Star Indigenous Student
Wins Canada's Biggest Poetry Prize
by Geoff McMaster -
University of Alberta Folio
Griffin
Poetry Prize caps off a series of honours for doctoral student and
Rhodes Scholar Billy-Ray Belcourt.
Billy-Ray
Belcourt, a doctoral student and Rhodes Scholar at the U
of A, won Canada's top poetry prize Thursday for his collection
"This Wound is a World." (Photo: Tenille Campbell)
University of Alberta
doctoral student and Rhodes Scholar Billy-Ray Belcourt won Canada's
most illustrious poetry honourthe Griffin Poetry Prize. Belcourt,
23, is the youngest person ever to win the annual prize.
Belcourt's This Wound
is a World was chosen from three Canadian finalists at a ceremony
in Toronto Thursday night. American poet Susan Howe was also chosen
in the international category. Both winners will take home a total
of $75,000.
While the prize comes
as a powerful endorsement of his creative talent, Belcourt said
the recognition has only made him more determined to push
towards the political goals that I have . I see it all as an
incentive to be more purposeful about how I pay back communities.
And in addition to boring
things like paying off his car loan, he said the prize money
will go towards helping his family financially and perhaps supporting
young poets.
"I'm interested in supporting
emerging Indigenous, queer and trans writers, he said. How
might I contribute to the democratization of the publishing industry,
or set up opportunities that would bring those writers who have
pressing stories to tell into the literary world?"
This Wound is a World,
published by Calgary's Frontenac House, was partly written while
Belcourt was at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship in 2016-17.
It is an honest and raw account of growing up gay and Indigenous
in Western Canada.
Billy-Ray
Belcourt recites a poem from This Wound is a World.
Blending the resources
of love song and elegy, prayer and manifesto, Billy-Ray Belcourt's
This Wound is a World shows us poetry at its most intimate and politically
necessary, write the Griffin jurists in their assessment of
the book.
Between its bold
treatment of sexuality and wary anatomy of despair, [Belcourt's
poetry] peels back the layers of feeling and experience to offer,
finally, the glimmerings of hope.
Since its publication,
the book has struck a chord with readers across the country. It
was selected by the CBC as one of the 10 best Canadian poetry books
of 2017, by Prism International among its Best Books of 2017, by
the Canadian League of Poets as one of the Ten Must-Read Books of
2017 and by the Writers' Trust of Canada among its 2017 Best Books
of the Year.
Just last week, Belcourt
also received a 2018 Indigenous Voices Award, which comes with a
$5,000 cash prize, for most significant work of poetry in
English.
I think because
the book is deeply emotional, readers are affected by it,
said Belcourt.
Sadness and hope
are at the core of the book, and those emotions aren't exclusively
Indigenous or queerthey're universal aspects of the human
experience. So even if they aren't Indigenous or queer, people can
enter into the text in a way that reflects their experiences."
Raised by his grandmother
on the Driftpile Cree Nation reserve in northwestern Alberta, Belcourt
came to the U of A to study comparative literature. He became an
advocate for LGBTQ and Indigenous communities, and served as president
of the U of A's Aboriginal Student Council.
In 2015 he became the
first-ever First Nations student from the U of A to win a Rhodes
Scholarship. He is now pursuing a PhD in the Department of English
and Film Studies, where he plans to examine what he calls the Indigenous
paranormal in art, poetry and film produced by Canada's First
Nations.
Given his recent success
with creative writing, however, he said the project will likely
push the boundaries of conventional academic writing.
"I'm thinking now that
my dissertation will be more of a creative/theoretical hybrid, and
that I won't try to remain in the position of the conventional academic.
"The work will be more
autobiographical."
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