"In her second collection of poetry, Passage, Gwen Benaway examines what it means to experience violence and speaks to the burden of survival. Traveling to Northern Ontario and across the Great Lakes, Passage is a poetic voyage through divorce, family violence, legacy of colonization, and the affirmation of a new sexuality and gender. Previously published as a man, Passage is the poet's first collection written as a transwoman. Striking and raw in sparse lines, the collection showcases a vital Two Spirited identity that transects borders of race, gender, and experience.
In Passage, the poet seeks to reconcile herself to the land, the history of her ancestors, and her separation from her partner and family by invoking the beauty and power of her ancestral waterways. Building on the legacy of other ground-breaking Indigenous poets like Gregory Scofield and Queer poets like Tim Dlugos, Benaway's work is deeply personal and devastating in sharp, clear lines. Passage is a book burning with a beautiful intensity and reveals Benaway as one of the most powerful emerging poets writing in Indigenous poetics today."
As she said: "I had resisted writing Passage for a really long time, but there was this moment in my life where I felt incredibly vulnerable and felt a need to reach out. My relationship had ended and I was flailing about. I was going on all these horrible dates with gay boys, and they hated me. Truly tragic hook-ups. I was really looking for a connection in the world. That desire came first. And as I started working through the collection, the idea of transitioning from male to female came through."
That's what led me to write this collection, to find a way back to myself. One of the interesting things for me looking at Passage is moving from a place of living as a gay man and that viewpoint — and there's poems that flag that this isn't working — and me shifting into envisioning myself as a woman, and embodying that. There's a literal passage there in how I'm engaging with the world."
Gwen Benaway is a Canadian poet, writer, and advocate for the rights of transgender and Indigenous people. She was born in Wingham, Ontario, Canada, and is of Anishinaabe and Métis descent. Benaway is known for her work that explores themes of identity, love, and trauma, often drawing from her personal experiences as a trans woman and Indigenous person. She has published several collections of poetry, including "Ceremonies for the Dead," which won the 2016 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers.
Her poetry often reflects on the intersections of her identity and the challenges faced by Indigenous and transgender communities. In addition to her work as a writer, Gwen Benaway is an advocate for the rights of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ individuals. She has been involved in community organizing and activism, addressing issues such as violence against Indigenous women and the rights of trans people.
Available via macleans.ca
and Amazon
and cbc.ca
Photo via Instagram.
Post a Comment