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LIFE, AFTER LIFE–FROM EPITAPH TO EPILOGUE launched in Toronto
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.
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Between Beauty and Loss, JC Sulzenko’s hands-on County Arts Lab Workshop in October
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
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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.
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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/
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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