May 1. 2022

Two accomplishments to report:

1. My poetry manuscript ‘persist, perish, escape,’ about the fate of gardens on abandoned properties, has won Third Place in the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize!

2. My book ‘a glimpse of water fall’ has been shortlisted for the New Brunswick Book Awards, The Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize! I will find out the winner in June at the New Brunswick Book Awards presentations!

~

~

June 27, 2020

So happy today! I have received a Creations Grant from artsNB (the New Brunswick Arts Board) to produce a poetry manuscript about abandoned gardens. When houses or communities are abandoned, plants from gardens may die, thrive in place or escape to adjacent places. My project will be to track down these gardens and write about them. What a great way to use my skills as a botanist and a poet, and to enjoy our province in the summer months! I will be blogging about my project, so stay tuned!

~

April 30, 2020

I am proud to announce that my manuscript of poetry ‘a glimpse of sickle moon’ has won Third Place in the New Brunswick Writers’ Federation (WFNB) Competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize for poetry manuscript.

~

‘within easy reach’ – my first book of poetryi

I am so happy to announce the publication of my first book of poetry and drawings – ‘within easy reach’

The poems in the book are about eating local foods, especially edible wild plants. There are poems about berry picking, gardening, herb-gathering and fishing. My favorite poems in the collection are about unusual local foods – goose tongue greens, samphire greens and cactus berries.

My book is available from Chapel Street Editions (Woodstock, New Brunswick) at www.chapelstreeteditions.com , Westminster Books in Fredericton, Amazon.com and elsewhere.

~

~

May 11, 2016

I am happy to announce that my poetry manuscript ‘within easy reach’

has won the WFNB Alfred G. Bailey Prize (First Prize) for best poetry manuscript!

~

in the shelter of the covered bridge – manuscript completed!

Last year, in the competition of April 1, 2015, I was awarded a Creation Grant from artsnb (The New Brunswick Arts Board). The award was to create a manuscript of poems about plants and animals living in the shelter of covered bridges in New Brunswick.

I have now completed the manuscript and am ready to submit my final report. During the project I visited 28 covered bridges in the drainage basin of the Saint John River and 5 in Charlotte and Westmorland Counties. I was also able to use the notes and records from my visits to some covered bridges in 1992.

The final manuscript includes  81 pages, 8 new drawings, and 63 poems, organised into five themes:

limnal spaces – 8 poems about bridges as places of transition and change

notch of a lily pad – 10 poems about the covered bridge as habitat

grit of a blade – 9 poems about engravings and graffiti produced by human visitors to the covered bridge

a blade of grass between thumbs -10 poems about mysterious discoveries in covered bridges

heads of timothy – 6 poems about encounters at the bridge

gaps between boards – 10 poems about deterioration and loss due to vandalism, fire and flood

a loose board rattles – 10 poems about the sounds resonating in a covered bridge

~

Many thanks to artsnb for helping me in the making of the manuscript and for the chance to undertake such an enjoyable project!

~

~

Accomplishments for 2015

~

In preparation for my upcoming poetry book ‘within easy reach’, I have opened by my Website at www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com

The website has links to my blog as well as a place to feature samples of my poetry, art and other interests.

I hope you visit soon!

~

janetimsdotcom

Jane Tims – writer and artist

~

Earlier this year, in the competition of April 1, 2015, I was awarded a Creation Grant from artsnb (The New Brunswick Arts Board) to support my writing of a poetry manuscript called ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’. The poems are the result of visits to 38 covered bridges in New Brunswick and observations of the wild life found there.

~

Accomplishments for 2014

~

Completed artsnb Creations Grant project ‘harvesting colour’ with a manuscript of 57 poems in 73 pages, organised in five themes;

‘something brilliant to wear’ – 10 poems

‘a feast of berries’- 10 poems

‘take comfort in brown’- 12 poems

‘simmer, never boil’- 11 poems, and

‘the twist travels the line’- 14 poems.

~

Published ten poems.  This makes a total of 74 poems published in 19 literary journals:

Title	Publication
almost	Dalhousie Review upcoming
Drop spindle	Canadian Stories 17 (99),October/November 2014
Sea Lavender	Canadian Stories 17 (99),October/November 2014
Rough Bedstraw	Canadian Stories 17 (99),October/November 2014
a string of light bulbs	Between the Lines: The Journal of Hockey Literature 1 (1)
beekeeper	Canadian Stories 17 (95), February/March 2014
apple pie, no apples	Canadian Stories 17 (95), February/March 2014
small-scale economy	Canadian Stories 16 (94), December 2013/ January 2014

cloudberries in Bottles	CAROUSEL 33, Summer/Fall 2014
cactus berries	CAROUSEL 33, Summer/Fall  2014

~

Sold four paintings:

‘horses along Pengarrock Hill’ – watercolour

‘Rainbow gate in Falmouth’ – watercolour

‘gate in Ponsanooth’ – watercolour

‘iron gate in Cornwall’ – acrylic

~

Read from ‘harvesting colour’ manuscript as featured reader at Odd Sundays at Mollys, November 16, 2014

~

February 23, 2014

My painting, ‘rainbow gate in Falmouth’, on display at Isaac’s Way Restaurant in Fredericton, is sold!  The entire proceeds will go to charity – children’s theatre.  I will replace it with my painting ‘gate in Ponsanooth’, also in my series on gates and entryways in Cornwall.

~

~

December 20, 2013

I am so happy to announce …  I am the recipient of an artsnb Creations Grant for poetry.  The grant is to cover a six month period starting in 2014 and is to write a poetry manuscript on ‘harvesting colour’.  This is my second Creations Grant and I am so grateful to the New Brunswick Arts Board (artsnb) for supporting this work!

Here is a short excerpt from my proposal:

“… a book-length poetry manuscript about the experience of using plant dyes for colouring textiles.

The poems will explore the activities of collecting plants, extracting their dyes and using them to colour woven fabric.  These activities will be expressed as metaphors for human experience and emotion.  Embedded in the poems will be ideas about reconnection with nature and about cultural expression through the decoration of fabric.  My poems will include psychological connections with colour (red/danger, blue/calm).

I want to write poems about ‘saddening’ the colour by adding a pinch of salt, and ruining a dye lot by forgetting to tend it well.   I will write about oak leaf imprints on cloth, the different yellows created with apple bark and poplar leaf, and the irony of adding threads of tea-dyed cotton to a synthetic weave. My poems will explore the ordinary life experience of plant dyes – grass stains on knees, the grey Choke-cherry jelly bag, the Cranberry stain on the tablecloth...”

This grant will help to focus my creative endeavors and will give me an opportunity to focus full-time on my writing.  I can hardly wait to begin!!!

~

~

August 6, 2013

My poem ‘Rhubarb’ has won 2nd place in the 2012 International Quill Quarrel poetry contest (based in Newfoundland).  To see the poem and the poetry of the 1st and 3rd place winners, please go to:

http://theiqq.webs.com/winners-of-2012

 

April 25, 2013

I am happy to announce … I am the recipient of an ‘Honorable Mention’ in the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick literary competition (category Alfred G. Bailey Prize, 2013) for my manuscript of poems ‘within easy reach – growing and gathering local foods’.

~

This is the group of poems I worked on last year under a Creations Grant with artsnb.  The poems were developed as I sampled various wild foods available in New Brunswick.

To see some of this work, just click on the category ‘growing and gathering’.

~

Shari Andrews, another member of my writing group Wolf Tree Writers, also received Honorable Mention for her manuscript of poetry ‘Waltzing the Mirror’!

~

~

January 16, 2012

I have had a few poems accepted for publication recently.  These include:

~ the poem ‘Cornrows’ will appear in an upcoming issue of The Antigonish Review

~ the poems ‘abandoned resort hotel, Devil’s Head’;  ‘Berries in Cellophane’; and ‘1941 International K-4’ will appear in The Lion’s Head Magazine (online) http://lionsheadpress.blogspot.ca/

~ the poem ‘beaked hazelnuts’ will appear in PRISM international (January, 2013)

~ the poem ‘slabwood and loft’ will appear in Carousel early this year.

Have a look at my post for January 18, 2013 for more information on these poems.

December 2, 2012

I am looking forward to being one of the featured readers at Molly’s in Fredericton this Sunday, December 2.  Odd Sundays at Molly’s features readers every second Sunday and provides a wonderful venue for writers to gather and hear one-another’s work.  I willl be reading poems from my ‘growing and gathering local foods’ poetry manuscript.  My co-reader is Joan Clark, currently Writer-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton.

~

November 1, 2012

I have heard back from artsnb and they have accepted my ‘growing and gathering local foods’ poetry manuscript as complete!!!  I submitted the final report in October.  The result is a manuscript of poems and drawings entitled ‘within easy reach’ – 159 pages, 121 poems and 29 original drawings.

I can’t believe the project is over.  It was incredibly enjoyable.  My husband and I went on many excursions to identify plants and collect them for eating.  I prepared many dishes, a few shared on this Blog.  And, I spent hours at my desk, researching each plant, and building my poems from the notes and my experience.

Of course, there is still work to do.  I have to prepare for a reading in December as featured reader at Odd Sundays at Molly’s in Fredericton.  I also have to pare down the content and get the manuscript ready to send to a publisher.  And I will spend hours just hoping for a book to come from it all.

I now have six months of ‘hiatus’ until my next project begins.  Although I will continue to work on my poetry and drawing, I have decided to spend the majority of the time working on a novel.   More about this later.

Thanks to the readers of my Blog for all your kind comments and support!

Jane

June 14, 2012

It may seem strange to be reporting on a work-related accomplishment a month and a half after I have retired, but I am proud to say, the Website I worked on as my last major effort has been published!

The Website is part of the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government’s effort to encourage municipalities and other communities to undertake sustainability planning.  Sustainability Plans, sometimes also called Green Plans, help communities map out the actions they will take to become environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.    Many communities in New Brunswick have completed Sustainability Plans, and are working to accomplish the various actions identified.  The Website will help other communities to undertake their own Sustainability Plans.

The Website was announced by the Honorable Bruce Fitch, the Minister of the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government at the Annual Meeting of the New Brunswick Association of Municipal Administrators on June 14, 2012.

You can see the Website at   http://www.gnb.ca/0009/0136/0006/index-e.asp

The Website was the combined effort of a number of people, and I want to acknowledge their hard work in bringing this project to completion!

 

June 8, 2012

I want to thank the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment for presenting me with a Distinguished Service Award at their Awards Ceremony on June 8, 2012.

It was an enjoyable evening where I saw and reconnected with many friends.

The Award is presented to those who have worked with the Council over a number of years and are retiring.

The Gulf of Maine Council is an amazing partnership of government and non-government agencies and organisations whose work brings together five jurisdictions (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts) to protect and enhance the environmental quality of the Gulf of Maine.

May 17, 2012

I am so glad to tell you, I have graduated with my Bachelor of Arts, with First Class Honors in History and Anthropology.  I began the degree in 2002, working part-time on courses, during evenings and summer-session.  I did a lot of reading, and wrote a stack of papers, mostly in the fields of Medieval History and Mesoamerican Archaeology.

I have previous degrees in Biology, but I have always been interested in History since my Dad was a History teacher.  I also wanted to write about history and wanted some credentials and training to do this with confidence.

I have finished at last and I learned so much.  I am proof you can follow your dreams at any age!

 

~

April 25, 2012

I am happy to announce … I am the recipient of an “Honorable Mention’ in the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick literary competition (category Alfred G. Bailey Prize, 2012) for my manuscript of poems ‘water fall’.

The winner of the Competition in this category is Kathy Mac, for her manuscript “The Point of This Whole Implausible Set-up” .  Kathy is a member of my writing group Wolf Tree Writers!

The following is what  Sandra Ridley, competition judge, said about my manuscript:

“water fall” (Jane Tims)

“water fall” shows risk in its conveyance of a heart-breaking message, with nimbleness and strength. This is a cohesive manuscript built with tight lines that accrue density. Rife with sensuality and gripping with a sense of loss, the opening serial poem “backbone” sets the right tone for a book-length long-poem – a real accomplishment of a difficult task.

~

December 19, 2011

I am so happy to announce …  I am the recipient of an artsnb Creations Grant for poetry.  The grant is to cover a six month period starting May 1, 2012 and is to write a poetry manuscript on ‘growing and gathering local foods’.

Here is a short excerpt from my proposal:

“… to write a poetry manuscript on collecting and producing local foods. 

I want to capture the experiences of ‘growing and gathering’, exploring these activities

with respect to my quality of life and relationship with the environment. 

Local food production is a timely topic, addressing concerns about sustainability

and the energy demands of a long-range food economy.

The poems will focus on gardening and collecting in the wild, and include poems about

planting seeds, fighting slugs, tapping trees for syrup,

brewing wintergreen tea, preparing tomatoes for first frost, and so on.

Sustenance activities are a rich source of metaphor.

Gathering chokecherries, for example, engages the senses, aggravates my arthritis,

evokes the annual cycle of life, and transfers summer into breakfast toast and jelly on a winter morning. 

My poems will include the tension between wanting to be self-reliant and longing to be lazy …”

This grant will come as I retire from my current work, and will give me an opportunity to focus full-time on my writing.  I can hardly wait to begin!!!