Ellis, Katy E.: Home Water, Home Land

Tolsun Books, paperback

Publication date: September 13, 2022

Publisher Marketing: New hybrid work by Katy E. Ellis focusing on breaking away from patriarchal systems.

HOME WATER, HOME LAND explores the interior landscape and transitions a young woman must navigate to break away from her family’s patriarchal belief system so that she can find—or become—her own savior. As she dissects the past, she also pieces together a more open future that includes a new definition of faith, which she now offers to her own daughter. The narrative includes an array of genre and form footholds where readers can consider the effects of crossing the borders and boundaries of spirit, country, and time. HOME WATER, HOME LAND mainly takes place in the 1990s when environmental activism, female voices, and footage of racist police violence all rose in renewed, prominent waves from within the American psyche. In this era, the narrator leaves home and country for the first time to attend university in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Outside of her usual borders, her questions begin: When we cross a line away from our country of origin, does something change in us, making us more (or less) open to new ideas? And what power do we give or take when we set personal boundaries for what we believe in? As the narrator’s personal experiences broaden through travel and finding love, a bigger story unfolds around her through major historical events that mark time and create a collective “us” that is different from who we were before.

"Autobiographical in reach and structure, HOME WATER, HOME LAND by Katy E. Ellis records and chronicles a coming-of-age, the creation of marriage and family in conjunction with excommunication, expatriatism, and recounts Ellis’ experiences during 9/11. In all these movements—from church, land, and tragedy—it becomes apparent the collection excavates the realm of the exile and does so with grace and compassion marking it as an astonishing book by an exceptional writer." —Heather Simeney MacLeod, The Burden of Snow, Little Yellow House, Intermission