Fifty Words for Snow (First Edition Hardback) — By Nancy Campbell

"Sparkles and dazzles with new meanings and old magic. You’ll never see snow in the same way again."

—  Matt Gaw, author, Under the Stars

"Sparkling prism to reveal what snow means to different cultures… [an] exploration of the language that describes myriad snowscapes, from mountain peaks and ancient glaciers to boreal cities and Baltic landscapes."

 — National Geographic 

"Absolutely exquisite. This little book is a work of art. It is impossible to imagine the reader who will not love this. Nancy Campbell tells truths and tales in the most beautiful crystalline prose."

— Horatio Clare, author, The Light in the Dark

"This stunning book made me want to pack all my woolies, candles, ample firewood and enough books for a year – and head to as northerly a location as I could find." 

— Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Caught By the River 

Snow. 

Every language has its own terms for the feather-like flakes that fall from the sky. From mountain tops to frozen seas to city parks, author, poet and Arctic traveller Nancy Campbell digs deep into the meanings of fifty words of snow — each of them offering a whole world of myth and story.

Fifty Words for Snow is a collection of 50 short essays, each of which looks at a local word for snow (or something very closely connected to snow). Each word, sourced from a different language, is a magical little window into a different culture and perspective.

This beautiful, keepsake book also features a delicate illustrations of a unique snowflake with each essay. 

Fifty Words for Snow "is a journey to discover snow in cultures around the world through different languages", Campbell writes, and it does so in such a visual way that you not only learn a lot about our wonderful world - you feel like you’ve travelled it.

The first of the 50 words is ‘seaŋáš’, a Sámi word meaning granulated snow. Campbell writes that: "it's easy for reindeer to dig through seaŋáš to the lichen growing beneath".

Following it is the mystical Japanese 'yukki-onna', referring to the “snow woman” - a beautiful supernatural being who appears in the white-outs of the Honshu Hills, with characteristics similar to snow. "In one story she transforms into a flurry of snowflakes in a puff of wind," writes Campbell.

From there, you will visit Hawaii and Tibet, Scotland and Mongolia, the US, Canada, Estonia, New Zealand, Iceland and so many more worlds.

Make a lovely cup of tea, curl up with Fifty Words for Snow and travel the world, throughout time and across cultures from your comfy chair or cozy couch — or gift it so someone special can do the same.

THE DETAILS

Format: New, hardback

Published: November 5, 2020

Publisher: Elliott & Thompson Ltd.

ISBN: 978-1783964987

Pages: 218

Dimensions: 8.23" inches L x 5.75" inches W x 0.94" inches D

Rating: ★★★★1/2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nancy Campbell is a multi-award-winning Scottish poet and non-fiction writer based in Oxford, UK. Her work embraces themes of landscape, migration and memory, climate and culture

She is described as "a deft, dangerous and dazzling poet writing from the furthest reaches of both history and climate change" by United Kingdom Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.

In 2020, she received the prestigious Ness Award Society for environmental writing from the Royal Geographical Society for a decade-long creative response to the Arctic across works of non-fiction —  The Library of Ice: Readings from A Cold Climate, poetry — Disko Bay and artists' books — How to Say ‘I Love You’ in Greenlandic.

Subsequently, Nancy turned her attention closer to her home as the UK’s Canal Laureate, a project managed by The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust. Many of the poems written during her laureateship were installed along the waterways where they could be seen projected on wharves at night, stencilled on towpaths, or engraved into fish gates; they are collected in the pamphlet Navigations.

A third book of poems, Uneasy Pieces, was published in 2022. These prose poems on the experience of caring for someone with aphasia can be read in parallel with Nancy’s acclaimed memoir of life after lockdown in an old Buccaneer caravan by the River Thames, Thunderstone. It won the 2023 TLS Ackerley Prize for biography.

Other recent texts have been commissioned by arts and heritage organizations including the Royal Academy, the British Library, the BBC, the National Poetry Library and World Book Night. 

Nancy has worked collaboratively with choreographers, composers, visual artists, bookbinders, anthropologists and neuroscientists, and she is dedicated to developing innovative projects that push the boundaries of the written word, as well as supporting the work of fellow writers through teaching and publishing projects.

Nancy has held numerous international research residencies, most recently as Visiting Professor of Literature at the Free University of Berlin.