For more than 70 years Sulima Malzin has found writing (in Toni Morrison’s words) to be a way of … not just feeling, but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic, or just sweet. She considers herself lucky to have been able to learn through direct experience, and not without scars, to accept Life with a capital L on its own terms for the bittersweet journey that it is … a fragile weave of light & dark, joy & sorrow, grace & grit … and to write about it using words that both trudge and dance.
Born in 1939 in rural Connecticut to a Russian mother and German father during a time when ethnic prejudice, racism, and misogyny ran high, Sulima grew up thinking of herself as something akin to a “political prisoner.” But this was not the storyline she wanted to follow, and once what she calls her ancestral resilience kicked in and partnered up with the unrelenting curiosity she seemed to have been born with, Sulima found herself opening windows that offered views of a more vibrant landscape.
Although she has loved reading, writing, and playing with words since childhood, and although her writing has appeared in print here and there on occasion, Sulima never assembled her writing into book form until very recently.
Since 2021, however, she has published five. They include two editions of Words That Dance, a small volume of (mostly) poetry, Arms Filled With Bittersweet, a hybrid memoir, All in the Soup Together … Four Seasons of Recipes & Reflections, (for those who like soup and poetry on the same menu) and her latest chapbook, Tributaries, a thoughtful collection of cento and cento-like poems paying homage to the poets and artists who have influenced her work.
Following her retirement from 20 plus years in the field of addiction recovery and another 15 companioning elders with dementia, Sulima began writing in earnest and facilitating writing workshops and retreats for other aging rascals and occasional writers curious to discover where their writing might take them.
If you have found your way to this website, you know that Sulima’s writing is not limited to her books. Her occasional postings of Light Waves are inspired by her never-ending interest in Life’s everyday questions and her willingness to share what she’s wondering about.
If you’re interested in participating in an ongoing conversation about poetry, music, writing, aging, activism, or just plain rascality, don’t hesitate to introduce yourself in the comments.
And, of course, if you’d like to purchase a book or several, you are more than welcome to do that too.