Spirit Things recounts stories of fishing, family, synesthesia, storytelling, gender, and violence against the backdrop of the Alaskan fishing industry. Each essay follows an object through its history, drawing together the delicate lines that link things through their making and use, their genesis and evolution, and the ways they gain significance in an individual’s life.  

 

“The sensual pleasure of Messersmith-Glavin’s language interweaves with her capacious spiritual inquiry; her lithe prose is an absolute delight. This luminous, magnificent project is a gift [she] has brought us from the ocean, full of awe and beauty, salt and light.” 

–Alicia Jo Rabins, author of Divinity School

 

Fishing nets, a favorite knife, or the bioluminescent gleam of seawater in a twilight that never truly grows dark—these things provide an entry point for meditations on the ways in which patterns, magic, and wonder overlap. Spirit Things are those mundane objects that offer new insights into the world on closer consideration.

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"Many fishing memoirs are filled with high seas drama, but Messersmith-Glavin focuses instead on what Blake called the 'luminous details' as revealed in the 'spirit things' she chooses to carry her story, objects as seemingly mundane as a glove and as complex as a wave. Spirit Things will appeal to anyone who’s fallen hard for Alaska and wants to be reminded what they love—and miss—about wilderness, fishing, and those who are drawn to the far North.”
—Holly J. Hughes, author of Hold Fast, Passings, and Sailing by Ravens