Close River by Alexa Winik

Pamphlet Competition 2020.

The competition was judged by Mary Jean Chan, who said:

‘‘Alexa Winik’s pamphlet demands equal attention from the reader’s mind and heart as it evokes a tender eco-poetics that blurs the lines between the human and non-human. Crystalline language is coupled with vivid imagery and a keen attention to musicality, as demonstrated by wondrous lines such as these:

…one gannet falling then another.
The closed parachute of what
she’ll call my beautiful life
tucked somewhere inside
their shared logic of plummet
and raid and return.

I read some of these poems aloud, and loved hearing them as much as I appreciated reading them on the page. Overall, this is a sophisticated and thought-provoking collection that deserves to be widely read.”