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Author Archives: JC
April 7, Impromptu poem (Found Poetry Review)
Simone Muench suggested the following prompt: “write a cento that is a self-portrait, or anthology of your life, utilizing lines and fragments from your own work,” an intriguing and somewhat daunting task. You’re lost if you look, if you listen, if you follow Austere, without edges or colour, small-smiling, she looks down, watches, waits […]
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Impromptu poem: Day 6 (Found Poetry Review)
In response to Noah Eli Gordon’s prompt to “write a poem comprised of a single sentence, spread across at least seven lines of no fewer than 5 words each. Repeat one of your lines 3 times, but not in succession. Include the following: the phrases ‘as when the,’ a scientific term, a flower’s proper name, […]
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Impromptu poem: Day 5
Here’s Garnett’s response to Sarah Blake’s prompt in the Found Poetry Review Impromptu series for National Poetry Month. She suggested choosing a song and having its dynamics open the door to a poem. The song Garnett chose is Carole King’s “You’ve got a friend, ” which Garnett sang and read until this poem happened. Perhaps […]
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April 4 Impromptu Poem through the Found Poetry Review
The prompt from Woody Leslie involves meanings that have multiple words. He said “write a word, make list of other words related to it, combine these words into a woodblock sharing letters, keep rearranging, adding or subtracting words till you have a woodblock you like aesthetically both visually and linguistically… it can stand alone as […]
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April 3, Impromptu Poem
Kay lied to us. She couldn’t cope with such colour. Her vision shattered like stained glass, kinetic: An apocalypse on that day. Here is the prompt: “Stare at a word until the letters start to discorporate. You will find that letter cohesion, the letter glue that keeps letters stuck inside a word, is […]
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April 2 Impromptu ‘Lite’ Poem in Response to Found Poetry Review’s Prompt of the Day
Drunktime is even more spectacular Whatever your potion it’s all here in the liquor cabinet packed with endless blends perfect proofs and an unrivalled flood of possibilities. There are so many drinks to discover everyday this way. Prompt: go to an ad, take out the nouns and add others as you will. Source: Ad […]
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A. Garnett Weiss to write a poem-a-day in Found Poetry Review’s April challenge
Starting yesterday, (yes, is a day late, explanation to follow), JC, using her pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss, will follow prompts from the Found Poetry Review (FPR) to create a poem a day during National Poetry Month. She intends to post them on this website at a minimum. “What can I say? I am a luddite […]
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JC’s New Cento Honours Award-winning Poems in the 2016 Awesome Authors Contest
JC delighted in announcing the winning poems and identifying the poets who entered the winners’ circle at the 21st Awesome Authors Awards ceremony on March 29 at Centrepoint Theatre, Ottawa. Then she shared her decision to step down as English poetry judge after more than a decade of serving in this capacity, for which the […]
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The Inconvenient Indian; A curious account of native people in North America Thomas King, 2012
King draws in the white reader with humour and bits of dark history, so that this reader feels ashamed/ uncomfortable but unable to put the book down. Labelling an “account” allows King to avoid the discipline of the historian and helped me accept the heavy-handed (though deserved) guilt trip for settler and Christian oppression of […]
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Award Ceremony on March 29 for OPL’s Awesome Authors Contest Winning Poets and Writers
JC Sulzenko, English poetry judge for the 2016 Awesome Authors contest wants to encourage poetry-lovers of all ages in the region to come out for the awards ceremony honouring the best English and French poems and short stories written by local poets and writers, ages 9-17. The culminating event of the the 2016 Awesome Authors […]
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The Reason You Walk Wab Kinew, 2015 Wab Kinew, 2015
A very personal, yet highly political, account by journalist, broadcaster, and musician Anishinaabe Chief Kinew of his own growth and learning in the light of /the shadow of his evolving relationship with his father, educator and political force, Tobasonakwut/Ndede. While the writing style can be inconsistent, this work of non-fiction benefits from relentless purity and […]
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Silver Birch Press features “After ignorance, blessings” in its new Same Name Series
California’s Silver Birch Press (SBP) features Garnett’s recent poem in its new Same Name Series. The poem, based upon Garnett as an undergrad bumping into Leonard Cohen at a university library, goes beyond that moment to capture her evolution into a fan. “I am honoured to be included in this innovative series and thank the […]
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JC’s Awesome Poetry Workshop a hit with 9-12 year-old poets
On January 22, JC led a great group of enthusiastic and talented young poets in her one-hour poetry workshop in advance of the Ottawa Public Library’s 2016 Awesome Authors Contest deadline, February 15. The annual contest encourages poets ages 9-17 to submit their original poems and short stories in English or French so that they […]
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January 11 deadline for February “Poetry Quarter” in the Glebe Report
Here’s the OPEN CALL FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS from poets in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood and surrounding areas for the 2nd Poetry Quarter, a compilation of poems curated by JC, which appears four times a year in Ottawa’s Glebe Report. The next Poetry Quarter will be issued in the February 2016 Glebe Report. The deadline to submit is […]
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JC’s post-Christmas reflection with the annual posting of her “Boxing Day Colours”
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 […]
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JC’s Guest Post for Mike Stewart, the OPL’s first Writer-in-residence
When Mike asked JC to write a guest post about poetry for his blog in December, she was delighted. The piece appeared this week at: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/blogs/guest-post-jc-sulzenko-hits-hints-post-about-poetry. What way did she choose to give tips about how poetry works? She used song titles of the top singles from the week of November 27-December 3. What tips […]
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A. Garnett Weiss: Sole Canadian poet in Silver Birch Press’s “Ides” collection of chapbooks
The past has a habit of not only of catching up but also of having a future. A few years ago, JC Sulzenko began interviewing people whose choices about what to do and who to be in life interested her. In many cases, she spoke with friends and acquaintances. She also sought out strangers in […]
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On the Eve of the Canadian Election, here is JC’s plea
This poem first was broadcast on CBC’s program Commentary. JC brings it back to these pages on the eve of Canada’s federal election to BEG voters to turn out and vote. So much is riding on each riding’s choice. \ JC hopes Canadians know how much each vote counts. Feel free to comment on her poem, […]
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“Breathing Mutable Air” launched at Railroad, Oct. 18
JC appeared with Carol A. Stephen to launch their collaborative chapbook, “Breathing Mutable Air” at the pop-up poetry series, Railroad. http://railroad-ottawa.ca. Award-winning poet John Pass previewed poems his new collection of early poems, “Forecast.” Carol and JC created 17 poems for this chapbook using a variety of structures, for example: in some poems, alternating lines; […]
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Deadline today for the Glebe Report “Poetry Quarter,” curated by JC Sulzenko
The deadline for submitting poems to be featured in the first of The Glebe Report’s new feature, Poetry Quarter, is October 9, 2015. Here’s the link to the website for specifics on how to submit. http://www.glebereport.ca/2015/08/glebe-report-poetry-quarter/ JC is delighted that the Editor of this community newspaper has chosen to bring a poetry focus to the community […]
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Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously Mark Frutkin, 2012
The title from Chomsky, Frutkin’s 110-page book offers an unusual and surprising collection of mini-essays which cover his philosophies and musings on writing/being a writer and poetry, on dreaming and dying, on the origins of the alphabet and possibilities in and of light, on society, culture and religion, and on myth, chaos and story. An […]
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Save Ostrander Point Website Features JC’s Lament
The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) website now features JC’s “A voice for the turtle,” her protest poem against the construction of 9 plus 27 industrial wind turbines (each 450 feet high) at the the environmentally fragile south shore of Prince Edward County. “It’s a travesty: the Government of Ontario willingly supports the construction […]
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The Nature of the Beast Louise Penny, 2015
Once I spent the summer reading the first 9 in this series and fell for Chief Inspector (retired?) Armand Gamache—his intelligence, acuity, integrity, courage, humanity, warmth, and elegance. Rarely disappointed by plot or setting, I’m impatient for each new story about him, his cohorts and family, and the village of Three Pines in Quebec’s l’Estrie, […]
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Jane Austen Carol Shields, 2001
A spare biography. Shields treats Austen with respect and admiration, shows Austen’s growth as a novelist, and comments on the writing process and Jane’s societal context. A regret: distance between Carol and Jane. An irony: Shields noted Sandition “does not read like the work of a dying woman” when she, too, died of breast cancer […]
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Emma Jane Austen, 1816
The final book in my Austen rereading odyssey, Emma, isn’t among my favourites. My main reason: I don’t really like Emma, herself. She is well drawn as a know-it-all-better-than–anyone else young woman, particularly in affairs of the heart. It is how her character develops and mellows in the last 1/3 of the novel as she comes […]
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Silver Birch Press tells all about JC’s multiple identities
Today, Silver Birch Press has featured “What’s in my name” by A. Garnett Weiss in its ALL ABOUT MY NAME poetry series. Here’s the link to the post: https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/whats-in-my-name-by-a-garnett-weiss-all-about-my-name-poetry-series/ The poem and additional biographical and explanatory notes reveal choices JC has made to govern how she is called and calls herself. “Yes,” she admits, “I […]
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“Vallum” features Weiss’s “Hesitation marks” as its poem of the week
Garnett is delighted that the magazine’s editor has chosen “Hesitation marks” for the poem of the week. This poem first appeared in Vallum among the selections on the topic of speed. “The piece is a cento that I wrote using lines from different poems by Robin Robertson. I am honoured that Vallum features it again […]
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JC Sulzenko and Carol A. Stephen launch “Breathing Mutable Air, “their collaborative chapbook June 13 at the Small Press Fair, Jack Purcell Community Centre in Ottawa
Ottawa’s Small Press Fair tomorrow saw the launch of the first collaborative chapbook by JC Sulzenko and Carol A. Stephen. Stephen describes “Breathing Mutable Air “in this way: 17 poems, 2 poets and 1 voice. ” JC admits it is the first time she has partnered with another poet in writing such poetry together. “This […]
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Impromptu poem 8 (Found Poetry Review)