Pitchblende

Elise Marcella Godfrey's PITCHBLENDE is a powerful poetry collection that explores the environmental and social impacts of uranium mining in Northern Saskatchewan. It challenges us to rethink our responsibilities to the land, water, and air and to defend the natural world from the forces of industry, capitalism, and colonialism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2021
Publisher: University of Regina Press

When we began to perceive metal beyond its medicinal and bodily applications, our understanding expanded to encompass its significance as a mineral resource. In this captivating poetry collection, an emerging environmental voice emerges to shed light on the profound issues of extraction, destruction, and the erasure of Indigenous people. Situated at Rabbit Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, the second-largest uranium mine in the western world has left a lasting impact on the land, water, and inhabitants. For decades, uranium ore and its toxic by-product, pitchblende, a highly radioactive rock, have been extracted, transported, and dispersed across the region, forever altering the lives of plants, animals, and the communities that reside there. Elise Marcella Godfrey's PITCHBLENDE is a potent and politically charged collection that urges us to reevaluate our responsibilities towards the land, water, and air that sustains all species, as well as our interconnectedness with one another. Drawing inspiration from testimonies given during public hearings about the Rabbit Lake mine, which prioritized the interests of industrial entities, Godfrey skillfully gathers voices from various found texts and incorporates her own, advocating for the protection of the natural world. Through interconnected poems, Godfrey presents a choral and visual representation of how industry, capitalism, and colonialism strive to erase the voices and experiences of affected peoples. This collection serves as a powerful reminder of the urgent need to address the ongoing injustices and protect the integrity of our planet and its inhabitants.

Weight: 128g
Dimension: 141 x 215 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780889778405