Notes from Lytton

EDITION #04

Notes from Lytton

Most mornings, I walk my daughter Helen to school. It’s Lytton, which is another way of saying it’s windy; the biggest gusts hit us at the end of the dirt road, right where the view opens up and the Fraser reflects winter sunlight back at us. Helen’s long hair tangles around her face and backpack and she laughs as the wind tries to knock her over. “That’s a cheeky wind,” she says.

When I think about a sense of place, of belonging, it’s this: this view, this wind, this nine-year-old kid laughing beside me. In everything, in the writing and the projects and the work I’ve been doing, it always comes back to this.

Two collaborations

Emergence: Women in the Storm

I’m so lucky to have been included in a new feature documentary, Emergence: Women in the Storm. The film, directed by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, weaves my poems from Burning Sage together with the stories of women who have experienced or are preparing for climate disasters in BC and the Northwest Territories.

Emergence premieres next week at the Victoria Film Festival, and will be screening at film festivals around BC. My Events & Collaborations page has an up-to-date schedule.

I’ll be at the screenings in Hope on February 21 and in Vancouver on February 25, which will include Q&As. I’d love to see you there.

If the Earth Could Sing

In March, Elektra Choir sings the world premiere of Andrew Staniland’s Songs from the Lytton Fire, a choral interpretation of three poems from Burning Sage. The concert, If the Earth Could Sing, will feature other pieces as well and will be “a transformative concert exploring our changing planet.”

Here are concert details and a composer Q&A with Andrew Staniland. I’ll be at the concert on March 28; I’m really looking forward to it, and hope to see you there too.

What I’m working on

Writing

I’m both excited and intimidated to be working on a new book, literary nonfiction this time, with support from a Canada Council for the Arts grant. Somehow, I imagine the book to be a tumbleweed blowing down Lytton’s Main Street in the time before the fire, gathering stories and momentum as it goes.

Editing & climate storytelling

Alongside the book, I’ve been working with talented authors as a trauma-informed editor on their deep, vulnerable projects; and with climate organizations on storytelling for climate justice. These strands of work intertwine: all of them are shaped by language, by story, by connection. I’m grateful for all of it.

Here are two of the beautiful books I’ve been lucky to work on recently; these were both published in 2025. I highly recommend them both.

Bones Muscle Skin
Jaxon Makowecki

A coming-of-age story that holds both the pain and beauty of a body shaped by trauma, chronic illness, and a search for home: “a eulogy to my childhood.”

Author’s Linktree
Bones Muscle Skin on Amazon.ca

Please consider supporting Jaxon’s fundraiser for a power wheelchair.

Too Jagged to Hold
Kristen G. Hornung

“These poems draw the reader into the paradox of life after trauma: where self-protection meets vulnerability, despair gives way to resilience, and even the sharpest edges can become sites of connection.”

Author’s website
Too Jagged to Hold on Amazon.ca

Question

Do you know of any books that take place in Lytton?

I have a few (Where the Blood Mixes, Hetty Dorval, Home Waltz) and would love to hear of more. Please reply to this email and let me know.

Belonging: this view, this wind, this home.

With love from Lytton,

Meghan