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"A lingering, long-haul collection of writing about sailing for readers of Julietta Singh and Kyo Maclear."--Provided by publisher.
About the author
Phoebe Wang is a first-generation Chinese-Canadian who lives and sails in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of the poetry collections Admission Requirements (M&S, 2017), shortlisted for the Gerald Lambert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Trillium Book Award, and Waking Occupations (M&S, 2022), and her fiction and nonfiction have been widely published. She is an adjunct professor and mentor in the University of Toronto Creative Writing MA program.
Summary
A lingering, long-haul collection of writing about sailing for readers of Julietta Singh and Kyo Maclear.
Humans
have sailed for centuries, but as poet Phoebe Wang discovers, when you
step on a boat for the first time, the learning curve is steep. Relative to Wind documents
Wang’s decade-long journey of learning to sail, becoming an avid racer
and volunteer race organizer, and interrogating what it means to be a
relative newcomer to an old tradition.
Drawing literary inspiration from books like Jessica Lee’s Turning, Kyo Maclear’s Birds Art Life, and Leanne Shapton’s Swimming Studies, Wang
delivers thoughtful renderings of her experiences—from colonial echoes
in sailing language to a beautiful look at what it means like to work
alongside crewmates in tempestuous conditions, to battling the
desire to quit or gender equity in the sporting world.
Following
the motif of a race course and structured to help readers apply sailing
lessons and techniques to their relationships, to their art, their
careers, to community, and to place, these essays recognize the
parallels between sailing and a creative life, and between sailing and a
sense of belonging and relationship with the land, inspiring both
sailors and would-be sailors to embrace restoration and wonder.
Foreword
- Author appearances in Pacific Northwest
- Review campaign with emphasis on targeting freelancers in coastal and Great Lakes regions, and sailing publications like SAILING Magazine and Good Old Boat
- Outreach and giveaways through a curated list of Assembly Press influencers and sailing enthusiast influencer websites
- Excerpt campaign
- Co-op available
- Digital galleys available; additional digital review copy distribution to media, booksellers, and librarians through Edelweiss
- Additional promotion in Spring 2025 to tie into boat launch season
- Promotion on Assembly Press website, social media, and newsletters
- Author is on Instagram (@primrosepaths), Facebook (@bumperharvest), and Twitter/X (@alittleprint)
- Author website: alittleprint.com
