“Salt and Ashes is one of those rare collections that astounds with its intensity and depth of emotion, without once sacrificing intellectual discipline and rigour. The long poem that forms the heart of the book, “Randonnées,” is a masterpiece of precision and intimacy.”
— Evelyn Lau, Tumour, A Grain of Rice, and Living Under Plastic
“In her stunning debut collection of poems, Drobnies observes ‘thoughts do not follow a mathematical order.’ Nor do feelings. As she dissects the visceral yet exquisite dilemma of how grief dismantles the narratives of our lives, we look over her shoulder, feel the shiver, and see anew.”
— Betsy Warland, Oscar of Between
Winner: Fred Kerner Book Award 2020 (Canadian Authors Association)
Judges’ Comments:
“A scientist mourning her husband in poetry is the heart of this extraordinary collection. Here is loss, lament, longing in elegiac measure. Deeply moving in the way that only very truthful poetry moves, Drobnies makes us walk with her, move with her, and share her sorrows and still fresh joys, as she trains our eyes on what we might never otherwise see but for her gift. In accompanying her, we receive a finer understanding of intimacy, grief, wisdom, freedom. A book-length haiku. Fearless, revelatory, packed full with love.”
“Salt and Ashes is a fearless, intimate, deeply affecting indelible debut collection of love, loss, longing and healing that unsettles, untangles, astounds and enlightens, lingering in the mind and soul long after Drobnies’ final poignant words are read.”
Longlisted for Fred Cogswell Award 2020
Review by John Swanson here in The British Columbia Review
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“This collection of essays by two dozen brave and dedicated citizens recounts one of the most significant environmental battles in the history of the West Coast. These pages speak for tens of thousands of people who participated over the years, many of them risking, and enduring, arrest, among many other hardships. Even if the short-term outcome failed to vindicate them, history most certainly will.”
— John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather and The Golden Spruce
“While the TMX project may sadly be complete, the movement to block its construction will be remembered as historic. This book provides an important record of what was a transformative struggle, both for the hundreds bravely arrested and for the thousands more for whom this project lays bare the lengths to which the fossil fuel industry and its political defenders will go to force this deadly infrastructure down our throats.”
— Seth Klein, author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency and team lead with the Climate Emergency Unit
“I started reading Standing on High Ground out of a sense of duty but soon found I was feeling a sense of delight—at the creativity, modesty, devotion, and good humour that so many have brought to this fight against the powers that be. I found it incredibly comforting to be reminded how many good people there are, and I’m confident these testimonies will convince many more to follow their hearts and act in defence of creation and in the spirit of human solidarity.”
— Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org (http://350.org/) and Third Act
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