Poet Sonja Swift Brings Wolf Book to Elk River Books

California-based poet Sonja Swift presents her multi-genre look at wolves, Echo Loba, Loba Echo: Of Wisdom, Wolves and Women, at Elk River Books located at 122 S. 2nd Street on Thursday, June 12th, at 7 pm. A book signing and reception will follow.

Echo Loba, Loba Echo is a story about the metaphor of the wolf and how this is echoed in the lives and minds of people: a metaphor that embodies worldviews colliding, and the collision, the fallout, we live with still. It is a story about wolves’ own cultures, survival stories, acts of rebellion, and vital roles in maintaining healthy territories. And it is also a story about what we have been told to forget, or never even knew, and what wolves show us about ourselves. Through essay and poetry, the metaphor of the wolf, and loba (for she-wolf) is examined the way one might observe the light off a prism, in multi-dimensional ways.

The book, which features a foreword by acclaimed Anishinaabe writer Winona LaDuke, is a "thought-provoking look at the relationships among humans, the land, and other species; and a call for a profound and imperative change in these relationships—a call for co-existence and respect,” writes ecologist and author Barbara J. Moritsch.

“Meticulously researched and beautifully rendered, Echo Loba spans continents, languages, traditions, and genres,” notes Seema Reza, author of A Constellation of Half-Lives. “Through visceral poetry and clear, lyrical prose, Swift shows us how the destruction of wolves is related to the destruction of our relationship with the Earth. This hybrid work is an incantation, a spell, a dream.”

Swift is a writer and poet of hybrid forms. Her work has appeared in Dark Matter: Women Witnessing, Landscape Magazine, Catamaran Literary Reader, Fire & Rain: Ecopoetry of California, Rock & Sling, Barren Magazine, Wild Gods, Kestrel Journal, and The Madrona Project: Human Communities in Wild Places, among others. She is the author of Alphabet Atlas, a chapbook of prose poems published by Deconstructed Artichoke Press and Tarot of Transformation, a series of short stories published by True Story. She holds an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts, an individualized MA from Goddard College and a BA in cultural ecology from the University of California Santa Cruz.

For those who can’t attend in person, the event will live-stream at YouTube.com/ ElkRiverBooks. For more information, send an email to info@elkriverbooks.com or call (406) 333-2330.