He drinks tea with activists, eats corned beef hash with the Chief, and learns about the history of the dam, built on land that was never ceded, and Jenpeg, a town that now exists mostly in his memory.

Over the course of a week, he participates in community life, speaks with Elders and community members, and learns about the politics of the dam from Chief Cathy Merrick. Troubled, Ali returns north, looking to understand his place in this story and eager to listen. In a place where water is an integral part of social and cultural life, the community demands accountability for the harm that the utility has caused. Facing environmental destruction and broken promises from the Canadian government, they have evicted Manitoba’s electric utility from the dam on Cross Lake. When Ali goes searching, however, he finds not news of Jenpeg, but of the local Pimicikamak community. Does the town still exist, he wonders? Is the dam still operational? And yet, one day, the celebrated poet and essayist finds himself thinking of the boreal forests and lush waterways of Jenpeg, a community thrown up around the building of a hydroelectric dam on the Nelson River, where he once lived for several years as a child.

As a man passing through disparate homes, he has never felt he belonged to a place. The child of South Asian migrants, Kazim Ali was born in London, lived as a child in the cities and small towns of Manitoba, and made a life in the United States.

Winner of the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Award for Environmental LiteratureĪn Outside Magazine “Favorite Book of 2021”Ī Minneapolis Star Tribune “Book to Look Forward to in 2021”Ī Lambda Most Anticipated LGBTQ Book of March 2021 Finalist for the 2022 Lammy Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction

A northern light book