FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Acorn-Plantos Committee is pleased to announce the short list of those authors under consideration for the 2010 Award for People’s Poetry. They are, in alphabetical order:
GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE, I&I (Goose Lane Editions)
ANDREAS GRIPP, Anathema: Poems selected & New (Harmonia Press)
SUSAN MCMASTER, crossing arcs (Black Moss Press)
CHRIS PANNELL, drive (Wolsak and Wynn)
LINDA ROGERS, Muscle Memory (Ekstasis Editions)
DAVID ZIEROTH, The Fly in Autumn (Harbour Publishing)
We extend our congratulations and best wishes. The winner will be announced on November 15, 2010.
for the committee:
Jeff Seffinga

This book of my poems launches on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Swizzles, 246 Queen Street, downstairs. The music will be by Call Me Katie with guitar, cello and violin, vocals that are sweet.
I’ll be reading with Bernadette Wagner and with a catapult on hand, well, probably under the hand, but should be loads of fun. Hope you all can come.

Geist’s Jack Pine Sonnet long list has 10 finalists: Gratitude (Phoebe Wang), Boulez con ducts Bluebeard, (Eleonore Schonmaier), Gyre (LM Rochefort), Secondhand (Bardia Sinaee), The First Move (Robyn Jeffrey), Holland Marsh (Stefan Rinas), Spring Ice (Ken Haigh), Stream (Fiona Lam), Smithereens (Serena McArter), and A Large Stake (Monica Kidd). Give your feedback there.

“Be alert to the SUDDEN POETRY in everything: Everyday speech, journalism, recipes, ingredient lists, songs, seed catalogues, etc. Imagination requires a questing consciousness.” ~ George Elliott Clarke at CBC’s tidbits of writing tips [viewer discretion is advised: there’s a pop up ad of a Don Cherry bobblehead]
And Can you help me get published? a funny little animation from xtranormal about a student interacting with a writer-in-residence. [via Facebook]

For current and former Ottawa residents, workers and students, you are eligible to submit poems to Bywords. Each 15th of the month is the deadline to submit poetry for the next month’s issue of Bywords.ca.
A selection of those poem chosen for the electronic journal may be also chosen for the quarterly print edition, the Bywords Quarterly Journal (BQJ).
Those accepted for the online issue are also eligible for the John Newlove Award, now in its 8th year. That winner is given editorial guidance and design work for a chapbook of their own produced by Bywords, and launched at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. (The judge for the 2010/2011 John Newlove Poetry Award is angela rawlings.)
Winter Fedyk (pictured right) won the 2010 John Newlove Poetry Award as chosen by 2009/2010 Judge Jason Camlot. Honorable Mentions were: Emily Falvey, Rebecca Geyelyn and Stephen de Paul. There was also the unveiling of the 2009 winner’s resulting chapbook, Glass Jaw, chosen by 2008/2009 judge Stephanie Bolster.
If you want to hear what BQJ prints, check the site and guidelines. Or come and hear in person. The fall issue of the BQJ will be launched on Sunday, November 21 at precisely 5 p.m. at The Dusty Owl Reading Series, Swizzles, 246B Queen St, Ottawa with music by Kevin Grant and poetry by Reid Cooper, Marilyn Irwin, Frances Boyle and rob mclennan.