To preview the opening of County CollAboRaTive, arts commentator Vanessa Pandos interviews JC and artist Richard Leach who designed the chapbook that captures this 25th Anniversary ekphrastic project for the Prince Edward County Studio Tour.
On Friday July 13, tune in at 12: 30 PM to 99.3 FM or listen live on the device of your choice.
Photo credit: Ramesh Pooran
JC is delighted her poetry plays a part in the Prince Edward County (PEC) Studio Tour’s 25th Anniversary year celebration. The Tour takes place in September throughout the County.
At the art show and book launch on Friday July 13 at Bloomfield’s Town Hall, JC read aloud her two poems which evolved from artwork by members of the Studio Tour. “Lens,” based on Richard Leach’s mixed media-gliclee print, “The Space Between,” and “Where Chagall met Gaugin and Dali,” arising from Holly Sedgwick’s acrylic “Sun Dance,” appear in the commemorative book published to mark this unique ekphrastic collaboration between County artists and writers.
Coverage of the event is featured at http://www.countylive.ca/art-meets-the-written-word-in-county-collaborative/
Another chance to see this work followed on the weekend of August 11-12 at Wellington’s Town Hall.
Photo credit: Ramesh. JC
“This is my second opportunity to write poems that evolve from artwork by County artists. I was honoured to co-curate Ekphrasis at Blizzmax Gallery in 2016 and truly welcome such creative synergies in my writing life. Patrons will be able to purchase copies of the book with reproductions of each piece of art in the show and read for themselves how county poets and writers responded in ways which complement/compliment them,” JC explained. “The cost of the book with full-colour reproductions is $20 and makes a fine souvenir of the County.”
Here’s the link for further information on the exhibition and book: https://pecstudiotour.com/whats-on/
Lynn Pickering’s Sunday July 8 program, The County Writes/The County Reads, featured a 20-minute interview on how and why JC came to write the play “What My Grandma Means to Say” and then the book for children/families about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The program aired on 99.3 County FM after the noon news.
This website has information on the tools designed to give children the opportunity to learn about Alzheimer’s and what strategies they and their families can develop when dementia affects someone in their circle.
The website also gives free access to a video of the play performed by PECI students for elementary schools in Prince Edward County in 2010 as part of the educational outreach programs of the then Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward County. The Discussion Guide, also available free on this website, contains the play’s script. JC is updating its Q’s and A’s and welcomes the assistance of the Alzheimer Society of Hastings-Prince Edward in this review.
We lose our mothers
Not on street corners
or in parks or grocery stores
though we may be mislaid
Today, I wear a dead-woman’s coat
Not my mother’s
Hers were too large
I lost myself in their embrace
as I combed through her clothes
their old-woman scent still strong on
what she wore until she couldn’t stand to dress
I pushed deeper into that closet, touched
garments she chose in middle age to flatter
her long legs, to hide her extra layers
Then Channel No. 5™assaulted me
I rushed outside
onto the balcony that
overlooks the city
breathed in that view
just as she did
until she could not
Shelter, home, homelessness…
Serious subject matter for Poetry Quarterin the May issue of the Glebe Report.
Cut and paste this link into your browser to access the page published on May 11. http://www.glebereport.ca/2018/05/poetry-quarter-6/
JC curates the selection from local poets and found this quarter’s offering rich.“We received many, fine poems. A connection to home came into sharp and soft focus in a number of them. Street people figured in others.
“We were honoured to receive such sensitive and original work from poets whose poems have not appeared in PQ before and from other writers Glebe Report readers will recognize from previous issues.“
A call for submissions for the August Poetry Quarterhas just been announced. It’s all about water—critical to life; one of the Ancient’s four elements that make up the world; around 60% of the human body.
PQ seeks poems that will make readers “sink or swim.”
“Climate change, days or nights by a shore, access to clean drinking water, tears of laughter or sorrow—I cannot wait to learn what local poets will say.”
The deadline for the August issue is midnight, Friday July 27, 2018. Submission guidelines appear at: http://www.glebereport.ca/2018/05/poetry-quarter-6/
On Tuesday, June 5 at 7:30 PM, JC Sulzenko read selections from her poetry collection, South Shore Suite…POEMS, published by Point Petre Publishing. www.pointpetrepublishing.ca
JC welcomed the SRO audience and thanked publisher Brian Flack for coming to celebrate this first full collection of her narrative and lyrical poems. She also thanked Octopus Books for its gracious hosting of the event.
JC explained how the book contains poems written over the course of her adult life. The collection takes its title from its first section, with poems rooted in the nature and landscape of Prince Edward County, about which she wrote and which she posted a line-a-day for over a year on this website. Its second section brings a wider lens to the natural world, while the third part of the book includes poems on life choices made by people in diverse professions, from carpenter to composer, from lightkeeper to librarian.
“I held interviews in Ottawa and elsewhere with people I knew and sought out others whose line of work interested me. South Shore Suite…POEMS offers samples from both categories. One of the people in these poem portraits was at the Ottawa launch. Recognizable or incognito, do you think?”
The collection concludes with poems that illuminate moments ‘from cradle to grave.’
Why did Point Petre publisher Brian Flack choose this particular book? “To me, many poems in South Shore Suite use language beautifully and capture the universality of experience in an accessible way, which is not often apparent in contemporary poetry.”
This award-winning Glebe poet and writer is well known through her workshops and poetry residencies for emerging, young writers. She has published six books for children.What My Grandma Means to Say takes a child by the hand and explores how to handle dementia in the family. She also writes centos and found poetry for which she uses a pseudonym.
This summer JC’s work will be featured in County CollAboRaTive, the 25thAnniversary celebration of the Prince Edward County Studio Tour, and she takes part as a guest artist in the Redenersville Road Art Tour on Labour Day weekend.
With Carleton Place poet Carol A. Stephen, she has co-authored two chapbooks, Breathing Mutable Air and Slant of Light. Together, they seek a publisher for their new collection of ekphrastic poems inspired by works of art.
Copies of South Shore Suite…POEMS are for sale in Ottawa at Octopus Books, 116 Third Avenue http://octopusbooks.ca, as well as at Perfect Books. Singing Pebble Books and Books on Beechwood. In Prince Edward County, Books and Company, The Local Store and Half Moon Bay Winery carry the collection.
Glebe Report Editor Liz McKeen asks this question: is shelter a right?
The May Poetry Quarter will feature poems by local poets that touch on themes of home, shelter, or homelessness.
JC Sulzenko, who curates the quarterly collection, looks forward to what these writers consider in approaching notions of belonging or being outsiders.
Cut and paste the following link to reach the Glebe Report’s home page for details on submissions DUE BY MIDNIGHT, Friday, April 20, 2018. http://www.glebereport.ca
“Where, watching life through windows” appeared online in this April offering from the League of Canadian Poets. The cento originally appeared in Oratorealis in 2017 and draws lines unaltered from poems by George Barker, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas,David Gascoyne, Ronal Bottrall, Edith Sitwell, Cecil Day Lewis, Ezra Pound, William Epsom, and Stephen Spender.
Here is the link to paste in your browser to access the post:
http://poets.ca/2018/04/17/npm18-fresh-voices-norma-kerby-martha-swinn-a-garnett-weiss/
Using the pseudonym A. Garnett Weiss for found poetry and centos gives JC Sulzenko the distance she needs to distinguish such experimental forms from the narrative and lyrical poems she writes using her own name.
JC was delighted by the lively discussion that included a romp through selections of poems from Rupi Kaur’s two, best-seller collections of poems.
JC read from her first, full poetry collection, South Shore Suite…POEMS, which came out in November (www.pointpetrepublishing.ca) and touched on aspects of her writing life from works for children to self-publishing, from writing collaboratively to assuming a pseudonym.
When asked about writing collaboratively, JC revealed “it’s 85% pleasure, 15% pain.”
She has been working together with Carleton Place poet Carol A. Stephen for about 5 years. They have published two chapbooks, Breathing Mutable Air and Slant of Light, the latter all poems inspired by works of art.
“Carol and I are finalizing the manuscript of a full collection of ekphrastic poems to send out to publishers.” The works from which these poems depart include sculpture, multimedia, textile and visual art.
review by Deborah Tunney
J.C. Sulzenko tells us in the introduction to her soulful and varied poetry collection, South Shore Suite … POEMS, that the inspiration to gather her poems together from the past four decades was Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration. These poems not only celebrate this Canadian milestone but also one Canadian woman’s life, her appreciation of nature, her empathetic recording of other lives and her awareness of time’s passing.
To do this, she divides the collection into four segments, the first and second being a meditation on the role of nature in a life spent in observation and appreciation, the third illustrates her keen observation of character in a segment appropriately entitled “Cameo Appearances,” and in the fourth she looks at aspects of time, creating a sense of closure for the collection as a whole.
Sulzenko sees in nature and in particular the landscape of Prince Edward County, the symmetry and wide, overarching beauty that defines and limits our lives. Many of her poems are inspired by the quiet certainty of haiku, by its ability to slow life to an image that points to the miraculous and capture the frozen essence of a moment. Her touch here is gentle and fine, and perfect for the intent of poem:
it’s alright, okay
to become much like the sand:
water-weary, sun-bleached
reduced to grains that glimmer
as waves advance and waves withdraw.
One of the longer poems of the first section gives us the demise of a man in the very nature that the poet has glorified. His death stills the beauty – this place where he can “find no wonder” so that by morning he is reduced to “an object to recover with a boat and body bag.” The language here shifts from the wonder of nature to the blunt and painful reality of death, and it is this shift that stops readers and makes them, with a renewed reverence, appreciate the encompassment of nature, holding both life and death.
Although the poet’s approach in “Cameo Appearances” is to give us unique personalities, the underlying questions and concerns are the same as in the rest of the collection: the meaning, appreciation and mystery of life. Listen to the economy of this poem as it paints with quick, deft strokes a portrait of a doctor:
Morning
Coat off, computer on, patients
questions, examination, diagnosis, injections
Afternoon
Prescription, referrals, reports
No excuse if she runs late
These are the moments that occupy a life, give it its shape and resonance. In the poem “Light on Bay,” Sulzenko gives us an empty lighthouse, bereft of keepers, as a soulless entity: “those lighthouses, empty now, still shine/a safe course for ships, but without a soul”. This poem is an exploration of the family that lived there, of the era that allowed that life choice and both are strikingly eulogized in the calm sadness captured by those closing words.
One of the most poignant poems in the last section chronicles the loss, through euthanasia, of a beloved pet. It describes in almost clinical terms what the vet must do, but ends with the human need for comfort. “He returns to the living room/Places his hand on the spot/where she died/Still warm.” It is here that Sulzenko is at her strongest. She leads us with fine, careful but stripped-down language to a place where we must contemplate the savage, uncompromising emptiness that remains.
The poems in the first section and half of the second are not titled or numbered and the resulting sense of flow and inclusion will either make the reader feel the unity of the work or be annoyed by its formlessness. I found it on first reading a bit disorienting, a feeling that lessened with each reading as I came to appreciate how each poem leads to the next and leans on its neighbouring poem for increased poignancy. However, a small quibble with the book production: the font was a sans serif, which I did not enjoy, and the kerning for certain words seemed clumsy.
This is a collection that rewards the reader with its careful, precise and often-beautiful rendition of those elements in life that enclose us: nature, other people and the progress of time. As she writes: “when it falls to death, the line between/what’s real and what you hope for/breaks you.”
As readers we thank Sulzenko for honouring Canada’s 150th by gathering her poems into this enlightening collection and for her clear-sighted vision of our human condition.
Deborah-Anne Tunney is a former communication officer and a writer of both prose and poetry whose work has appeared in many literary journals.
South Shore Suite … POEMS,
by JC Sulzenko
Point Petre Publishing, 2017 (Milford, Ontario)
Available at Octopus Books (116 Third Ave.), Singing Pebble Books (206 Main St), Books on Beechwood (35 Beechwood), Perfect Books (258 Elgin), from the publisher and www.jcsulzenko.com.
“I was very pleased to assist the Observatory (PEPtBO) in bringing out this second annual booklet, which highlights events around and about the County’s South Shore that celebrate its unique habitats, flora and fauna, and history,” JC noted. (She serves on PEPtBO’s Board.)
This is the second year JC worked on the project, which lists some 24 events ranging from bird walks, excursions and tours to a 100 km. bicycle ride, from fish fries to graveyard walks, from fishing derbies to fossil hunts.
“Nature Matters!” has been published online at www.peptbo.ca. 7000 hard copies of the glossy book will be available throughout the County starting in April.
The booklet also launched a poetry contest for a chapbook PEPtBO will publish on its website.”For the Birds” invites poets aged 9-16 and adult poets living in or visiting the County to send in poems that relate in some way to birds native to the County or migrating through it. Specific information on the contest appears in “Nature Matters!” on line and in print.
(PEPtBO is a not-for-profit, registered charity with a focus on monitoring and providing information on populations of migrating birds at since Edward Point National Wildlife Area during spring and fall. PEPtBO acts as official caretaker for the Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA), designated as globally significant and comprised of over 40 kilometres of Lake Ontario shoreline and 90 square kilometres of land and water habitats.)
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
into bulging green garbage bags
at the curb
of a new year
Listen to Lynn Pickering’s feature interview with JC about South Shore Suite…Poems on her weekly program “The County Writes…The County Reads” on Sunday, December 10 right after the newscast at noon.
Go to http://993countyfm.ca to live stream the program from the FM station that speaks with the ‘voice’ of Prince Edward County, Ontario.
This first collection of JC’s poetry takes its title from its lead section, “South Shore Suite, ” with poems rooted in her experience at the County’s fragile south shore. “I committed to posting a line-a-day of poetry on my website for over a year, and the poems in “South Shore Suite” are the result of that undertaking,” JC explains.
During the interview, JC has the opportunity to read a few poems from the collection and openly discuss why poetry matters to her.
An enthusiastic crowd attended the November 18 launch of South Shore Suite, JC’s first collection of poetry from Point Petre Publishing. Hosted by Books and Company, 289 Main St. in Picton, the event featured a reading by JC, fine wines generously offered by Half Moon Bay Winery, nibbles, and brisk book sales.
“The launch was exactly as I hoped it would be: the chance for poetry-lovers, friends and neighbours to celebrate the release of this collection and become acquainted with my work. I chose to read five poems from the collection to give a taste of each of the sections of the book, which begins with the “South Shore Suite” that lends the book its title. The “Suite” consists of poems rooted in nature at Prince Edward County’s south shore and influenced by forms of Japanese poetry, such as haiku and tankas.”
The story in November 15th’s The Wellington Times profiled South Shore Suite. Cut and paste this link into your browser to read the article.http://wellingtontimes.ca/the-right-words/
Lynn Pickering’s interview with JC on The County Writes, The County Reads aired on 99.3FM Picton after the noon news on either December 3 or December 10, 2017.
Go to the icon on the right of this website (www.jcsulzenko.com) for information on how to order the book from JC or from the publisher, Point Petre Publishing. Books and Company in Picton also stocks the book. (http://pictonbookstore.com)
Point Petre Publishing (PPP) launches JC Sulzenko’s first full collection of poetry in Picton, Ontario, on Saturday afternoon, November 18, 2017.
South Shore Suite cover
Prince Edward County publisher Brian Flack gives his reasons for electing to publish JC’s lyric and narrative poetry in PPP’s inaugural publishing program. “In our current political climate, the need for ‘something’ that speaks to the unspoiled uniqueness of the southernmost reaches of our County was not just needed, it was demanded!
“Rendered in language that is evocative of place, time, and sensation–yet straightforwardly affecting, many of the poems will transport you body and soul to the South Shore of the County, addressing head-on, as they do, issues both natural and ‘man-made’. These poems will inspire in any reader a wondrous appreciation for the area’s land, its birds, the water …”
JC responds. “I am honoured PPP chose South Shore Suite for this publishing season and gratified that poems in this collection turn the spotlight on Prince Edward County’s fragile South Shore. My work also speaks to the power of life-cycle events, whether mundane or momentous.”
The 100-page book takes its title from the first of its four sections, which contains poems rooted in the landscape of Prince Edward County and posted a line-a-day over the course of more than a year. Its second section brings a wider lens to the natural world. Poetry that reflects on life choices made by people in diverse professions comprises the third part of the book. The collection concludes with poems closest to JC’s personal experience on subjects ‘from cradle to grave.’ County artist Susan Straiton created the arresting cover art.
The launch takes place from 4:00-6:00 PM on Saturday, November 18, 298 Main Street, upstairs in the Lipson Room in Picton. JC will read from the collection at 4:30 PM.
JC serves on the Board of the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO) and will donate a Loonie for every copy of South Shore Suite sold at the launch to PEPtBO.
For further information about the book and the event, email pointpetrepublishing@gmail.com.
`
BC-based Oratorealis, which focuses on spoken word and experimental poetry in a triannual literary journal, published two centos by A. Garnett Weiss in Volume 2/Issue 2, which came out at the end of the summer.
“Reflection, stained glass” welcomes lines from poets such as Toi Derricotti, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Brenda Hillman and Alicia Suskin Ostriker. “Where, watching life through windows”* takes its words from poems by some of the greats of the 20th century, including Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound and Stephen Spender.
Weiss finds great joy in creating centos. “Living with the poems I read until individual lines or partial lines dictate the way a new work, original in form and meaning, evolves is an exciting and humbling process. Each piece both pays homage to and honours the poems from which the lines have been selected. There such such energy inherent in crafting poems in the cento form.”
*The title of this poem regrettably was misprinted in Oratorealis.
JC gives this 2006 novel by prolific master of the ‘dark’ Swedish tale, Henning Mankell, 7/5/10 even though she couldn’t put the book down. Why? Go to Bookends to read her mini-review.
JC reviews Maria Semple’s national bestseller (US), “Where’d You Go, Bernadette.” Go to Bookends at www.jcsulzenko.com to read her low-down on the 2012 novel.
Garnett’s prose poem “When Johnny came marching” appears online in the newest series from Silver Birch Press (SBP) in California.
This is how Garnett described her creative process: “I’m always intrigued by subjects Silver Birch Press suggests for a series. I read the cue, then waken as though from a dream to revisit experiences I hadn’t thought of in many, many years. The title for “When Johnny came marching,” comes in part from a war song. The song led me to recapture in prose poem form rather than in free verse circumstances and details around the disappearance of my favourite doll when I was five years-old and to situate that doll in my life today. I am grateful for the prompt.”
The photo, which complements this poem, shows Johnny still in Garnett’s hands and favour.
Here’s the link to Silver Birch Press:
JC returns for the second year to curate “Poetry Quarter(PQ)” in the Glebe Report. For 2017, rather than collect and bank poems throughout the year, PQ will tailor calls to specified themes for each issue.
Full details of the call for submissions for the February, 2017, PQ appear on the home page of January’s Glebe Report at www.glebereport.ca.
Open for the first time to any poet writing in English who reads the Glebe Report and lives in the National Capital Region, February will celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial through poems on subjects relevant to the people, history, culture, present and future of the Glebe and its neighbouring communities. Here are the basic guidelines. Poems should be:
JC has been reading steadily but not caught up on her mini-reviews, which use up to the same number of words as characters for a tweet. Go to “Bookends” to read her review of Prince Edward County author, poet and artist Peter Blendell’s “Jonagold,” published in 2014.
From time to time, I revisit this poem after the frenzy of activity and gift-giving/receiving because of how it captures for me the inevitable, annual letdown, even as celebrations around the new year add add an upbeat quality to the season. So here again is the piece.
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, stuffed
along with blue reindeer wrapping
and rivers of silver ribbon
into bulging green garbage bags
at the curb
of a new year
Editor Jenny O’Grady paired Garnett with Maryland artist Gina Pierleoni as co-contributors to the 28th issue of the online journal “The Light Ekphrastic, ” now celebrating its 7th anniversary.
Garnett chose The Deepest Sleep from among the extraordinary works of art on the website featuring Pierleoni’s art– http://ledbaltimore.com/featured-on-the-board/gina-pierleoni/. “Given the range of work Gina exhibited, so much of her art called to me, but the instant I saw The Deepest Sleep, I had to write to it. Surrender is the result,” Garnett noted.
“My poems have appeared before in “The Light Ekphrastic,” and I am grateful to the editor for publishing them in this fine journal. It’s always an adventure when I embark on a new partnership with an artist who will interpret my poetry and whose art will prompt me to write a new poem. I never know what to expect of the artist or of myself. That is the ‘magic’ of the ekphrastic process. That’s why I welcome opportunities to be surprised by each, such collaboration.“
In response to Garnett’s poem For Nathan Cirillo, soldier, Gina created Lamentation, a poignant collage that captures indelibly the relationship between the soldier’s death and an aged mother’s response. Here’s where to find these works: https://thelightekphrastic.com/2016/11/25/november-2016-issue-28/
For the second time, Garnett’s centos took top honours in The Banister, the annual anthology featuring “ an eclectic mix of Ontario voices,” in the words of Poetry Chair Keith Inman.Here’s what award-winning poet and author Keith Garebian, who judged the entries, wrote: ” Never mind the first unicorn is an expert cento—a form that is a level ahead of the found poem as a poetic mode because its inspiration comes from multiple poetic sources. For a good cento, the poet’s mind must never merely wander across quotations. It needs to keep a firm focus on unity of theme, tone and rhythm—which this one does superbly, using surprising images in order to channel the poet’s melancholy reflection.”
“I am most grateful to Keith Garebian for these comments, which align closely with what I set out to accomplish in each cento I compose, “ Garnett noted. “I find joy in this form of poetry, Though considered by some poets and editors as ‘experimental,’ writing centos has become my mainstream.”
Never mind the first unicorn received second prize. Honourable mentions went to We lie down in each other, we lie down alone, and to The only song I know.
Garnett’s cento Nothing is eternal. Not even the trees won the 2013 contest judged by Gregory Betts. He also awarded honourable mentions to Against a guttering candle, written dreams and to Psyche.
When Silver Birch Press (SBP) featured Garnet Weiss’s “After ignorance, blessings” in its Same Name Series, it gave her the chance to mark how as an undergrad she ‘bumped’ into Leonard Cohen at university and how she evolved into a devoted fan. Here is the link:https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/after-ignorance-blessings-poem-by-a-garnett-weiss-same-name-poetry-and-prose-series/
Given his passing yesterday at 82 and having seen a clip from the media conference at the September release of his last CD where he explained he was ready for death but rather would ‘live’ forever (and he will), it feels appropriate to republish that poem in his honour here.
After ignorance, blessings
Without much prompting, I return to that moment fifty years ago,
while we waited together for a book on reserve at college.
The librarian bellowed out my last name.
We both stepped forward, lightly bumping hips.
Shy as a virgin, I felt heat rush to my face
as the man at the desk glared through thick lenses.
“Leonard,” he harrumphed, dismissing me.
Just then, I realized who you were.
So did the other undergrads, the spectator chorus,
who stared as though it was my fault to carry
the same family name.
I bowed my head, rejoined their line.
Even as poems and songs brought you more fame,
I didn’t become a fan, though I recognized
some tunes, knew bits of lyrics from the CDs
my mother listened to every day till she died.
But after you had to come down from the mountain
‘cause someone had stolen away with your wealth,
after you started to tour, that’s when I fell for you.
I saw you perform live a first time, then again, and again,
just to hear you sing of love and loss and longing in that voice,
its low-growl purr seductive as the melodies that play in my mind.
Which is how I’ve come to regret having no kinship with you
either in blood or in the way you make your music turn words
into a benediction.
Go to the Bookends tab for JC’s most recent review of Rupinder Gill’s 2011 memoire, “On the Outside Looking Indian.” She gives it a 6.5/10 rating.
For kids of many generations, Nancy Drew mysteries by Carolyn Keene hooked them on reading. Whenever a new book came out, the local bookstore (and there were several independent! bookstores in my neighbourhood!) would sell out very quickly, as young readers couldn’t wait to follow their favourite sleuth as she unravelled threads of the next puzzle.
Garnett is pleased that Silver Birch Press of California chose her erasure poem “With original mystery” for the anthology, published on October 1. This poem extracts words from titles of Nancy Drew books in the order they appeared on the the page preceding the inside title page of “The Hidden Staircase,” published in 1930 and reprinted in 1995. The poem and the page showing the erasures both appear in the collection.
Copies of the anthology will be available through the publisher and from Amazon.com. The publisher’s price per volume is $15. Here’s the link to Silver Birch Press’s release:
https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/new-release-nancy-drew-anthology/
Garnett’s second poem arising from Nancy Drew sources has been posted under the A. Garnett Weiss tab. “Siren” uses non-contiguous phrases, taken unaltered from”Nancy Drew: The Secret of Mirror Bay,” published in 1972.
JC is thrilled that the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward Island (ASPEI) chose to anchor its 2016-2017 education program in schools with “What My Grandma Means to Say,” JC’s play and storybook for children and families about Alzheimer’s disease.
With the province’s Department of Education and input from JC, ASPEI developed a resource kit for teachers which puts a copy of the book, plus JC’s Discussion Guide, into every elementary school in the Province. Here’s a link to the CBC’s report:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-alzheimer-students-education-book-1.3773649
“As I wrote in my op. ed. piece published by papers across Canada (go to the Archive table to read the article), I feel it’s essential for kids to be part of the discussion when Alzheimer’s affects someone they know and about whom they care. Understanding what they can and cannot hope for is one way to get at the fears this disease raises,” JC believes.
A number of Alzheimer Societies in Ontario incorporated “What My Grandma Means to Say” into their programming. With the new program launched on September 21, World Alzheimer’s Day, PEI’s Alzheimer Society is the first to take “What My Grandma Means to Say” province-wide.
“I look very forward to whatever feedback comes my way from the use of this story and play in schools. I know that having an open and safe environment to talk about Alzheimer’s can really build awareness and dispel myths, without sugarcoating what people living with the disease face.”
JC curates August “Poetry Quarter” in The Glebe Report; next submission call
The August “Poetry Quarter” in The Glebe Report released on August 17 features eight poets with unique ‘takes’ on the theme of water. The submission call referred to water as critical to sustaining life and as one of the ancient Greeks’ four elements that make up the world.Up 60% of the human body consists of water.
“Such a long, hot, humid summer made this theme a fine choice for August,” curator JC Sulzenko explained. “I can’t resist saying we received poems that covered the ‘waterfront!’
“We welcomed submissions from well-known local poets, such as Michelle Desbarats and Carol A. Stephen, from poets new to “Poetry Quarter,” and from contributors whose work we have published on other occasions.”
Print copies of the paper are available throughout the Glebe. Here’s the link to the online page to paste into your browser: http://www.glebereport.ca/2018/08/poetry-quarter-7/
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.
“There’s no turning back. Or is there?”
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