Manitoulin poet has one of Quill & Quire's most anticipated fall releases

Manitoulin artist and poet Sophie Edwards says she's thrilled that her forthcoming poetry book, Conversations with the Kagawong River, has made Quill & Quire's list of its most highly anticipated fall releases. 

The book, set for release Oct. 1, is one of nine poetry books on the list, which also includes Margaret Atwood's Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961–2023.

"It's crazy. So I'm excited," Edwards said.

Edwards described the book as a mixture of visual and textual poetry that grew out of a period of several years spent connecting with the Kagawong River, initially with no intention of writing a book.

She would simply watch and listen to the river and follow its ribbons through the seasons, she said.

Collaborating with the river

Then she started writing and leaving poetry along the river.

"I started thinking a lot more about how I could invite collaboration with the river and how I could learn more about the river and its ecosystem by doing a different kind of poetry," she explained. 

"So over two or three years, I started leaving little cardboard and paper letters on the river for the river to engage with. So I would find, for instance, an otter trail and leave [poetry] along the otter trail, or I would hang pens from trees for the trees and the wind to write together."

The letters might get moved around by animals, and the resulting combinations might not spell words in either English or Anishinaabemowin, but Edwards saw the process as one of collaborating, she said.

The process forced her to slow down and pay attention and taught her how the ecosystem changes over time.

It also caused her to question whether, in an era of climate change, people could learn to interact differently with nature, she said.

Edwards spent some of her time on the river writing about its history, particularly the impact of colonialism, and contemplating her relationship with the river as a settler on the land.

"I didn't want to write something that was sort of romanticizing a landscape without understanding that there's all these histories that [have] changed it physically and sort of even ecologically," Edwards said.

"Kagawong was, you know, occupied by Indigenous people, and they were displaced in the process of colonization… So I couldn't write about it without really looking and grappling with that kind of history. And that's an ongoing history."

Edwards hopes the book will inspire others with its themes of slowing down, paying attention to the ecosystem, contemplating the history of places and reflecting on one's relationships to nature, she said.

It's a great book for non-poetry readers, she added, because it's filled with visuals. 

"I think they'll find it interesting because it's quite visually interesting," she said.

"So it's not a book that's hard to get into, right?"

Edwards will attend Wordstock Sudbury in November.