This Far North

“When the sound of water shapes sleep. / When cranes disappear from the river. / When maps unfold on hardwood floors. / When north becomes the only direction.” The poems in This Far North hold reverence for the natural world and the ways we find home when we pay attention to what it is offering. Tethered to northern landscapes, Susan Campbell invites readers to look, look deeper at the world’s myriad wonders, to pause and consider what we can learn when we stand still long enough to listen to the trill of kinglets, the susurration of water, snow sloughing in December rain. Seeking gratitude while navigating a world suffused with grief and loss, these poems are compass points, cairns to help us find our way.

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Advanced Praise

“Susan Campbell’s poems shine a great light, each one a whole world, shimmering with love and care. We first met one another thirty-four years ago, around a big table in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her poems felt instantly riveting, essential. I hoped her work would travel out, find many friends. This Far North, a gift to all of us, deserves wide celebration!”

— Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Grace Notes: Poems about Family

“How do we live in a waning world? How do we track what remains in the litany of all that is lost? These are the essential questions of This Far North. Bridging landscape and time, these poems invite readers to sit with the birch, the sun, the river, the ice. They ask us to set our small griefs beside us and allow what we see in nature to help steady us. ‘There are many ways to heal,’ Campbell writes. Readers will find that reading these poems is one of the ways.”

— Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, author of You Are No Longer in Trouble & WILLA Literary Award Winner