Fifty Words for Snow

＂A delightful compendium that brings together language, culture and adventure through frozen landscapes as it shares the meanings behind 50 words for snow, gathered from around the globe.＂ --The Herald

Snow. Every language has its own words for the magical, mesmerizing flakes that fall from the sky. In this exquisite exploration, writer and Arctic traveller Nancy Campbell digs deep into the meanings of fifty words for snow.

In Japanese we encounter yuki-onna--a ’snow woman’ who drifts through the frosted land. In Icelandic it is hundslappadrífa--’snowflakes as big as a dog’s paw’--that softly blanket the streets. And in Maori we meet Huka-rere-- ’one of the children of rain and wind.’

From mountain tops and frozen seas to city parks and desert hills, each of these linguistic snow crystals offers a whole world of myth and story--the perfect winter gift.

Nancy Campbell is an award-winning writer, described as ’deft, dangerous and dazzling’ by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her travels in the Arctic between 2010 and 2017 have resulted in several projects responding to the environment, most recently The Library of Ice: Readings in a Cold Climate (S&S), which was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019. Her previous book on the polar environment, Disko Bay, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2016.