RECENT READING
Elizabeth Bishop's 114th Birthday Party, February 8, 2025
Featuring poems by and about the U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. Readers include past and present Key West Poets and other Poetry Guild Members.
Presented by the Elizabeth Bishop Key West Committee
Key West Theatre Back Stage Listening Room
512 Eaton Street, Key West, FL, United States 33040
PAST READING
Elizabeth Bishop's 113th Birthday Party, February 8, 2024
Presented by the Elizabeth Bishop Key West Committee
The Garden's Hotel, 526 Angela Street, 5:00-7:00
Featuring poems by and about the U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. Readers include past and present Key West Poets and other Poetry Guild Members.
I read Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "Sestina".
RECENT PUBLICATION
Colbert, Janice. “Quick Tips. A Neat Way to Transfer Messy Food.” Cooks Illustrated, Sept/Oct. 2023, page 3.
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Rose and Brine
Colbert, Janice. Rose and Brine. Victoria, British Columbia, Frog Hollow Press, 2017, 48 pages.
Shortlisted for the second Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Contest. Rose and Brine, a robust forty-eight page poetry collection. The cover is based on my painting Luna.
On Lake Winnipeg. Prairie Fire 33. 2 (2012) and an award winner in the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award is included in this collection.
Here is the painting that the cover is based on.
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Colbert, Janice. Complement to Blue. League of Canadian Poets Fresh Voices 23. 19 July 2021
Colbert, Janice.The Locust Tree. League of Canadian Poets Fresh Voices 13. 25 October 2018
Colbert, Janice. Ice Pond. Literary Review of Canada 24.9 November (2016)
Colbert, Janice. The Bird Caged. Literary Review of Canada 21.1 January-February (2013): www.reviewcanada.ca
Cover image: Tétro Design Incorporated
Colbert, Janice. Dear Elizabeth Bishop. Prairie Fire 36.2 (2015)
Dear Elizabeth Bishop won honourable mention in the Bliss Carman Poetry Award Contest. The summer issue features the wonderful winning entries of the 2014 writing contests, along with an exciting mix of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
Cover image: Kristjana Gunnars
Colbert, Janice. On Lake Winnipeg. Prairie Fire 33. 2 (2012)
COMMENTARY FOR ON LAKE WINNIPEG
Sylvia Legris, 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize Winner
Janice Colbert interlaces the long lines of her poem “On Lake Winnipeg” with fragments of Vita Sackville-West’s garden writing. The eerie, rather ominous beauty of West’s celebrated moon garden (of white upon white blossoms) drives blind into a Manitoba blizzard. The collision of these two texts, while unexpected, almost shocking, culminates in a perfect image-swirling storm. The unnerving whiteout, a father collapsed on the ice, his fraught children; the stark harsh perils of winter juxtaposed with the fragile, ghostly blooms of “the snowflakes, the aconites, the scilla . . .” Colbert’s poem chillingly captures the ambivalence induced by winter—its otherworldly, menacing yet magnetic magnificence.
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Colbert, Janice, Jonathan Purdon and Diane Terrana. Angel Hold Still. Three. 6 vols. University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, 2008.
COMMENTARY FOR ANGEL HOLD STILL
Kylie Barker, Random House Canada
Angel Hold Still is an impressive collection of poetry by Janice Colbert—impressive in the sheer creativity in each poem, impressive in its ability to transport the reader to another place, impressive in the way the poems are simultaneously bold and delicate. Colbert's work is gripping and beautiful and simple. Angel Hold Still stood proudly apart from the rest of the crowd—from its pretty and quirky title to the various styles and structures used in each piece. It was hard to dismiss the imaginative energy of Colbert's work, and as a result, it ended up one of our three unanimous choices.
Marilyn Booth, Director, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
Janice Colbert's often Impressionistic poems take you on an excavation of memory's buried treasures—ones that sparkle still and others that time has rusted.
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LITERARY AWARDS
2014
Faculty of Arts Graduate Award (UBC)
Random House/Hazlitt Award in Creative Writing (UBC)
The Bliss Carman Poetry Contest honourable mention
"Dear Elizabeth Bishop" poem
2013
Faculty of Arts Graduate Award (UBC)
2011
The Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award second place winner
"On Lake Winnipeg" poem
Marina Nemat Award Winner for Poetry Manuscript Rose and Brine at U of T (SCS)
Jury: Karen Connelly, Kevin Connolly and Michael Lista
2010
Random House Creative Writing Award Shortlist (Poetry) at U of T (SCS) Sagacious Limbs
2008
Random House Award in Writing Winner (Poetry) at U of T (SCS) Angel Hold Still
POETRY READINGS
"In the Magic Hour." The Gardens Hotel, 526 Angela Street, Key West, Florida. 8 February 2023. I read my ekphrastic poem on Harris School, a watercolour c. 1941, painted by Elizabeth Bishop during the time that she lived in Key West.
"Complement to Blue." The Gardens Hotel, 526 Angela Street, Key West, Florida. 8 February 2022.
"Dear Elizabeth Bishop." Key West Theatre, 512 Eaton Street, Key West, Florida. 8 February 2020.
"The Locust Tree." Key West Poetry Guild. Key West, Florida. 2019.
"Elizabeth Bishop House-Great Village Nova Scotia." Key West Theatre Listening Room. Key West. 8 Feb. 2019.
Rose and Brine. The Platform Reading Series. Toronto. 26 April 2018.
"Dear Elizabeth Bishop." Key West Poetry Guild. Key West, Florida. 8 April 2018
Rose and Brine. Poetry Weekend 14, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. 29 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2017.
Rose and Brine. Art Bar Poetry Series, Toronto. 25 July 2017.
"Flamingo, Flamenco." University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 14 July 2014.
"On Lake Winnipeg." University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 16 July 2013.
Rose and Brine. University of Toronto (SCS), Toronto. 9 June 2011.
"Sagacious Limbs."University of Toronto (SCS), Toronto. 10 Nov. 2010.
"Angel Hold Still." Plasticine Poetry Series, Toronto. 19 July 2009.
"Angel Hold Still." University of Toronto (SCS), Toronto. 21 Nov. 2008.
The Humber School for Writers. 17 July 2008.
CREATIVE WRITING EDUCATION
2013-2016
MFA (Creative Writing) University of British Columbia, Vancouver
May 25, 2016
2005-2011
Creative Writing Certificate (Poetry) The University of Toronto, Toronto April 2011,
Catherine Graham, Poetry Introduction
Ken Babstock and Margaret Christakos, Poetry II
Ken Babstock, Poetry Master Class
Margaret Christakos, Influency: A Poetry Salon nos. 3-6,11
Margaret Christakos (mentor) Nyla Matuk (2nd reader) Final Project
2008
The Humber School for Writers Summer Workshop, Toronto
Karen Connelly (poetry mentor) 2008
