Simpson is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, a writer and musician, and this book thinks with water rather than about it. She starts from a Nishnaabeg story about a woman and a flood and works outward through ice, rain, tributaries, and the physics of the water cycle, arguing that water’s behavior — moving, changing state, refusing containment — is itself a theory, and one that runs against how states and corporations treat land. It’s part essay, part poetry, part personal, and the Peterborough-area lakes and rivers she grew up on are throughout.
Theory of Water