The poems in The Work engage with the work of love and loss and the hope that we might somehow learn to carry our portion of grief. Simmers writes of churning in an accumulation of losses—the sudden death of her father, the descent of her mother into dementia, her sister-in-law's terminal illness—and of the work of slowly making wholeness out of brokenness. Her writing fosters a vulnerability and wit that sidestep easier tropes, a reminder that healing often comes through saying "Hello" and "Yes"; a realization that "all this noticing / was love." (From Gaspereau Press)

Bren Simmers is the author of four books, including the wilderness memoir Pivot Point and Hastings-Sunrise, which was a finalist for the Vancouver Book Award as well as a collection of poetry titled If, When.

Simmers won the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize for her poetry collection Spell World Backwards which is included in The Work. She was the first ever CBC Literary Prize grand prize winner from Prince Edward Island. Simmers was previously longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2013 for I Blame MASH For My Addiction To MLS and in 2012 for Science Lessons.