Not okay
July 02nd, 2020
Jaye simpson, who identifies as non-binary has written their first collection of poetry and prose, it was never going to be okay (Nightwood $18.95) due out in October. They explore intergenerational trauma, Indigeneity and queerness and also address urban Indigenous diaspora and breaking down the limitations of sexual understanding as a trans woman.
In an excerpt from their poem, boy, simpson recalls the early pain of being given a specific gender:
i am five
my sisters are saying boy
i do not know what the word means but
i am bruised into knowing it: the blunt b,
the hollowness of the o, the blade of y
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Simpson is an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer whose roots hail from the Sapotaweyak, Keeseekoose & Skownan Cree Nations. They grew up primarily in the Vancouver area.
They are published in several magazines including Poetry Is Dead, This Magazine, PRISM international, SAD Magazine: Green, GUTS Magazine, SubTerrain, Grain and Room. They are in two anthologies: Hustling Verse (2019) and Love After the End (2020). Simpson self-describes as a displaced Indigenous person “resisting, ruminating and residing on” Musqueam, Tsleil-waututh and Squamish First Nations territories.
978-0-88971-382-6
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