Book Club: Jenna Butler

Hello fellow isolators, and welcome to the fifth edition of the Well That’s Cool Book Club!

For our February meeting, we had the first poet to make a special guest appearance at the Well That’s Cool Book Club. Jenna Butler is more than just a poet, however, she is also an essayist, professor, and organic farmer.  Jenna’s writing includes the poetry collections Seldom Seen Road, Wells, and Aphelion; a collection of ecological essays, A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail; and the travelogue Magnetic North: Sea Voyage to Svalbard. Revery: A Year of Bees, is her latest work, and features essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery. It is now out from Wolsak and Wynn.

Jenna Butler, poet, essayist, professor, and organic farmer.

In this episode, Jenna and I talked about poetry, prose, emotion, writing as social justice, farming, climate change, and publishing. It was quite the discussion, one that helped me understand poetry and its role in conveying different messages, from hope for the future in a challenging world to the experience of watching the summer solstice. Our conversation really brought forward the passion Jenna has for her work and the world around her, something I think you’ll hear throughout the episode.

Jenna’s recommendations to the live audience included Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree.

Thanks again to Jenna Butler for bringing such passion and interesting experiences to the Book Club this month. I loved hearing about those direct, personal experiences dealing with and taking action against climate change, as well as nerding out on poetic Svalbard adventures. I know a number of the club’s members this month went right out and bought copies of Jenna’s work, and if you want to learn more you can find them at jennabutler.com.

For me, I’m halfway through Once Removed by Andrew Unger (more on that below) and have started Spitfire by John Nichol. This is a history book about “Britain’s greatest warplane” that jumps through the story of the Spit with little vignettes and excerpts about the people who worked on and flew the great airplane. I’m not sure I can define the style of popular history, it really does seem like Nichol put all the little bits he could find in archives together independently rather than using them to put a narrative together like you might expect. It’s not a bad effect, and nice to be able to read in short chunks. What are you reading these days? You can send me a recommendation on Facebook at wellthatscoolpod or on Twitter at @well_thatscool, or by sending me an email at wellthatscoolpod@gmail.com.

As for this podcast, it is amazing to think I put out the first episode 11 months ago, back at the end of March 2020. This show was going to be my little experiment in podcasting for fun, finding cool people doing cool things and sharing their stories with cool people like you. When I started I really didn’t know where this COVID thing would go, how bad it would affect me personally or the people around me, and how our lives would be shaped by it in the weeks, months, or, worst case, years to come. We’re almost a full year in now and here in Alberta things have been…well not amazing but not the worst in the world. I’m very lucky personally not to have experienced medical issues, but am definitely feeling the impacts of the isolation and lack of socializing that came with everything. The way this podcast evolved into a book club this fall helped connect with friends and keep that curiosity flowing through the dark winter weeks.

But what next? Well, future plans and interest in hobbies have fluctuated just about as much the temperature this week or our moods this year. With a year fast approaching since the first Well That’s Cool episode was published, I’m going to wrap up season one next month. I’m really excited to have one last author interview to share with you, I’ll be talking with Andrew Unger about his Mennonite satire at the Daily Bonnet and his new novel Once Removed (I’m loving it so far and can’t wait to ask him all about it!). Watch for that season finale episode in early March. I’ll be taking the break to get back to my half-finished model airplane kit, dusting off my typewriter, catching up on work, obviously, and actually doing some of the reading I keep promising myself. After a breather I’ll also be looking at some new ideas, either for a season two or a new show experiment, so watch this space. We are a year in and can all use a break, but I will miss putting together these book club meetings and episodes for you. If you want to take up the torch and host your own club, don’t forget to send me an invite!

Thanks as always to Ron Yamauchi for the theme tune and to Anna Schroeder of Annather Design for the cool podcast logo, check out her work at annatherdesign.com. Other music heard during this episode and all the other podcast stuff is done by me, Ben Fast.

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts! Until next time, stay well, and happy isolation reading!