A WHIRLWIND

Over a year of Moldovan Hotel, now! I was lucky to celebrate with photographer Chelsea Yang-Smith, who took this portrait on a cloudy day in the foothills. I don't know about you, but this wasn't the shmita year I thought it would be. I only wish the themes of this text were less and less immediate for many peoples, everywhere. I'm grateful to readers and reviewers like rob mclennan for their careful devotion to what I know is a difficult collection to visit in a churning news cycle. When I started writing this book in 2017, I couldn't have imagined how poems like Typhus or You Are My Hiding Place would change in resonance. I also didn't imagine the pandemic, which wretchedly continues—so while I loved Mohkinstis/Calgary, I missed my family terribly, and even a quick flight is still a flight! At the end of July, I moved back to Saskatoon, Treaty Six Cree Territory and the homelands of the Métis. It's a joy to be home after twelve years away. Keinayinhora, I'll be able to visit those mountains and frozen waterfalls and wonderful independent bookstores safely again (and friends on Unceded Coast Salish Territories, who I also miss terribly!) soon. Shana Tovah to everyone as we enter a new year on Jewish time. May it be the sweetness we all need, and then some.