“Kirton travels backward and forward in her life, weaving poetry and lyric prose into a formally taut, spiritually expansive memoir of trauma, loss and survival.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“Her poetic memoir…is a testament to the necessity of forging an emotional alliance with one’s distant ancestors, not just for the purpose of forming a solid identity, but for the process of healing from trauma.”
—E.R. Zarevich, Herizons

“The author writes in short paragraphs and the sentences flow like the symbolic river she is standing in, the waters bringing forth the wreckage of her past. The author pulls the debris out, one item at a time, to show us that revealed, they represent the events she is trying to understand. Kirton complements her prose by adding poems to each section.”
—Mary Barnes, Prairie Fire

“Standing in a River of Time is not interested in standing alone — it is Kirton’s recognition of her abundant relations, and an invitation to the reader to engage with her. The events, emotions, and stories of these pages make up the messy landscape of what it looks like to hold and heal.”
—Jasmine Gui, Canthius

“If a picture paints a thousand words, then Jónína Kirton’s poetry creates a thousand pictures with her beautiful choice of words and fresh metaphors that ripple immediate understanding of experiences needing words to heal. From beginning to end, Jónína takes us through the stages of grief and lets the ‘blood’ spill on the page in the gentlest way possible. In Standing in a River of Time, Jónína Kirton takes us on a healing journey of sorrow, acceptance, understanding, love, loss, and forgiveness.” —from the foreword by Wanda John-Kehewin