About the Cover: There Are Still Woods
The striking painting on the cover of There Are Still Woods is the work of Brooklyn-based artist Nikki Lindt. It’s part of a series called Solastalgia that explores personal memory and feelings of loss associated with environmental change.
As author Hila Ratzabi and June Road Press publisher and editor Sara Arnold were brainstorming about the book cover last winter, searching for potential artwork that spoke to them and sharing their finds, Hila zeroed in on that very concept—Solastalgia was an earlier working title of her collection—and happened upon Nikki’s painting.
“I am so grateful I got to be part of the process of choosing the cover art for my book. I used to do oil painting and I have strong feelings about the art I like!” says Hila. “Nikki Lindt’s piece was the one I kept returning to until I eventually said, ‘This is the one.’”
Thematically, symbolically, and visually, the piece felt just right. “I love the mix of different shades of green in the palette and the painterly brushstrokes that evoke the wildness of the landscape. But what I am most drawn to is the dramatic gesture of the woman kneeling, fallen to the ground, in what feels like a mixture of grief, awe, humility, and worship,” Hila explains. “She is part of the land, almost engulfed by it. This image speaks to so many of the emotional gestures in my book.”
It’s an almost uncanny fit, in fact, with one of the central poems in the collection, “How to Pray While the World Burns,” which you can listen to below.
Beyond the painting itself, Nikki Lindt’s broader vision as an artist also resonated with Hila’s own outlook and poetic aims. “I appreciate that Lindt’s larger body of work is deeply in conversation with the earth and, like I think my poems do, unflinchingly witnesses its destruction with a clear-eyed yet mournful gaze,” Hila says.
Thanks to Nikki’s willingness to collaborate with the press, the book took on a fully realized form that demonstrates the power of visual art to amplify other media. The creative pairing of painting and poetry, in particular, is an area that June Road Press intends to keep exploring by seeking out the work of emerging artists for future covers, in close conversation with our authors.
Find out more about artist Nikki Lindt at her website. You can view the rest of her Solastalgia series here.