I admit I came to enjoy this easy read. The exploration of a marriage on hiatus and how that break affects the couple individually, their extended family, plus their network of friends, is both contemporary and relevant. The Irish setting with regular spells in London pleased me, as did the scope the novelist gave the minor characters. RATING: 6.5/10
For the full review and spoilers, click here.
Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes’ new collection launched on Saturday, May 24 in Toronto at Society Clubhouse.
JC welcomed the invitation from publisher Aeolus House to read at this afternoon celebration of Mary Lou’s fine poetry.
JC choose selections from Life, after life–from epitaph to epilogue, her 2024 collection of found poems using words drawn from obituaries published in the Globe and Mail and from Bricolage, a Gathering of Centos, a finalist for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Award from the Canadian Authors Association.
JC explained that she writes centos and found poetry under her pen name, A. Garnett Weiss. “To give me distance from my other poetry and licence to move toward more abstract forms of expression.”
“I was honoured to read at the launch of Mary Lou’s luminous, memorable collection.,The hall was packed. The audience listened carefully to Dorothy Sandler-Glick, who read first, and then to me. The response from everyone there heartened me, ” JC noted. Here’s the poster for the event.
Wisdom
Summers claim children
curious to wander,
to befriend
a butterfly
on a leaf.
This found poem uses words or phrases drawn unaltered from death notices published in the January 23, 2023, Toronto Globe and Mail. It appears first in the poetry collection, Life, after life—from epitaph to epilogue, by A. Garnett Weiss (Aeolus House, 2024). JC writes found poems and centos using that pseudonym.
JC Sulzenko is delighted that Editor Rick Lupert posted her prompt for Friday, April 11.
Throughout National Poetry Month Poetry Super Highway posts a poetry-writing prompt per day.
https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/april-11-2025-poetry-writing-prompt-from-jc-sulzenko/
Here’s her call:
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
Has she taken her own prompt and written a poem from it? Watch this space to find out.
Click on the “play” icon to hear JC on “The County Writes…The County Reads”, a program hosted by Lynn Pickering on 99.3 CountyFM in Prince Edward County. On Sunday, April 6, the show started with JC reading poems about families by poets she had met.
Lots to celebrate in April, particularly to focus on Canadian poets and poetry.
JC encourages poetry lovers to head to the library or the bookstore and support Canada’s amazing poetry community.
To read about some of the ways in which she is marking National Poetry Month click here.
Blaine Marchand reviews Life, after life—from epitaph to epilogue for The Ontario Poetry Society’s magazine, Verse Afire
An upcoming issue of Verse Afire, the flagship semi-annual magazine from The Ontario Poetry Society, will feature Ottawa poet Blaine Marchand’s definitive review of JC’s third poetry collection, published under her pen name, A. Garnett Weiss.
Life, after life—from epitaph to epilogue offers over 60 found poems which use words and phrases drawn unaltered from obituaries published in the Globe and Mail.
Marchand’s cogent observations about this, her second book of found poems, include these quotes:
“…the poet creates tankas that are exquisitely beautiful, insightful, compelling, and haunting.”
“…these epilogues are tributes that encapsulate the nuances and fleeting moments that shape human life and emotions.”
“Over and over, these poems literally take one’s breath away, which is indeed a fit metaphor for such a book.”
JC thanks Blaine Marchant for sharing his insights into Life, after life, which Aeolus House published in the fall of 2024.
To read the review in full, click here.
Please check out Ontario poet K. V. Skene’s thoughtful and welcome response to JC’s 3rd poetry collection, Life, after life—from epitaph to epilogue.
Welcome to JC Sulzenko’s new website, which retained and updated the most important information from her 2012 site.
JC returns to sharing short reviews of books particularly those which she scores high. Go to Bookends on this site to read about Steinbeck’s 1962 memoir or click on this direct link. JC finds it prescient and gives it a rating of 8/10.