Icelandic-First Nations Lit
April 08th, 2015
Active within the Aboriginal Writers Collective on the West Coast, Metis/Icelandic Jonina Kirton coordinated the first National Indigenous Writers Conference in Vancouver in 2013. Loosely autobiographical, Kirton’s first book of poetry, page as bone – ink as blood (Talonbooks $16.95) is a memoir in verse that bridges Kirton’s European and First Nation cultures. She uses poignant images and stories of the senses to explore family secrets, black holes of trauma, and retrieved memories. “What our minds have forgotten or locked away,” she has written, “the body never forgets.” Kirton is another graduate of Simon Fraser’s Writer’s Studio (2007) and a recipient of the Emerging Aboriginal Writer’s Residency at the Banff Centre (2008). Kirton’s writing has appeared in anthologies and literary journals including Ricepaper, V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Other Tongues: Mixed Race Women Speak Out, Pagan Edge, First Nations Drum, Toronto Quarterly and Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine. She won first prize and two honourable mentions in the 2013 Royal City Literary Arts Society’s Write On Contest. Kirton was also a finalist in the 2013 Burnaby Writers’ Society Writing Contest. 978-0-88922-923-5
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