A river is a contested site. I return again and again to rivers, real and imagined. In “The First Water Is the Body,” Postcolonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz writes, “Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?” The climate crisis is intensifying ongoing conflicts over water worldwide; as I write this, the Colorado River — about which Diaz writes — a crucial water source for the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo peoples and seven states along its basin, is drought-stricken, with record-low current levels. Rivers have much to tell us about our bodies and the land. I bring the river questions; I want to know yours. I am curating an anthology engaging with rivers you know, rivers you love, rivers you’ve lost or imagined.
Patrycja Humienik
Patrycja Humienik, daughter of Polish immigrants, is the author of We Contain Landscapes, forthcoming with Tin House in 2025. She serves as an editor and teaching artist for literary organizations including The Seventh Wave. Patrycja has developed writing and movement workshops for the Henry Art Gallery, Arts+Literature Laboratory, Northwest Film Forum, Puksta Civic Engagement Foundation, in prisons, and elsewhere.
