Close River

Close River is the winner of Magma's 2020 Open Pamphlet Competition, judged by Mary Jean Chan. She said:‘‘Alexa Winik’s pamphlet demands equal attention from the reader’s mind and heart as it evokes a tender eco-poetics that blurs the lines between the human and non-human. Crystalline language is coupled with vivid imagery and a keen attention to musicality, as demonstrated by wondrous lines such as these:

…one gannet falling then another.

The closed parachute of what

she’ll call my beautiful life

tucked somewhere inside

their shared logic of plummet

and raid and return.

I read some of these poems aloud, and loved hearing them as much as I appreciated reading them on the page. Overall, this is a sophisticated and thought-provoking collection that deserves to be widely read.”