This Far North - by Susan Campbell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Bridging landscape and time, these poems invite readers to sit with the birch, the sun, the river, the ice. " -- Nicole Stellon O'Donnell, WILLA Literary Award Winner

This Far North by Susan Campbell is a luminous poetry collection that finds home, solace, and wonder in the northern landscapes of Alaska, connecting reverence for nature, reflection on grief, and the quiet power of attentiveness to the world around us.

"When the sound of water shapes sleep. / When cranes disappear from the river. / When maps unfold on hardwood floors. / When north becomes the only direction." The poems in This Far North hold reverence for the natural world and the ways we find home when we pay attention to what it is offering. Tethered to northern landscapes, Susan Campbell invites readers to look, look deeper at the world's myriad wonders, to pause and consider what we can learn when we stand still long enough to listen to the trill of kinglets, the susurration of water, snow sloughing in December rain. Seeking gratitude while navigating a world suffused with grief and loss, these poems are compass points, cairns to help us find our way.

Review Quotes

"Susan Campbell's poems shine a great light, each one a whole world, shimmering with love and care. We first met one another thirty-four years ago, around a big table in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her poems felt instantly riveting, essential. I hoped her work would travel out, find many friends. This Far North, a gift to all of us, deserves wide celebration!"
-- Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Grace Notes: Poems about Family

"How do we live in a waning world? How do we track what remains in the litany of all that is lost? These are the essential questions of This Far North. Bridging landscape and time, these poems invite readers to sit with the birch, the sun, the river, the ice. They ask us to set our small griefs beside us and allow what we see in nature to help steady us. There are many ways to heal, Campbell writes. Readers will find that reading these poems is one of the ways."
-- Nicole Stellon O'Donnell, author of You Are No Longer in Trouble & WILLA Literary Award Winner

About the Author

Susan Campbell's life as a poet, teacher, book artist and outdoor adventurer is tethered to the far north. Her poems have appeared in various journals, including Ploughshares, Cirque, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Ice Floe II: International Poetry of the Far North, and in a specially commissioned musical score. She often incorporates poems in handmade artist books. The Alaska State Museum and the University of Alaska Rasmuson Library own some of her work She was a 2024 recipient of an Alaska State Council on the Arts Literary Award and has been an artist-in-residence in Denali National Park. Fairbanks, Alaska is her home.