Manitoba poet Di Brandt’s So This Is the World & Here I Am in It is the 10th book in NeWest’s Writer as Critic series. The book consists of 12 essays written over 10 years that use writing – both Brandt’s and others’ – and art as a starting point to tackle such issues as the environment, history, and, to a lesser extent, genetics.

The collection starts strongly, with Brandt reflecting on the Prairies of her youth in a voice that assures readers they are in the hands of a capable writer and poet. Through a stream-of-consciousness approach, Brandt describes the natural beauty of the land while still getting in a lot of information about the history of her home and the Mennonite people who inhabited the area.

The second essay, on Mavis Gallant’s 1973 novella The Pegnitz Function, is less poetic, its language more suited to an academic setting. Throughout the rest of the book, though, Brandt balances these two approaches ­– the artistic and the academic – with a sure hand.

Still, the book’s best writing leans toward the personal, as Brandt links current issues to her Mennonite upbringing and her life as a writer. In one essay, Brandt writes about her relationship with her father and his land, and in the process questions the environmental impact of some
farming practices and the use of pesticides.

Brandt saves her strongest essays for last. The final three works, on twins, bees, and writing, best display the combination of her literary voice with an intellectual argument drawn from personal experience.