Aeolus House launched JC’s new book of poetry, Life, after life—from epitaph to epilogue, on Sunday, November 3, at the Free Times Café in Toronto. The book is published under JC’s pen name, A. Garnett Weiss.

The event celebrated how JC turned words and phrases found in obituaries published in the Globe and Mail into over 60, five-line, memorable poems.

JC explained that reading obituaries was uplifting, not a ‘down’ experience. “I read them all—for the stories, for what they say about life rather than about death.”  She likened the poems to an epilogue or afterword in the way each poem rounds out conclusions she drew from the prose articles and notices.

Keys at the end of the collection provide the given names of each person about whom JC learned. “Listing the names reflects my wish to honour the memory of each person about whom I read while respecting their privacy. The keys also acknowledge obituary articles to which I referred,” JC added.

The evening featured guest poets Donna Langevin and Kate Rogers reading from their own body of work in response to poems in Life, after life.

“I was honoured to appear on the same program with Kate and Donna. They chose their own poems with such care and attention and picked up on themes in the four poems from Life, after life that they read aloud. I am most grateful to them.”

Copies of Life, after life are available through this website, in Toronto at Book City in the Beach, in Ottawa at Perfect Books and at Octopus Books, in Picton at Books & Company.

COMING UP NEXT:

A book launch and reading in Ottawa at Perfect Books on Elgin Street at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, featuring JC and Toronto poet Allan Briesmaster.

The Prince Edward County interactive launch for Life, after life on Saturday, Nov. 30, at 2:30 PM, in the Travel Room of the Picton Branch of the Library on Main Street. With refreshments. And perhaps a chance to read a poem from the collection aloud.

Join JC over the weekend of October 14 and 15 to explore collage and found poetry and the dialogue between the two as part of the offerings from the The Prince Edward County Arts Council at the Armoury in Picton, Ontario.

Each afternoon, participants will delve into their personal experience and how that relates to spaces between, for example:

–seasons, when autumn gives way to winter;

–people or places, when leaving gives way to remembering;

–objects, where one treasure is lost and can or cannot be replaced.

On Day 1, participants will deep-dive and create a visioning board collage which gives expression to their thoughts. On Day 2,  they’ll use magazine, newspaper, and other text sources to write found poems arising from their collage. Sharing and showcasing their work in the group and beyond the workshop will also be discussed.

The workshop will appeal to everyone, regardless of their writing or art-related backgrounds, with an interest in exploring relationships between visual art and self-reflection and in finding the poetry there.  All materials will be provided.

Here’s a link to register for the program. https://countyarts.regfox.com/between-beauty-and-loss-with-jc-sulzenko

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 21^st 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/

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. 

JC congratulated Catherine Graham (winner) and and Susan Olding (Honourable Mention) who took home top awards in the Canadian Author Association’s (CAA) Fred Kerner Book Award Contest.

She feels honoured to have had her collection of centos, BRICOLAGE, among five finalists for this national prize. Aeolus House published BRICOLAGE in 2021 under her pseudonym, A. Garnett Weiss.

Here’s a link to the June 18 announcement from the CAA :
https://canadianauthors.org/national/fred-kerner-book-awards-2022-winner-and-shortlist/

The judges’ wrote about BRICOLAGE in this way:

“A paean to the intoxicating power of not only the written word, but also of “borrowed” words, Bricolage is a singular triumph of centos—new poems created from other poets’ verse. Written over the course of a decade, these affecting, absorbing homages are a double-delight: first as cerebral, many-layered musings on both the fragility and resiliency of the human condition astride space and time, and second as a chance to honour the brilliance of the original works.”

In thanking the judges for placing BRICOLAGE on the short list, JC welcomed their generous comments about the poems in this gathering of centos. “BRICOLAGE remains in very fine company on the shortlist.” JC also thanked the CAA for the way in which the organization nourishes its members.

The Fred Kerner Book Award is awarded annually to a Canadian Author Association member who has the best overall book published in the previous calendar year–whether fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Fred Kerner was a devoted and long-time CAA member, an author, journalist, editor, teacher, and mentor.

Copies of BRICOLAGE can be obtained from bricolage.weiss@gmail.com, Books & Company (Picton, Ontario), and Octopus Books (Ottawa).