NONE OF THIS BELONGS TO ME
Nightwood Editions
October 16, 2021
In this vibrant debut, Ellie Sawatzky rustles the underbrush of identity, seeking clarity on the nature of ownership and belonging. Haunted and inspired by old boyfriends, girls named Emily, ancestral ghosts, polar bears and mythic horses, None of This Belongs to Me plots a young woman’s coming of age in a time of environmental and socio-economic peril. From rural Ontario to Kitsilano to Burning Man, Sawatzky inquires into childhood learning, girlhood learning, what is inherited, what is acquired, what begins to take form in the iridescent space between innocence and experience (“The body’s crystal arithmetic”). Superimposing dreamscapes on realities, history on pop culture and everyday sorrows, this collection is a hymn for the broken-hearted, a plea for connection in the information age, and a call to question the ways in which we both nurture and harm one another and our environment.
None of This Belongs to Me is pertinent now more than ever, as Sawatzky’s generation comes of age in a tumultuous time, forced to consider all of that which does not—and may never—belong to them. These poems invite readers to explore our inner and outer worlds, to question the ways we inhabit them, to infuse our modern lives with our potent histories.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
WHERE TO FIND NONE OF THIS BELONGS TO ME
You can order None of This Belongs to Me
directly from my publisher, here.
Orders can also be placed with your
favourite indie bookstore.
PRAISE FOR NONE OF THIS BELONGS TO ME
“Despite the often dark overtones to some of the subject matter, Sawatzky’s poems retain a light and airy feeling on the page. Every word is measured and purposeful, the images building to a crescendo: “love leaves its trace, / lit up like a glowstick” (75). Sawatzky’s poems allow us access into these snapshots of moments in time, and her voice as a poet is as clear as the crystals that she describes sparkling on a bedside table.
—Andrea MacPherson, from “Lit Up Like a Glowstick”, Canadian Literature review
"Loneliness is its own magic, the way the earth makes room." This book is shimmer, fire and parch, a fever dream of nostalgia and lament, like a startling tumble into a cold lake or the trance of sleeping too long in the sun. These poems thrum with the natural world and the uneasy fresh starts of womanhood "digressing in the rattler-happy crabgrass." Run to them.
—Nancy Lee, author of What Hurts Going Down
“A man floats by with a bouquet / of greyhounds”; “doctors windsurf between ice floes / sipping martinis from IV bags”; “a girl sees a man pee her name in the sand” and a woman “zoom(s) out / on the lithium-green Anthropocene,” only to find hope in a “post-Tinder codeine dream.” These poems surprise me in my favorite way. Line by line, they throw off sparks. They shed estranging light on a world I thought I knew, and cover vast landscapes in a line-break. In this searching and disarmingly intimate debut, Ellie Sawatzky waves a glowstick through the dark night of the soul.
—Suzanne Buffam, author of A Pillow Book
SOME OF THE POEMS FROM NONE OF THIS BELONGS TO ME HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET
“This is not a tidy story. It’s possible
I hoped Mary would make a home
of this poem, this body.”
read and listen to MATRILINEAL
@ THE MAYNARD
*
“Loneliness is its own magic, the way
the earth makes room.”
read UNORGANIZED TERRITORY,
a collection of 7 poems shortlisted
for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award,
published as a free ebook
@ APPLE BOOKS
*
“She’s had less time
than some to learn the horse-like unpredictability
of love.”
read THIS LITTLE GIRL GOES TO BURNING MAN,
runner-up for the 2017 Thomas Morton Prize
@ THE PURITAN
*
“Two shots of Patrón as I leave
for Lisa’s Mormon family
Christmas party.”
read FINLANDIA on the 2015
Arc Poem of the Year shortlist
@ ARC POETRY MAGAZINE
SOME OF MY SHORT STORIES HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET
“Wanting gets the better of us. I know what that’s like. I see it now—some lake, some city.
Some bright thing always glittering somewhere, just out of reach.”
read SO LONG MARY-ANN
about a small town girl who moves to Montréal
@ LITTLE FICTION
watch the trailer (feat. Leonard Cohen) HERE
*
“He wanted to say no. He wanted to turn around
and go back into the house. But somehow he knew
that leaving Bunny to do this alone would be wrong.”
read THE STONES
about burgeoning sexuality within the confines of a tight-knit Mormon family
@ THE MATADOR REVIEW
*
Illustration by Ciele Beau
“YOLO, or whatever.”
read BOON DOGS
about two sisters celebrating the New Year in Winnipeg
@ SAD MAG
*
“He could barely manage his own needs, and the last thing he wanted
was for his unhappiness to rub off on Lynnie.”
read and listen to BURNER SEASON
about a single father struggling to find balance between spirituality and practicality
when he returns to his childhood home, an RV park outside Burning Man
@ THE PURITAN
PRESS
CBC Radio (Manitoba) Interview
October 16th, 2021
I spoke with Bruce Ladan
on The Morning Show about
None of This Belongs to Me
2019
When I was a finalist for
the Bronwen Wallace Award,
I did a Q&A for Open Book
(alongside Rebeca Salazar
and John Elizabeth Stinzi)
CBC Short Story Prize Longlist
2019
A little Q&A and first lines
of my short story
THE STUDY OF HIDDEN ANIMALS