Roanna McClelland

At the end of the hottest year on record, it is the time for bold statements and bolder questions about the climate, our society, and the role we play. Two books published this fall take opposing views on the matter.

I write the first line of a poem: ‘I thought the river might heal me, but she is brackish on my tongue’. And I wonder what story I am trying to tell when I use rivers in my work. A wonderful academic tells me water is my ‘medium’ and even as I am flattered, part of me squirms. To what end? What am I trying to express when I speak with and through rivers and nature? Do I really think I can bend and shape something as slippery as water to tell my stories?