‘Silt & Ash is a stunning debut collection of found poetry by Sarah Pearce.

Sarah excavates the archive to activate visceral scenes from early colonial diaries to algal bloom data records to tourism media and weather reports, spanning two centuries. Every poem holds an intimate story, carefully curated with precision and urgency to reveal and interrogate attitudes, intentions and ideologies that shape and shadow our lives.

This ecopoetic collection is both love letter and provocation to wrench your gut and break your heart and ultimately bring us closer to Country. Brace yourself to confront the storm, parch with heat, seek the shade, and yearn for green. These terrifying truths compel a collective relationality-led responsibility to our future—to actively reckon with colonial spectres, listen to the howling, and to rework and regenerate this world anew.’

—Natalie Harkin

Sarah Pearce is a poet, editor and researcher living and working on Kaurna Country. Her poetry appears in various journals and anthologies, including TEXT, Overland, Rabbit, Cordite, Grieve and Best of Australian Poems. She is Deputy Editor of The Suburban Review. She was awarded a 2024 Literary Fellowship at the State Library of South Australia, which formed the genesis of this book. She writes about embodiment, intimacy, mental and physical health, and the environment