One Year Anniversary!
Welcome to the first anniversary issue of National Capital Letters. With this issue we introduce our new look, as we continue to bring together news of Ottawa’s past and present literary scene, including features on Random Acts of Poetry, literary resources at the Bytown Museum, and articles celebrating the works of John Newlove, Joan Finnigan, Sara Jane Jordan, and more. With this issue we also usher in 2005, a year that marks the 150 th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Ottawa.
In the nineteenth century, as Ottawa evolved from a rugged lumber town into capital city, local literary endeavours were regarded as a sign of civic and national refinement, a sign of Canadian cultural progress. National Capital Letters will continue to encourage that progress in 2005, as we promote the vision of cultural achievement expressed in 1893 by the Ottawa poet Archibald Lampman: “Ottawa is so placed that it can never be anything but beautiful, and as the years go on, bringing with them the spread of a finer architecture and a richer culture of the surrounding country, its beauty will be vastly greater than it is even now. It will become an ideal city for the artist.”
The editors hope you enjoy our latest issue, and we wish you the best for 2005.