Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is Canada's first First Nations Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of the poetry collections NDN Coping Mechanisms and This Wound Is a World, which was awarded the 2018 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, the 2018 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and a 2018 Indigenous Voices Award. In 2018, Belcourt was named by CBC Books as one of "14 Canadian poets to watch," one of "18 emerging writers to watch," a "Writer to know," and one of "ten young Canadians to watch" by the CBC. A History of My Brief Body marks his non-fiction debut.
* A Best Book of 2020 --Kirkus Reviews,
Book Riot, CBC, Globe and Mail,
Largehearted Boy."Belcourt, a member of the Driftpile Cree
Nation, is impressive. He writes about the intersection of
queerness and Indigenous life in poems and essays."
--Elena Nicolaou, O, The Oprah Magazine, "31
Native American Authors to Read Right Now""Through his new
collection of essays, A History of My Brief Body, I have
come to view Billy-Ray as a trusted intellectual and scholar, a
prolific creative, and a necessary voice of resistance."
--Layli Long Soldier, BOMB"In his
endeavor to honor the reality of Indigenous pain while also
remaining steadfastly committed to queer Indigenous joy and utopic
futures, Billy-Ray Belcourt has written an incomparable book full
of emotion, analysis and poetic beauty."
--Kai Minosh Pyle, Star Tribune"A
rallying cry for freedom. The ongoingness of resilience demands a
manifesto, and here it is: 'Joy is art is an ethics of
Resistance.'"
--Kristen Millares Young, The Washington
Post"A History of My Brief Body is a breathtaking
literary rebellion against the brutalization and simplification of
NDN existence, establishing as resistance joy in creativity and its
ability to invent worlds."
--Samantha Zaboski, Shelf
Awareness, starred review"A History of My Brief
Body is a complex, nuanced, and stunningly written collection.
Belcourt accompanies the reader, sometimes as a friend, sometimes
with academia as if he is the approachable teacher at college I
never really had. His work is important and comes to us when we
need it desperately."
--Liam Anthony, Independent Book Review"A
magnificent memoir of queer sexuality and intimacy, of the impact
of intergenerational trauma towards Indigenous peoples, of grief
and survival. This slim book is a powerhouse of intelligent,
beautiful brutally honesty writing."
--Kate Hill, Bookalong, Instagram"From a native
queer experience, Belcourt extends what it means to live in a
state, to surpass the body's defined frame, and to practice emoting
as transcendence."
--Kara Laurene Pernicano, Full Stop"In a
novelistic series of queer essays and texts, Billy-Ray Belcourt
reflects on the complexities of gender, sexuality and colonialism
as someone who identifies as an NDN queer person. Coming to
understand his body, queerness and Indigenous heritage, the
24-year-old award-winning poet examines past anger, shame and
ecstasy, while outlining a way forward."
--Sarah Taher, XtraOne of "July's Most
Anticipated LGBTQ Books"
--Leo Rachman, Lambda Literary"I truly
can't stop thinking about this work because it demands more from me
as a reader and an artist. It is thunderous in the way that great
art cracks open your previously held notions of what was
possible."
--Sacha Vega, Cha Cha Reader"Some of the
most poetic, brilliant essays I've read in a long time. I finished
the book and thought 'I didn't know you could do that with
writing.'"
--Robin Babb, Harvest Moon Books (Albuquerque,
NM)"Sometimes, a book comes along, and it commands that
you dig into it with a pencil, highlighter, or post-its. You're
hungry to eat it up, and your brain enjoys the meal so much that
it's like the best food coma you've ever had. This is Billy-Ray
Belcourt's A History of My Brief Body... I was taken at
every turn, trusting Belcourt to live up to what I knew would be
accomplished just from having read the first page, and I was not
let down. A remarkable feat, and it will be a long-time
favorite."
--Margy, Loganberry Books Blog"[Belcourt's] deft
use of language to render queerness, indigeneity, and the corporeal
into ravishing works of poetic art translates beautifully into
nonfiction prose. This essay collection is slim but immersive, a
work of joy and reckoning, and of imagining a better world."
--Sarah Neilson, LitHub"With keen
sensibility and precision, Belcourt delivers a complex meditation
on love, NDN queer identity, sexuality, art and joy amid the
compounding brutalities of settler colonialism. This is a radiant
collection."
--Ruth Lefaive, The Rumpus
"What Belcourt does transcends genre. The celebrated author is
at once deliberate and playful with his use of language. He uses it
to engage deeply with the body, its pain and joy and needs, and to
push through the thickets of fighting against a settler colonialism
that constantly tries to break bodies down from without and within.
Collecting fragments of imagery, the scholarly and poetic work of
others, and snares of love and capitalism, Belcourt has crafted an
outstanding missive."
--Sarah Neilson,
them.us"[Belcourt's] writing in this
stellar collection is a tool of resistance through which he imbibes
lost languages and false histories, digests and absorbs them that
he might destroy the systems of oppression exercised over NDNs (his
term), a struggle that ultimately helps create joy, love, and
hope... an incredible read."
--Andrew T. Powers, American Library Association's Rainbow
Round Table"In this stunning
essay-collection-cum-prose-poem-cycle, Belcourt meditates on the
difficulty and necessity of finding joy as a queer NDN in a country
that denies that joy all too often. Out of the 'ruins of the museum
of political depression' springs a 'tomorrow free of the rhetorical
trickery of colonizers everywhere.' Happiness, this beautiful book
says, is the ultimate act of resistance."
--Michelle Hart, O, The Oprah Magazine"Belcourt's
writing is poetic and philosophical, and often meanders in lovely
and thought-provoking ways, whether he writes of colonialism, his
grandmother, or his queer/NDN identity. Clearly a student, too, he
includes words of other writers, particularly Ocean Vuong and
Maggie Nelson, but his voice is distinctly his own. This timely and
intriguing collection would make a great read-alike for Saeed
Jones' How We Fight for Our Lives."
--Kathy Sexton, Booklist"Topically wide-ranging,
the essays in Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut memoir challenge the
history and ongoing brutality of colonialism and offer a
perspective on grief, love, and queerness. While writing personal,
intimate details, Belcourt also puts his essays in context with
texts from writers like Judith Butler, Terese Marie Mailhot, and
Jose Esteban Munoz. Academically rigorous and linguistically
beautiful, A History of My Brief Body is a captivating,
genre-defying book."
--Wendy J. Fox, BuzzFeed"In sharp pieces
infused with a yearning for decolonized love and freedom, Belcourt,
of the Driftpile Cree Nation, ably balances poetic, philosophical,
and political insights throughout this unique book... An urgently
needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review"The
poetic and probing essay collection shuttles between personal
reflection, critical race theory, and commentary on poetics,
colonialism, queerness, loneliness, and utopia."
--Dana Isokawa, Poets & Writers "A
History of My Brief Body knocked me on my ass. Billy-Ray
Belcourt, a member of the Driftpile Cree Nation and Canada's first
Rhodes Scholar, explores the complexities of gender, sexuality, and
colonialism in a short, poetic memoir. These essays transcend genre
and become something else entirely -- a reliquary of self-love and
becoming."
--BuzzFeed "38 Great Books To Read This Summer,
Recommended By Our Favorite Indie Booksellers"; Gary Lovely,
marketing manager of The Book Loft"When I cracked open
A History of My Brief Body, I wasn't intending on spending
the night, but with each essay, I found myself drawn further into
this bold and beautiful declaration of the self. Liberating and
fortifying. I know I'll be returning to this book for years to
come."
--Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop"Deeply personal and
raw, Belcourt flays himself wide open in a way that is
simultaneously delicate and jarring. And while his history may be
brief due to his limited years on earth, his writing overflows with
insight and conviction. There is an alluring complexity to the
language and style of his writing, as well as the subject matter,
which will leave the reader looking forward to more from Belcourt's
hand in the future."
--Beth Mowbray, The Nerd Daily"Filled
with beauty, vitality, and grief, and includes pieces that are
infused with reflections on race and sexuality, love and
loneliness, a desire for decolonial freedom, and refusal of
erasure."
--Jennifer McDermid, Megaphone
Magazine"At just 23 years old, Belcourt won the
Griffin Prize for Poetry for his book This Wound is a
World--he's also been a Rhodes scholar and, now, is publishing
his first book of prose, a memoir that begins with his early life
in Joussard, Alta, on the Driftpile First Nation and goes on to
explore loves, sexual exploration and intimacy."
--Deborah Dundas, Toronto Star 'Twenty books you
need to know about in Spring 2020'"I'll pretty much read
anything from Columbus-based publisher, Two Dollar Radio, and A
History of My Brief Body is no exception... a debut, this
essay collection focuses on the author's personal history."
--Samantha Evans, CityBeat, "27 Hot Summer Reading
Recommendations from Cincinnati Librarians and
Booksellers""[A History of My Brief Body is]
about being Indigenous and queer, but most importantly, it's a
collection of essays focused on the future."
--Cody Lee, The Rumpus"Wow. This book
completely blew me away. I finished it and started right back in to
pick at the nuanced and knotted language that emits from Belcourt.
This is a phenomenal exploration of the poetics of queerdom and
isolation and loneliness as philosophy, and as a collection of
essays it stands alone. It exists as a statement of pure joy while
at the same time delves deep into the (thoroughly complicated and
corrupted) self. I can't wait to share this with everyone I know, I
see Bill-Ray going far."
--Ryan Evans, WORD Bookstore"A History of My
Brief Body is a storm raging at the crossroads of
post-structuralist, decolonial, and queer theory. Here, is a
catalog of the abuses levied against brown and queer bodies by a
monolith of past and present. Here, also, is a litany towards the
unmaking of these abusive structures. Billy-Ray Belcourt commands a
sophisticated range of politics and philosophy, presented here with
prose as brutal in truth as it is beautiful in form. The result is
a moving swirl of personal artifacts, salvaged from and brought to
bear against a persistent, callous history in the pursuit of a
compassionate, emancipated future."
--Connor Mason, The Book Loft"These essays
transcend genre and become something else entirely--a poetic
masterpiece of self love and becoming. Billy-Ray Belcourt is one of
the best we've got."
--Gary Lovely, The Book Loft"Billy-Ray Belcourt
exposes colonialism's historical and ongoing brutality against both
the North American Indigenous and queer experiences. Through
theory, memoir, and poetry, Belcourt notates an 'archive of
injuries' to then shape joy beyond known parameters. These essays
are a glorious way to be held accountable. Bill-Ray Belcourt writes
for his body, his being; read for yours."
--Heidi Birchler, Moon Palace Books"I choose not
to reduce A History of My Brief Body to simply a bending
of genre. Well beyond that simple idea, Billy-Ray Belcourt uses a
dexterity of language and form as a container for memory and
nostalgia as vehicles for truth about a still-blooming present. I
love a book where a writer treats themselves and their own
histories with gentleness and care, and this book is a towering
achievement on that front."
--Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until
They Kill Us, Go Ahead in the Rain, and A Fortune
for Your Disaster"A History of My Brief Body
is an NDN love story that will stop you in your tracks. I'm struck
by the gentleness in Belcourt's words, his ability to move across
scales, and the complexity of his thought. He's achieved something
here that we've collectively been trying to achieve for a long
time, and it makes me feel proud."
--Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of This Accident
of Being Lost"Billy-Ray Belcourt is proving himself
to be a literary genius. His poetry and prose are tender and brutal
and brilliant. This memoir recounts the intimate and sexual history
of a young Indigenous poet who studies the reserve and the city. As
with the writing of Maggie Nelson, I was astounded at both
Belcourt's scholarship and his acute reflections on the human
condition. The book also provides indispensable insight into the
political consciousness of Indigenous peoples in Canada."
--Heather O'Neill, author of The Lonely Hearts
Hotel"Billy-Ray Belcourt's moving and important book
A History of My Brief Body dazzles in its quest to prove
'Joy is art is an ethics of resistance.' Not quite memoir, not
quite poetry, not quite novel, this dizzying and intelligent book
traces a queer NDN coming-of-age with equal parts search and
insight. The book draws inspiration from the likes of Claudia
Rankine, Terese Marie Mailhot, and Maggie Nelson, but Belcourt is
no mimic; with A History of My Brief Body, Belcourt takes
his place among these important thinkers."
--Danny Caine, Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS)"In
A History of My Brief Body, Billy-Ray breaks apart the
reflection of a life into the specificity of moments--both his own
and our collective experience--and beads them into his
simultaneously sharp and lush writing. Bursting with all the
movements of sex, riot, and repose, this book presents us with a
shock of recognition and reclamation, and we are better for
it--punch drunk and aching but, oh, so much better. I'm gutted by
his brilliant mind."
--Cherie Dimaline, author of Empire of Wild and
The Marrow Thieves"Settler colonialism demands we
believe we'd be better off without our bodies--their needs, their
feelings, their raucous disobedience and ungovernable change. I
don't always know how to talk back to the violent nonsense that
says, Disappear. With precision and care, Billy-Ray
Belcourt presses thought against feeling to make, in each essay, an
unbounded space for knowing and for staying whole."
--Elissa Washuta, author of My Body is a Book of
Rules"A History of My Brief Body puts the
reader at the center of a deeply serious struggle--with language,
with sexuality, with race and colonial Canada, and with love and
joy and a life in art. It's about the attempt to stand in a center
one has created, all while feeling the impossibility of ever doing
so, and also wondering if maybe one shouldn't. This is a passionate
and vital autobiography about the intellect, the culture, and the
flesh, as it bears its assaults and preserves a true
light."
--Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood and How Should a
Person Be?
Praise for Billy-Ray Belcourt's This Wound Is a
World and NDN Coping Mechanisms Awards
for This Wound is a World
Winner, Griffin Poetry Prize
Winner, Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
Winner, Most Significant Book of Poetry in English by an Emerging
Indigenous Writer, Indigenous Voices Award
Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry
Finalist, Gerald Lampert Memorial Award
Finalist, Raymond Souster Award
A CBC Books Best Poetry Collection of the Year"This book is a
monument for the future of poetic possibility. It is rare to be
able to call a book something so grand and full--and have it be
utterly true. That's what This Wound Is a World affords
us: myth and hyperbole pressed into a lived and realized life. A
reckoning for and of the wreck--bravely buoyant, alive, and finally
here."
--Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly
Gorgeous"This Wound Is a World is a wonder. It
is filled with humor, sadness, sadness about sadness, sex, profound
and profane lyricism, and above all power. Billy-Ray Belcourt's
voice is uniquely plangent and self-aware. The book is a world with
worlds inside it. It means to de-colonize any possible reader's
pre- or mis-conceptions about what it means to be alive and Indian
today."
--Tommy Orange, author of There There"The
urgent, fresh voice of his generation."
--Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal
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