Description

•Sharp Notions is the latest book in our line of unorthodox crafting books, joining such titles as Yarn Bombing (Leanne Prain & Mandy Moore) and Craftivism (Betsy Greer). Sharp Notions is an anthology of first-person narratives by practitioners of the fiber arts—be it knitting, stitching, quilting, beading, or embroidery—explore their complex relationship to their craft, addressing such subjects as the intersection of creative practice and identity, technological, climate change, trauma, politics, chronic illness and disability. These powerful essays challenge the traditional view of crafting and examine the role, purpose, joy and necessity of craft amidst the alienation of contemporary life.

•Editors Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee are both literary authors (Marita is a poet and playwright, and Nancy is a poet and novelist) who shared a passion for the fiber arts. During the pandemic they, like many others, embraced their crafting even more in response to feelings of fear and isolation. They said to one another many times, “This knitting project is the only thing keeping me going,” and started to wonder if anyone else felt the same. If knitting, crochet, embroidery and quilting were our life lines, were others having the same experience? This is how this anthology came to be.

•Essays topics are varied, including Indigenous perspectives on beading, and quilting as an act of resistance and remembrance. Queer poet Anne Fleming writes about the gendered implications of knitting as a domestic female hobby; Rob Leacock writes about knitting from a man’s perspective as an act of grieving his dying father; and novelist Carrianne Leung writes about how creating embroidered works for her fellow writer friends during the early months of the pandemic, including stitching versions of their books whose launches had been cancelled, was a way to cope with the isolation and loneliness of the pandemic.

•The book is full colour throughout, and includes 50 photographs of crafting projects completed by the contributors.

•American contributors are Rob Leacock (Little Rock, AR), Andrea Rexilius (Denver, CO), Jenny Bartoy (Tacoma, WA) and Tikenya Foster-Singletary (Stone Mountain, GA).

•The book is one of the few craft titles that explore the reasons why people craft. In this way it is more literary than it is about technique.

•In the words of the editors: “Our anthology is aimed at a broad audience - those already fibre-obsessed, those who are fibre-curious, and those who have a fibre arts practitioner in their life (mom who knits, best friend who crochets, sister that beads.) In promoting the book, we imagine ourselves as fibre-evangelists, drawing attention to the profound ideas explored by contributors in the anthology while also extolling what we know to be true about fibre arts practice: even a little bit will make you feel good.”

•Publicity by Alyson Sinclair, Nectar Literary.