Hold
Illustrated by Jan Vičar
"Hold" is a collaboration between Czech artist and 2018 Prix Mario Avati winner Jan Vičar and American poet Sally Ball. It ranges over many topics: climate anxiety, corporate doublespeak, international migration, nuclear energy, and the counter-intuitive beauty of the world. The writing departs from an idea explored in Roy Scranton’s ecological lament "Learning to Die in the Anthropocene": namely, that our obsession with thriving (from a Norwegian root word that means grasp or hold) is intensifying our environmental crisis. The poem appears in Ball’s third full-length collection, "Hold Sway."
The artist’s book measures 26 x 20 inches and comprises 62 pages. It is printed on 300-gram Somerset paper. It is an edition of 70, with each one nonetheless unique.
Bio
Sally Ball is an associate professor of English in creative writing at ASU.
