Is including a chapbook in this list cheating? I’m not sure, and frankly, after reading Sadiqa de Meijer’s Fieldwork, I don’t much care. I’m a fan of de Meijer’s writing; I taught her 2020 book alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language for a couple of years, and I loved its combination of luminous prose and learned discussions of language acquisition, migration, translation, and poetry. It’s no wonder that book won the 2021 Governor General’s Award for nonfiction. She’s currently the poet laureate of Kingston, Ontario.
If alfabet/alphabet is a main course, Fieldwork, a lecture delivered at Queen’s University’s Page Lecture, named in honour of Kingston poet Joanne Page, is a dessert. I loved this short essay, particularly the notion that non-Indigenous languages on Turtle Island are like the introduced species settlers brought with them and which have become ubiquitous: dandelions, starlings, burdock. I had no idea de Meijer was also a visual artist, but the references to her work in a 2023 group show at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, With the Land, had me searching the internet for images (which were easy to find). I loved the reflections on Etty Hillesum and her reflections on how the material of writing–whether one is writing on clay or palm fronds, on a vertical or horizontal surface–will determine how the language comes to be written down. I wonder if Fieldwork is in part an appetizer for her forthcoming book, which is due this fall. If so, I’ll be looking forward to another meal of her words.
Chapbooks can be hard to find—they aren’t stocked by most retailers—and you can find this one at Knife Fork Book’s online store.