Author Archives: JC

“The Jane Austen Society” by Natalie Jenner — JC’s new Bookends mini review

JC, a Jane Austen devotee, just finished this Oakville author’s 2020 novel. JC gives it an 8.5/10 rating. Go to Bookends to see the review.
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Eva Holland’s “Nerve, A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear”–JC’s Review

The June 12 Glebe Report carries JC’s review of this memoire by Whitehorse-based author Eva Holland. ALLEN LANE, an imprint of Penguin Canada published “Nerve” in May. The review admits upfront that JC has known the writer since she was a child and has watched her career with an interest that is both a professional […]
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SILVER BIRCH PRESS FEATURES JC’S POEM, “DEADBOLT” IN THE ‘MY FRONT DOOR’ SERIES

Right after Editor Melanie Villines ended this California press’s hiatus, JC welcomed the opportunity to contribute her poem “Deadbolt” to its new, online series. “The Editor’s choice of ’my front door’ for the current series’ theme strikes me as inspired and evocative. During the pandemic, what happens inside or outside open or closed doors, whether […]
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For the times — JC’s irreverent ‘haiku’

zoom once defined a lens now opens conversations face-to-face-to-face
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WATCH JC READ HER POEM FROM Vallum’s ISSUE ON ‘HOME’

JC was delighted that Editors at VALLUM chose her found poem “Whether or not transference occurs” for issue 17.1, which launched at an innovative, online watch party on April 24, 2020. Here is the link that will bring you her reading. https://www.facebook.com/VallumMagazine/videos/174245443751882/ “Whether or not transference occurs” uses words drawn unaltered from death notices and […]
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Ellis Marsalis Tribute

JC offers her deepest sympathy to the family of patriarch Ellis Marsalis along with her poem,”Like father, like son.” Written in 2003 after the Marsalis family played together at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the poem has been published elsewhere, most recently in VERSE AFIRE (The Ontario Poetry Society.) May memories of Ellis, as […]
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JC’s new poem for the times, from a bleak place

COUNTING First the children, immune to this assault, their coughs and sneezes innocent for now. Then their parents, our children — not in the crosshairs, but still… These tykes, their dads & moms feel well, grateful for no symptoms, yet wide-aware every breath’s a timebomb tick if they’re carriers. We, the elders/the old, keep distant, […]
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Nowhere to run

A wall transparent, translucent Easy to walk through if you dare I don’t I stare at the street Sunlit, snow covered empty Put my hands up to the wall Feel cold, cold cold as hard as my choices Be exposed or cocoon Hyper-vigilant, yet numb I want to run, don’t know where
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Spring to summer

JC is very pleased that her work will appear in upcoming issues of VALLUM: CONTEMPORARY POETRY and THE NAUGATUCK RIVER REVIEW. In May, Poetry Leaves, a poetry exhibition and anthology project of the Waterford Township Public Library (Michigan), was slated to feature her for the second year in a row. “I’m delighted by the reception […]
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HAPPY 2020 to all–Boxing day colours republished

BOXING DAY COLOURS Three black pigeons found solace in the too-warm puddles They alone had not dreamt of a white Christmas Did not regret the grim, gray slush that bequeathed lines of salt to new leather boots still stiff from packages, now crushed and stuffed along with blue reindeer wrapping and rivers of silver ribbon […]
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The Light Ekphrastic publishes 2 poems by JC Sulzenko

JC is very pleased that Jenny O’Grady, Editor and Publisher of The Light Ekphrastic (TLE), chose her to collaborate with Baltimore artist Leah Michaels for the August issue of the online journal. The journal exclusively publishes ekphrastic collaborations. JC is no stranger to TLE and welcomes the opportunity to write in response to works of […]
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JC wrote Poems To-Go at the Birds and Bees fundraiser for the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO)

Poet JC brought her impromptu poetry-writing to the Birds and Bees Fundraiser on Saturday, July 27 during two, 90-minute time slots. For a $10 fee, she interviewed willing nature enthusiasts and turned what she learned into a poem with a minimum of 3 lines, which the buyer received in file form after the event. All […]
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New Bookends Review: “Suzanne” by Anais Barbeau-Lavalette

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. Powered bylive resin
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Suzanne, Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, 2015 (translated by Rhonda Mullins 2017)

I cannot escape the aura of this granddaughter’s singular capture of the life of her elusive artist and poet grandmother, Suzanne Meloche, in a fictionalized series of short, diary-like accounts written in the 2nd person and based on facts uncovered in personal effects and through a private investigator’s research. The portrait is complex. Suzanne, “the […]
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JC read her winning cento at Art in the County

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 […]
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JC’s suite of poems for children takes 1st place in the WrEN Award for Poetry

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 […]
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JC appears on 99.3 FM radio on Father’s Day and at Arts Crawl with a poetry reading on Thursday, June 27

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 […]
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First prize for “Sacred place where each thing sings itself” by JC Sulzenko writing as A. Garnett Weiss

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 […]
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Poetry collection “For the Birds” launched in Picton, Ontario on May 11, 2019

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 […]
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JC attended the May 14 awards ceremony for the National Capital Writing Contest (CAA, Ottawa Branch)

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 […]
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Patrick Lane, IN MEMORIAM

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 […]
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All for the love of books and reading: March 1 in Beaufort SC

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. https://uwlowcountry.org/read-across-america-3/ The free program of readings, games and food is aimed at children from Pre-K to […]
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Homage to Mary Oliver

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 […]
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Poetry contest chapbook—now online—celebrates Prince Edward County

JC Sulzenko welcomes “For the Birds,” the 46-page collection of winning poems in the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory’s first contest, complemented by full-colour images taken by local photographers. Published online (www.peptbo.ca) by the Observatory (PEPtBO) on January 15, the words of 17 poets and photos by Ian Dickinson and Hélène Tremblay offer a unique […]
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Ottawa’s Sawdust Reading Series launched “Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology” from Mansfield Press Nov. 21

JC’s poem “Right Here” was chosen by editors Meaghan Strimas and the late Priscila Uppal for this anthology, which was launched by Mansfield Press in Toronto on November 8, 2018 and in Ottawa at the Sawdust Reading Series on November 21. Written to capture the hopefulness of her mother’s friend, this 5-stanza poem exists in […]
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Deadline: October 31 for PEPtBO Poetry Contest submissions from adults and students

Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory’s (PEPtBO’s) poetry contest, “For the Birds” closes at on Halloween at midnight. Prince Edward County poets and visitors are welcome to enter poems in some way related to birds and birdlife on October 31st. In January, PEPtBO plans to publish a chapbook of winning poems with photographs taken by local enthusiasts […]
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Abbotsford House in Ottawa, welcomed JC Sulzenko on October 31

JC led an interactive discussion of why, when and how she writes award-winning poetry under her own name or using a pseudonym. She read from her collection, South Shore Suite…Poems, which Point Petre publishing in Prince Edward County published in late 2017 (pointpetrepublishing.ca) and gave an overview of her experimental writing and experience in judging poetry contests and […]
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Submission deadline today, Oct. 19, for poems on the theme of a pivotal moment for “Poetry Quarter” in the GLEBE REPORT

What’s the theme for poems for the November “Poetry Quarter” with a deadline of midnight, October 19, 2018? “The pivotal. The gamechanger. “To turn on a pivot, to ricochet off in a new direction, to live a pivotal moment that changes everything.” Or does it? Open to poets in the NCR who write in English. […]
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JC’s poem receives award and is published in Lampman Challenge chapbook from the Poets’ Pathway

Ontario poets joined together to celebrate the legacy of Canada’s Confederation Poets on Sunday, October 14 at the Old Ottawa South Community Centre for the Poets’ Pathway awards in response to the 2018 Lampman Challenge. Each winning poem related in some way to Ottawa and to Archibald Lampman’s sonnet,”Winter Uplands,” written in 1899. Poets’ Pathway […]
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Poetry contest “For the Birds” has closed; JC now selecting poems for publication

Contest judge and chapbook editor JC Sulzenko welcomed many fine entries from Prince Edward County poets and visitors. She is in the process of selecting poems for the collection and in contacting the poets who submitted their work. “We received poems of such quality. I look very forward to seeing them in print.” PEPtBO monitors […]
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