The Alaska Literary Series (University of Alaska Press) Presents: Spirit Things

A collection of essays exploring the secret histories, myths, and science of objects on a fishing boat in Alaska by Lara Messersmith-Glavin and illustrated by Roger Peet

"Lara Messersmith-Glavin's essays are simultaneously thrilling and insightful… I was awestruck." --Liz Prato, author of Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawai'i

PORTLAND, Ore., May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit Things recounts stories of fishing, family, synesthesia, storytelling, gender, and violence against the backdrop of the Alaskan fishing industry. Each essay follows an object through its history, drawing together the delicate lines that link things through their making and use, their genesis and evolution, and the ways they gain significance in an individual's life. 

"The sensual pleasure of Messersmith-Glavin's language interweaves with her capacious spiritual inquiry; her lithe prose is an absolute delight. This luminous, magnificent project is a gift [she] has brought us from the ocean, full of awe and beauty, salt and light." –Alicia Jo Rabins, author of Divinity School

Fishing nets, a favorite knife, or the bioluminescent gleam of seawater in a twilight that never truly grows dark—these things provide an entry point for meditations on the ways in which patterns, magic, and wonder overlap. Spirit Things are those mundane objects that offer new insights into the world on closer consideration.

Lara Messersmith-Glavin is a writer, educator, and performer based in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in Across the Margin, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Radiant Voices: 21 Feminist Essays for Rising Up, Anchored in Deep Water: the Fisherpoets Anthology, and elsewhere. She was awarded the AtM 2018 Best Nonfiction Award, and the Chinalyst Award for Best Travel Writing in 2008.

Available now: https://www.upcolorado.com/university-of-alaska-press/item/4172-spirit-things

Spirit Things by Lara Messersmith-Glavin
Publication date: April 2022
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60223-455-0
202 pages; 17 illustrations
EISBN: 978-1-60223-456-7
For more information: https://queenofpirates.net
6 x .07 x 9 inches; 9.6 ounces

Contact:
Lara Messersmith-Glavin
9712195046
[email protected]

SOURCE Lara Messersmith-Glavin