Category: Archive

JC is back in book review mode at long last.
Go to Bookends on this website to read her take on the novel, “Suzanne”, a 2019 CBC Canada Read’s selection, to which she gives an unusual 8/10 score.

The Prince Edward County Arts Council’s inaugural Wind and Water writing contest gave JC the opportunity to submit her cento, “Sacred place where each thing speaks itself” for consideration. JC writes centos and found poetry using her pseudonym, A. Garnett Weiss.

She read the poem, which won the competition, during the Picton Art Crawl on Thursday, June 27 at the Art in the County exhibition.

JC thanked the jury for selecting her poem. “The cento is a poetic form which gives me great pleasure to write. It’s like a puzzle when I choose and use lines from the fine work of other poets from many eras to create a completely new work which both respects the original material yet takes its own path.”

JC’s centos have been successful in many contests and appear in a number of anthologies. Her lyric and narrative poems appear in “South Shore Suite, Poems.”

Information on the Suite is available from the publisher, www.pointpetrepublishing.ca.

JC is delighted that the poems she submitted to the 2019 Writers-Editor’s Network WrEN Award for Poetry took first place in the poetry for children category.

JC had put forward 5 poems from her suite, “Pelican Circus,” also the lead poem. The other titles were: “The Pelican and the pirate”, “In the Everglades”, “Signs and Wonders “, and “The Rescue.”

Here is a the link to the announcement: https://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/Winners/winners.htm .

The reason for the award? “Strong observation, skilful use of description and environmental awareness mark these poems.”

In addition to the comments posted there, Judge Mary Harwell Sayler wrote JC a letter in which she noted the following: “I appreciate your introducing a sense of story… Poems often excel when they help readers to ‘be there’, which your poetry certainly does.”

She added, “This type of writing will surely help young people to care about nature, and, hopefully, become actively involved in positive ways throughout their lives.”

JC thanks Judge Harwell Sayler and the Writers-Editors Network for honouring her work with this prize .

“Now all I need is a publisher to come forward so that children and families can enjoy the whole suite of poems which follows a child from the North country on his first visit to the south in winter.”

Just after the June 16 Sunday noon news, JC recommends a book that influenced her as part of a panel on Lynn Pickering’s The County Writes…The County Reads, 99.3 FM Prince Edward County.

Sworn to secrecy until the big reveal, JC welcomed the opportunity to hype her selection as a book from which every Canadian would draw benefits at many levels.

Selecting one title proved challenging. She almost chose Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” a book she revels in rereading. She also found it difficult to resist Anne Lamott’s “Bird By Bird,” which she considers one of the best primers on how to let oneself develop a writing process that is satisfying.
Tune into the show. Here’s a link: https://www.facebook.com/993CountyFM

On Thursday, June 27 JC joins in Arts Crawl festivities with a reading at the Armoury in Picton, Ontario at 6:30 PM.

The Prince Edward County Arts Council held its inaugural Wind and Water Writing Contest, which JC won. JC will read the winning cento, written using her pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss, and a selection from her debut collection, “South Shore Suite…POEMS,” from Point Petre Publishing (www.pointpetrepublishing.ca)

Here’s a link to the FB posting from the Council about the event and the Crawl around town.
https://www.experiencepicton.com/picton-art-crawl?fbclid=IwAR3Kh_BYE7_7jR01jx3OxTP1I6_N6jbYqxfS39qlSOX50naYTd5eA-vUaGs

JC is very pleased that her cento “Sacred place where each thing speaks itself” won first place in the inaugural Wind and Water Writing Contest convened by the Prince Edward County Arts Council. She writes found poetry and centos using the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss.

This is how the Arts Council website describes the Jury’s rationale for selecting “Sacred place where each thing speaks itself”:

“The winner was chosen from dozens of entries in a wide variety of genres, yet Sulzenko’s piece stood out for eloquent use of imagery, a clear and confident voice, and unique line breaks that made for a stunning and powerful read. Sulzenko’s creativity perfectly captured our theme of Exploring, creating an image that speaks to anyone familiar with the County and nature itself. JC Sulzenko has published poetry widely, in national and local award and has published in many other literary magazines.”

JC thanks jury members playwright Marianne Ackerman, publisher Leigh Nash of Invisible Publishing, and writer Sarah Selecky for choosing her work and local author Kelly Thompson for short-listing the poem.

Here is the link to the Council’s site, where the cento is posted:
https://countyarts.ca/wind-water-writing-contest/

County readers and nature enthusiasts celebrated the release in print of the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory’s 46-page, full colour poetry chapbook “For the Birds,” first published on its website in January, 2019.

The collection of 20 winning poems written by 17 poets from the County and away and complemented by fine images taken by local photographers Ian Dickinson and Hélène Tremblay came together as a result of the Observatory’s first poetry contest. Poems by County writer and publisher Brian L. Flack and by Walter H. Watt of Richmond Hill shared first place in the contest.

As part of PEPtBO’s May 11- 20 Spring Birding Festival programming (www.peptbo.ca), this special event included the awards ceremony and readings by poets whose work appears in “For the Birds.” Prince Edward County Public Library CEO Barbara Sweet welcomed the poets and friends to the launch and spoke of the value of the relationship the Library enjoys with PEPtBO. PEPtBO Vice-President and Municipal Counsellor John Hirsch awarded prizes to the winning poets.

Copies of “For the Birds” @ $12 each are available at the Observatory during the festival, from PEPtBO’s online store and at Books and Co. and the Local Store in the County. Net proceeds from the sale of each chapbook benefit PEPtBO’s migration monitoring and reporting work at the County’s South Shore.

JC congratulated the finalists at the May 14 Awards ceremony in Ottawa. Here’s the link to the Canadian Authors Association (Ottawa Branch) announcement of winning writers and poems.
http://canadianauthors.org/nationalcapitalregion/contests/ncwc/

JC felt honoured to judge the poetry entries in this year’s writing contest. “I recognize how idiosyncratic the process is: one judge’s selections are particular to that judge.

“Judging the work blind is a blessing, so that the identity of the top entrants remained unknown to me until the announcement. I was delighted with the results! The winning poems by Sylvia Adams and by Susan Atkinson were both memorable and incomparable, which is why I recommended, and the CAA accepted, that these poets share first place in the competition.”

Texts of the winning poetry and short stories will be published in “Byline”, the Branch’s newsletter.

With sadness, JC read today of the death of master poet Patrick Lane.

JC, writing as A. Garnett Weiss, created a cento for her manuscript which uses lines from individual poems in Lane’s collection of 40 poems, “Winter.”

She offers the poem here to pay homage to Lane’s legacy and in his memory.

In that certain darkness decided

He is the dream man, given to her by the snow;
a sharp, lean hero, immaculate and alone
where the weak have no place.

She knows their flesh is a repetition.
It is the story about grief and music
scored with myriad tiny cuts
so perfect no one will ever know
to listen to their singing, the voices,
the shouts, the lamentation after
their wild impossible crying for more.

Everything is ready to begin
that impossible dream of beauty
because it resembles the unfolding we call love.

Cento gloss: In that certain darkness decided
Title: Patrick Lane, “Winter 4”*
Line 1: Patrick Lane, “Winter 40”
Line 2: Patrick Lane, “Winter 43”
Line 3: Patrick Lane, “Winter 32”
Line 4: Patrick Lane, “Winter 36”
Line 5: Patrick Lane, “Winter 35”
Line 6: Patrick Lane, “Winter 8”
Line 7: Patrick Lane, “Winter 21”
Line 8: Patrick Lane, “Winter 10”
Line 9: Patrick Lane, “Winter 42”
Line 10: Patrick Lane, “Winter 11”
Line 11: Patrick Lane, “Winter 6”
Line 12: Patrick Lane, “Winter 22”
Line 13: Patrick Lane, “Winter 29”

JC is thrilled to participate in READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY in Beaufort.

Here’s a link to what is spearheaded by the United Way of the Lowcountry from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM on the anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Read Across America

The free program of readings, games and food is aimed at children from Pre-K to Grade 3 and takes place at 801 Carteret St., the Center for the Arts at the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

JC learned about this celebration through local author Elizabeth Belenchia and welcomes the kind invitation of the United Way to share her poems and stories with Lowcountry children and their families.

Wait ‘til you see what JC wears to help her explain what makes a poem a poem and as she reads from “Boot Crazy” and “Fat poems Tall poems Long poems Small.”

She may even try out some new poems to get feedback from the kids.

When JC read of the death of poet Mary Olive, she paused to remember very fine words by Oliver that will stay with her always.

“As A.Garnett Weiss, I wrote the following cento a few years ago, which I offer in recognition of Oliver’s craft and soul as a poet. May her memory as was her life be a blessing,” JC stated.

HOW DOES ANY OF US LIVE IN THIS WORLD

In every language, there is a word for it—
the dark heart of the story that is all.

Like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of a song
about the great wheel of growth,
the world offers itself to your imagination,

aches to be peaceful finally and at any cost—
a dream that would never breathe air.

How the mind clings to the world it knows, rushing
by the notion of oblivion:

all those gleaming and reasonless lives
in the crease and spasm of the thing about to be done
in those dark halls of honey,

with the reason for the wind forever a secret.

Cento gloss: How does any of us live in this world
Title: Mary Oliver, “Consequences”
Line 1: Mary Oliver, “The River”
Line 2: Mary Oliver, “The Chance to Love Everything”
Line 3: Mary Oliver, “Dogfish”
Line 4: Mary Oliver, “Stanley Kunitz”
Line 5: Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”
Line 6: Mary Oliver, “Members of the Tribe”
Line 7: Mary Oliver, “The Swimmer”
Line 8: Mary Oliver, “Robert Schumann”
Line 9: Mary Oliver, “Bowing to the Empress”
Line 10: Mary Oliver, “Whispers”
Line 11: Mary Oliver, “The Shark”
Line 12: Mary Oliver, “The Moths”
Line 13: Mary Oliver, “Orion”