Phoebe Wang is a first-generation Chinese-Canadian who lives and sails in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of the poetry collections Admission Requirements (M&S, 2017), shortlisted for the Gerald Lambert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Trillium Book Award, and Waking Occupations (M&S, 2022), and her fiction and nonfiction have been widely published. She is an adjunct professor and mentor in the University of Toronto Creative Writing MA program.
“A riveting book about our parallel lives, the side passions that steer our hearts and right our balance. I am not a good sailor, have honestly rarely sailed, but I can say without hesitation that you will not find a book that better captures the sport—or the vagaries of wind, collaboration and creative practice. Phoebe Wang’s expansive prose is wise and guiding, and I was very happy to have travelled with her.”—Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing “For readers like me who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of sailboat culture and its boat speak, poet Phoebe Wang offers a headlong introduction into the world of winches and jib sheets. Relative to Wind is an obsession turned lyrical meets technical that sails into the gust with no looking back.”—Amy Fung, author of Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being