Chrys Salt

Skookum Jim and The Klondike Gold Rush

"This collection is a gift to the First Nation peoples of Yukon, many of whom still strive to regain the way of life they lost. Whatever poems I have made of their stories, or fashioned from my own research and experience of being there, in the spirit of just exchange I give them back." Chrys Salt MBE

ISBN 978-1-912876-29-7

Paperback

64 pages

£10.00 +P&P

THE AUTHOR

 Chrys Salt has written eight poetry collections, been translated into several languages, performed across Europe, North America, India and Australia, and her poems have inspired artists, musicians and film-makers to create collaborative pieces. Amongst many awards she received funding from Creative Scotland to visit Yukon and undertake the research for this collection. Chrys was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2014 for Services to Arts.

‘...a brave montage of voices past and present forging links between our world and late nineteenth century North America. With great originality she deploys creation myths and explores the colonial prejudices of governments and greedy, desperate prospectors alongside the exploitation and fate of North America’s First Nation People - a colourful condemnation of human greed, but a testament to the survival instincts of individuals and cultures.’

Martyn Crucefix

‘Centring on First Nation folk-hero Skookum Jim, these poems beautifully evoke the landscape, non-human beings and lore of the North Canadian wilderness, capture the frenzy of the gold rush years, the desolation of their aftermath and how landscape and people survive the vagaries of history – always fully acknowledging the poet’s observer status.’

Professor Margaret Elphinstone