A contest honoring late Sarnia poet Carmen Ziolkowski attracted nearly 100 poems entered from across Canada.
The winners were selected by Ziolkowski’s friends and fellow writers, Ryan Gibbs, Rhonda Melanson and Lois Nantais.
The Lawrence House literary arts committee said in a news release that Tanya Standish McIntyre, a poet and visual artist living in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, was awarded the $500 first prize $500, donated by Ziolkowski’s family, for her poem, Conceive of a Circle .
Second prize, $250, was awarded to Toronto poet Renée M. Sgroi for in metamorphosis while the $100 third prize was awarded to Burlington poet and educator Karen Kerekes for Tree of Life.
Honorable mentions were awarded to Moni Brar, a poet from the lands of the Treaty 7 Region and Syilx Okanagan Nation, for Morning Miracles and to Adrienne Stevenson, a poet from Ottawa, for Re[1]wilding.
The winning entries in the Carmen Ziolkowski Poetry Prize contest can be found on the Uproar literary blog at lawrencehouse.ca/uproar.
“We ended up with 36 entries and nearly 100 poems,” Gibbs said. “A lot of the poems were really in place with the theme, so I think we were really impressed with them.”
He said, “We were looking for poems that were nature-based and hopeful,” to “celebrate” Ziolkowski’s spirit.
“I think people gravitated to that, across the country,” Gibbs said. “That was a nice feeling. I think it was good timing for it to take place in the winter and have a really spring-kind-of theme.
“I think that drew a lot of people.”
Ziolkowski was born near Naples, Italy, and died in Sarnia in 2018 at age 94.
“She was kind of a life force in the local writing community,” Gibbs said.
“She was the person that people easily gravitated towards. She was a very warm and inviting person, and she just seemed to really enjoy writing” while “also enjoying life,” he said.
Gibbs said they would like to offer the contest again.
“There seems to be support, as well, from the Ziolkowski family, so it seemed to be a good venture,” he said.
“It was actually Carmen’s idea. She wanted to have a poetry contest. It was really great to make her wishes come true.”