Prince Edward County to the southwest from the point

Category: Archive

  • ARTSCENE featured JC’s winning cento on 99.3FM Voice of the County

    JC thanks ARTSCENE host Sarah Moran for inviting her to participate in the discussion on June 2 of  winning entries in the 2023 Wind & Water Writing Contest, the 5th such competition sponsored by County Arts in Prince Edward County.

     JC, writing as A. Garnett Weiss, won first prize for her cento, “For our many moods, there is nothing like a lantern.”  Taking part in the conversation about the contest and sharing thoughts about why and how they write were contest Judges Leigh Nash and Andrew Faulkner and prose winner Dawn Miller.

     Copies of Weiss’s collection, BRICOLAGE, A GATHERING OF CENTOS, a finalist for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Award (Canadian Authors Association), are available from Books & Company in Picton and at the Prince Edward County Municipal Library.

  • Wind and Water 2023 Contest awards first place to JC writing as A. Garnett Weiss

    JC thanked the judges and convenors of the Prince Edward County Arts Council’s Annual Wind and Water Writing Contest for selecting her cento as the winning poetry entry.

    The cento “For our many moods, there is nothing like a lantern” uses lines drawn unaltered apart for reasons of punctuation from individual poems by 9 different poets in The Next Wave, An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry, Jim Johnstone, Editor, Palimpsest Press, 2018.

    Here’s what the judges had to say about the poem: “This cento captured this year’s theme in both form and content, offering a moving depiction of the poetic ties that connect one person to another.”

    The year contest this year attracted the highest number of entries since the competition was established by the Arts Council in 2019. JC’s cento won the inaugural contest that year.

    JC saluted each of the writers and poets who shared their fine work this way. Here’s a link to reading the winning entries and honourable mentions: https://countyarts.ca/wind-water-writing-contest/

  • Al Purdy Day, April 21– JC celebrates with A. Garnett Weiss cento based on Purdy lines

    The League of Canadian Poets declared April 21 as AL PURDY DAY to recognize his legacy.

    Published under her pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss, JC’s collection of centos, BRICOLAGE:A GATHERING OF CENTOS, features “Where love was slowly becoming possible,” based on Al’s poems. For the Art of Conversation joint project of the County Arts Council and the Community Care Association for Seniors JC created a second Purdy-linked cento after a number of conversations she had with a wise and independent 99 year-old woman who was born in Prince Edward County.

    “I am a screen through which the world passes” draws non-contiguous lines and its title, unaltered apart from changes in punctuation, from Purdy’s long poem,  In Search of Owen Roblin. 

    To honour AL PURDY DAY, here is the cento:

    I  am a screen through which the world passes

                                                                                                

    To belong somewhere torn

    from the great pine forests,

    so far from anywhere.

    Leaning back against the tree trunks, sitting

    on a stone where water foams out,

    I realized that here was the exact spot

    above the watery rumble.

    A long misty chain stretched thru time, and I

    began to read books about the 19thcentury.

    But names and dates say little.

    But the only thing certain is the settlers, themselves.

    And I can hear them,

    in the past shouting questions and hearing echoes, movings

    and reachings and fragments.

    For the book is not closed,

    as we, too, have our shadowy children deep

    down beyond the morning light and under

    the high green ceiling of the forest.

  • Poetry Super Highway’s 25th Annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Poetry Issue includes “Forced journey” by JC Sulzenko writing as A. Garnett Weiss

    Editor Rick Lupert has assembled a collection of memorable poems from writers around the world to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

     This is not an easy collection to read, but it is a courageous one. These poems and poets make unavoidable and important the act of remembering the scale of inhumanity of a nation driven to cruelty and crimes against a people because of their religious beliefs.

    In a world where disinformation and misinformation have become rife, this stark reminder becomes more important each year in combatting revisionist history and ignorance.

    JC thanks Poetry Super Highway for including the five-line poem, “Forced Journey,” in the 2023 issue. This found poem draws words or phrases unaltered from one day’s death notices published in the Toronto Globe and Mail. JC writes found poetry and centos under the name, A. Garnett Weiss. Here’s a link to the piece:

     https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/25th-annual-yom-hashoah-holocaust-remembrance-day-poetry-issue/

  • JC’s Poetry Prompt for National Poetry Month selected by Poetry Super Highway (PSH)

    Here’s the full text of the prompt that PSH Editor Rick Lupert posted on April 12:

     “If I had…” or roads not taken.

    Write a poem imagining/focussing on how your life or your subject’s life could have been changed or become different if one decision had been made that was different from what actually happened. What risks did you take or avoid? What benefits came your way or did you miss out on? Examples: What if you had married the first person you loved or who loved you? What if the hitchhiking ride you and a buddy took turned bad rather than being the lark it was? What if you hadn’t accepted that job in another city but decided to stay put? What if you had not blown up at a social event and been shunned after that by people who you had counted as your friends?

    If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.

    #napowrimo #poetry

    https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/april-12-2023-poetry-writing-prompt-from-jc-sulzenko/

  • Ontario Poetry Society and Aeolus House Poetry Afternoon April 15, 2PM-4PM

    JC reads from her collection, Bricolage, A Gathering of Centos, at the Spring into Poetry in-person book launch, Saturday, April 15 at the Toronto Public Library’s Main Street Branch, 137 Main Street.

    IB Iskov, President and Founder of the Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS), and Aeolus House Publisher Allan Briesmaster co-host this TOPS event at which members will read from their new titles.

    JC, who serves as a member-at-large on TOPS’ executive committee, will read a cento from her collection. Which one will she choose?

    Here’s a link to the TOPS website with full details: https://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Events.html

     

  • JC’s “Find a poem” Workshop for NCR Canadian Authors Association

    JC was delighted with the turn-out for the April 11 ZOOM workshop on how to find a poem as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month!

    Whether erasure, black-out, or cut-up poetry intrigues (or all 3!), this hour-long interactive session engaged local and faraway participants in exploring the possibilities for creating an original work from texts written by others. Centos were off the table for the discussions which focussed on erasure or black-out poems.

    One writer commented she would use the learnings from the session with her students, who often freeze at the blank page when they try to write a poem. Another noted she hadn’t known much about found poetry and would add it to her repertoire.

    JC thanked Arlene Smith, Chair of the National Capital Region CAA, for hosting the event and for the invitation to meet with these poets and authors, keen to discover new ways to the heart of a good poem. And she welcomed the lively conversation about the possibilities writing found poetry create.

    Copies of JC’s collection of centos, Bricolage, are available from bricolage.weiss@gmail.com. 

  • BRICOLAGE in the Poetry Super Highway 2023 Great Poetry Exchange

    JC Sulzenko participated in the Poetry Super Highway’s Great Poetry Exchange by sending a copy of her collection of centos to another poet whose address the US-based publisher provided. She wrote BRICOLAGE as A. Garnett Weiss, her pseudonym.

    Here’s the link to the list of poets whose work featured in this 2023 initiative:
    https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/great_poetry_exchange/

    “This exchange is the brainchild of the Poetry Super Highway, which offered a most welcome lift in the dead of winter. Some 101 poets joined in the program and were paired randomly. I am most curious about my ‘twin’s’ poetry and look forward to the surprizes in store for me,” JC commented.

    “Thanks to publisher Rick Lupert for the idea and for showcasing the work of participating poets on the Poetry Super Highway site.”

    The Poetry Super Highway explains its mission this way: “To expose as many people to as many other people’s poetry as possible.” The publisher encourages users to read poems, submit their poetry for publication, enter its annual poetry contest, and peruse its directory of writing and poetry websites.

  • Ottawa Poet Laureate selects “Mission Extended” for the I AM A HUMAN BEING Anthology

    JC Sulzenko’s five-line found poem, “Mission Extended,” appears in a new anthology edited and published by Ottawa’s English Poet Laureate.

    “I thank Albert Dumont for choosing this found poem for the anthology, launched in Ottawa on December 18, 2022. I am honoured that my work has gained a place in this fine collection.”

    JC writes found poetry and centos using the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss. “Mission extended” uses words drawn unaltered from death notices and obituary articles published in the Toronto Globe and Mail on April 26, 2017.

    Here is how Albert Dumont describes the book:

    “I AM A HUMAN BEING is an anthology of poetic perspectives on the topics of love, death, support, honour and other emotions contained in the human heart. They are offered by established poets, by folks who dabble at poetic wordsmithing and by deep-thinking high school students from Ottawa schools. And may I proudly add, include 24 from the Kitigan Zibi School.”
    To purchase a copy of I AM A HUMAN BEING, go to his website : http://albertdumont.com/books/i-am-a-human-being/

    As he explains: “All proceeds generated from sales of this book will go towards promoting poetry as medicine, bringing healing to those finding themselves in emotional distress.”

  • The November 2022 THE LIGHT EKPHRASTIC pairs JC Sulzenko’s poems with images by Georgia artist and writer Debbie Walker-Lass

    “Perchance to dream,” JC’s poem in response to “Amy and the Queen” by Atlanta artist Debbie Walker-Lass, appears in the November 2022 issue of the online literary journal, THE LIGHT EKPHRASTIC.

    Walker-Lass’s image “Cherish Togetherness Forever,” responds to JC’s found poem, “Recovery efforts,” written under her pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss. The five-line poem draws words unaltered from one day’s obituary articles and death notices in the Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL.

    Here is the link to their collaboration: https://thelightekphrastic.com/walker-lass-sulzenko-november-2022/

    “I am grateful to Editor Jenny O’Grady’s for her choice of the artist with whose work I could interact and for this opportunity to be published in November’s THE LIGHT EKPHRASTIC.

    “I revel in writing ekphrastic poems, which gives me both freedom to take an image to heart and respond to it without any restrictions on how, but also demands I respect my partner artist’s original creation.

    “Debbie and I chose not to discuss how we were approaching each other’s work while we were doing so. It is always a wonder to me when I first see the artist’s visual interpretation of my words. There is both suspense and mystery in the process.

    “I thank Debbie Walker-Lass for this collaboration–a unique experience which resonates deeply.”

    JC’s love for ekphrastic poetry isn’t new. She wrote for and curated poetry for the exhibition and chapbook Ekphrasis at Blizzmax Gallery, participated in the County CollAboRaTive exhibition and collector’s book, and co-authored a chapbook of collaborative ekphrastic poems, SLANT OF LIGHT, with Carol A. Stephen, with whom she has a full manuscript, BREATH OF SKY AND WATER, seeking a publisher.

    Most recently, her cento “Repeatedly, now in a dream,” was a finalist in The Poets Corner’s Ekphrastic Pairings: poetry, paintings and photography event. Here’s a link to that November 13 program from Maine: https://www.thepoetscorner.org/events/ekphrastic-pairings . JC’s reading as A. Garnett Weiss appears at around the 35-minute mark.