RELATIVE TO WIND

A Toronto poet and educator recounts her experiences learning how to sail.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong, Wang never quite felt at ease in her native Canada. The sense of discomfort followed her into sailing, a sport she quickly realized posed many barriers to admission. In this collection of 18 essays, the author discusses the lessons she learned about sailing and the way her life on the water intersected with her writing life. One of the first hurdles she faced was learning nautical language. Words like jib and halyard seemed impenetrably arcane. But as she began to decipher meanings and maneuver boats, Wang also learned that her new “language” had emerged out of British naval history, which was inextricably bound to the colonial history that Hong Kong shared with Canada. Another challenge she faced was coming to terms with the classism and racism inherent in many recreational sailing clubs. The more she became involved in the sport, however, the more she saw evidence that “sailors could [also] look like [her].” Nevertheless, she remained aware of the “visibility and foreignness of [her] body,” an experience she had already become accustomed to in the literary world to which she belonged on land. Yet crewing—and especially racing—helped her learn to strategize and “how to maintain my momentum” not only on the water but in her creative life, especially when experiencing severe writer’s block. That Wang experiments throughout the book with many different nonfiction narrative forms—journal entries, letters and the braided essay—only adds to the uniqueness of this refreshing collection that weds art to one of the oldest human pastimes.

A thoughtful, illuminating look at life away from land.