrises, and a teapot resting over a tiny flame. I hope you enjoy the issue.
On October 27, I had the absolute joy of hosting the 20th annual John Newlove Poetry Award at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. Can you believe we started to hold this award twenty years ago? John Newlove died on December 23, 2003. We began the award so that his poetry would be remembered and celebrated, and so that poets could learn from his craft. At every Newlove Award ceremony, we read his poetry. I always read Then, If I Cease Desiring from Moving in Alone (Contact Press, 1965). I am always struck by the closing stanza:
“You may allow me moments,
not monuments, I being
content. It is little,
but it is little enough.”
Congratulations to our 2023 John Newlove Poetry Award recipient, Nnadi Samuel, and our honourable mentions, Cara Goodwin and Eleanor Elizabeth Fogolin. You can learn more about the Award by clicking on Newlove on the left-hand side of Bywords.ca.
The Newlove Award is an annual undertaking and a labour of love that begins in January and ends in October. Next year in October we will launch Nnadi’s chapbook. I look forward to working with him and the Bywords.ca editors on the manuscript in 2024. We also launched Rachel Small’s chapbook, Joan of Media, which you can purchase via the Bywords.ca store. We heard Audrey Saparno’s wonderful music. You can purchase her music on Bandcamp. Please support our artists if you can.
At the ceremony I read aloud the names of all the judges for the Award. It’s fun reading their names aloud. I am grateful to the established poets who agree to take on the role of judge. Every year in August, I send our judges thirty to sixty poems that are under consideration for the award. The 2024 judge will be Toronto poet, Jim Johnstone.
I also read the names of all the previous Newlove Award recipients from Norma Elliott, our first recipient in 2004 to our previous winner in 2022, Rachel Small. Bestowing this award is one of the delights of running Bywords.ca for me.
The Award ceremony is also a chance to thank our hard-working and dedicated selection committee and the editors of the manuscript. Their engagement and support is so necessary, not just to the work of Bywords, but also to me personally. Without that support, I wouldn’t feel in any way able to do this, to publish a poetry magazine every month, and all the work that goes into it.
The same goes for all those who submit poetry for consideration. I am honoured by their willingness to put their poems into our hands, to entrust us with words, vulnerabilities, play with language, risk and attempts at mastery. It can be an impersonal experience to send work to literary journals and it shouldn’t be. I’m always looking for ways to connect with those who do so.
I am so grateful to the Ottawa International Writers Festival for hosting our event every year, as they have done for twenty years. It’s not just providing a venue, it is also promotion of the event through their site. It is giving free passes to all of our readers and performers. It is taking on the job of providing social media for the event. It’s a lot. I have always loved the Festival and supported it. They need our help now. Funding is an issue this year due to the decrease in support from the Ontario government. If you are able to offer them some financial support, please do so.
Finally, I thank the City of Ottawa for providing us with funding for these twenty years. This funding is used to pay our Newlove Award participants and our Bywords.ca contributors.
You can watch this year’s John Newlove Award Ceremony here.
Thanks to our selection committee this month:
Jesse Aubin
Chris Johnson
Sarah Kabamba
Andrew Lafleche
Margo Lapierre
Stephanie Mason
Jade Riordan
Marjorie Silverman
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko
If you have questions, comments, suggestions or an encouraging word to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.
Amanda Earl
Managing Editor
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