A Wolseley poet navigates nature, history and conflict in a new work that shears away layers of her family’s past and combines them into a contemporary meditation on what it means to belong in the place one lives.
fly way, a new long poem by Sarah Ens, follows her Mennonite heritage through time and space to present-day Manitoba. The book begins in the sliver of tallgrass prairie preserve near her hometown of Landmark, Man.

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The fact that fly way‘s recent release has coincided with Russia’s war on Ukraine makes its subject matter all the more potent.
“I hope it will function in a way that helps emphasize the importance of not displacing people from their homes and the atrocities that happen when violent invasions occur,” Ens said.
Ens, who also works as a promotions and publicity co-ordinator at the University of Manitoba Press and a freelance editor, began writing fly way in 2018. It was her master’s thesis in the University of Saskatchewan’s writing program.
ens worked on fly way alongside her widely acclaimed poetry book, The World is Mostly Sky.
The World is Mostly Sky was shortlisted for a rather long list of awards, including the 2021 McNally Robinson Book of the Year award, the 2021 Word Guild Award for Best Book Cover, and the 2022 Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. The collection also won the 2021 Word Guild award for General Market Non-Fiction – Specialty book.
fly way and The World is Mostly Sky can be purchased directly from the publisher at www.turnstonepress.com, or online and in-person at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Katlyn Streilein
Community Journalist
Katlyn Streilein is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. She can be reached by phone at 204-697-7132 or by email at katlyn.streilein@canstarnews.com
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