This installment of Poets Touching Trees is up and its me and thinking about the forest. If you want to do one too, there’s the contact info there on their sidebar.
Do you miss Desk Space too? Looking to share your thoughts on your writing space? “where do write, my lovely?” is looking for submissions to write about your writing space, See what Amish Trivedi’s project here.
In other news, Sawdust Readings now have their veteran feature, Kevin Matthews

Words to Live By is celebrating its two-year anniversary this month! The series has become a place for many firsts, including the starting spot for first-time performers and featured poets.
This month, Words to Live By will be showcasing the creator and co-host of the show, Jenna Tenn-Yuk, along with several guest performances. This will be Jenna’s last show as co-host of Words to Live By, which will be continued under Brad Morden and Artemysia Fragiskatos.
We’ve had a blast seeing many first-time performers and featured poets step up to the mic, so come and celebrate our two-year anniversary with us!
Doors and open mic sign-up is at 7:00pm and the show starts at 7:30pm. $7 at the door or free for performers. Pressed Café, 750 Gladstone, Ottawa.
In the open mic section you can get a copy of Shery Alexander Heinis’ new creation, her first chapbook: A Greater Whole. Watch for this around town over the next few weeks.

The almost 4 dozen from hundreds of CBC Poetry’s longlist for Canada Writes includes “Sandbagging the River Before the Flood” by Stephen Brockwell (Ottawa, ON), “Blue at the Heart of Being” by Lorna Crozier (N. Saanic, BC), “The Archeologist and the Roofer” by Barry Dempster (Holland Landing, ON), “A Tuition of Time” by Susan Elmslie (Montreal, ON), “Settler Education” by Laurie D. Graham (London, ON), “Bindled Back: Three Travel Poems” by Jacob McArthur Mooney (Toronto, ON), “Blow ye Winds” by Ruth Pierson (Toronto, ON), As we Bend” and “Three Poems” by Emily Nilsen (Nelson, BC).
Sept 8th they announce the shortlist.

Woo! My instalment of At the Desk at OpenBookOntario is now up.
Robert Kroestch competition for innovative poetry 2015 is now open for submissions if you only have a book or two under your belt.

The RailRoad Reading Series is going to host its first open-mic at 7:30 PM on 25 September 2014 at Pressed Café, 750 Gladstone. There will also be 2 features, rob mclennan and Ricardo Sternberg
Readers at the open-mic will have 3 minutes to read, which will allow people to read multiple poems or one long one. The more the merrier! Pass this along to friends. We’d like to see a veritable host of Ottawa Open-Micers!
Is that too far away or need a dry run? Sawdust Reading Series is Sept 17th at Pour Boy and has the open mic and a contest for having a feature set before then. You heard the interview at Literary Landscape on that, right?
Still too long to wait? Sept 9th Starting at 6:45, Peter Richardson is leading a round table workshop and there is an address at the workshops page if you want to send your poems ahead of time to Peter. April Bulmer and Helen Guri are the 8pm features at Tree at the Black Squirrel. There’s an open mic attached.
If you’re chomping at the bit for an open mic, bet there’s one at the In/Words reading/launch this Friday, Aug 22 at Pressed Café, 750 Gladstone, 7:30 pm.

In/Words Magazine and Press is releasing our Summer Issue, along with our latest round of chapbook publications. The event will open with a performance by an amazing local band, Hungry Animals, and later on, the super-talented Suzy Pankhurst will perform! Following this we’ll hear readings from authors published in our latest magazine issue. Esteemed Ottawa poet Steve Artelle, hilarious writer and comic Dave Currie, and In/Words’ very own Chris Johnson will both be reading from their latest chapbook publications. The show will kick off at 7:30 on August 22nd at Pressed Café. As with all of our release parties, this is a free event. So bring a friend, or bring a partner, or bring your mom.
Feel free to read the following bios of several of the artists who will be featured throughout the evening. More information to follow on the poets who will be reading at this event.
Hungry Animals combine experimental elements with lyrics that carry passion and vulnerability, creating an enriched but accessible sound. Walking the line of angst and joy, the 5-piece outfit are devoted to making music with a palpable arc. Don’t be scared, they don’t bite… except when they’re hungry… which they are… always.
Steven Artelle’s first book of poetry, Metropantheon, was published by Signature Editions in 2014. His other work includes four hundred rabbits, a chapbook published in 2013 by AngelHousePress.
Dave Currie is a writer who writes in Ottawa. Ottawa is the city in which writer Dave Currie writes. As a writer in Ottawa, Dave Currie writes. Dave Currie has written in other places, though, now he writes in Ottawa.
Chris Johnson is finishing a Master’s degree in English Literature at Carleton University, concentrating in Canadian poetry. He is also a co-editor for Carleton University’s student-run literary magazine, In/Words Magazine and Press. Recently placing second in the George Johnston Poetry Prize for his poem “Begin in Water”, his poetry has also previously appeared in The Steel Chisel and Bywords