The Polar Tombola

‘If you had to lose a word from your language, what would it be?’

This full-colour anthology brings together words banished during a touring live literature project which invited audiences to engage with issues of cultural and climate change, alongside newly commissioned texts on language loss from contemporary writers and artists, including Vahni Anthony Capildeo, Will Eaves, Pippa Hennessy, Nasim Marie Jafry, Lisa Matthews, Phil Owen and Richard Price.

Since the 1800s, 21 indigenous Arctic languages have become extinct, and more are being added to the list year by year. West Greenlandic is one of those vulnerable languages, according to UNESCO’s Atlas of World Languages in Danger. ‘As an environmentalist,’ Campbell writes, ‘I begin to wonder how future scientists will study the Arctic ecosystem without access to the knowledge of generations enshrined in the region’s languages. As a poet, I wonder what happens to an individual’s experience of words when their language begins to disappear.’

Published in paperback by Bird Editions, with an introduction by Nancy Campbell and a foreword by Sarah Bodman

The Polar Tombola events and publication were supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.

ISBN 978-0-9928091-2-6