Drawdown
Finalist, Pamela Paige Porter Poetry Prize
In reservoirs, the drawdown zone is the land between high and low water where, due to fluctuating levels, a diversity of flora and fauna fail to thrive. Emily Nilsen’s Drawdown finds words for the grief of recurrent miscarriages in the shadow of a reservoir, where a once-lush valley no longer pulses with life.
Raw, vulnerable, and unflinchingly honest, Drawdown explores the overlap between ecology and physiology, looking for beauty in dysfunction and ways to coexist with industrial and unborn hauntings. These poems speak and listen in tandem as they navigate the waters of complicated loss.Available format(s)
Emily Nilsen was born and raised in Vancouver. Her first book of poetry, Otolith, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her poetry has also been longlisted for the UK National Poetry Prize and selected as a finalist for both the Pamela Paige Porter Poetry Prize and CBC Poetry Prize.
After receiving an MFA in Creative & Critical Studies (University of British Columbia, Okanagan), Nilsen published the chapbook Place, No Manual, a collection of micro-essays about past and present homes. Much of her writing continues to be informed by slow time in places, often remote or rural, where she has worked or lived for a long period of time. She currently lives in the upper Columbia River watershed.
Shortlisted: Pamela Paige Porter Poetry Prize
