A Generous Spirit: Selected Work by Beth Brant collects the writing of Beth Brant, Mohawk lesbian poet, essayist, and activist. During her life, Brant’s work gave voice to an often unacknowledged Two-Spirit identity, and today, her words represent continued strength, growth, and connection in the face of deep suffering. A Generous Spirit is Brant’s portrait of survival and empathy at the intersection of Native American and lesbian experience. Edited by noted Native poet and scholar Janice Gould, A Generous Spirit recounts and enacts the continuance of her people and her sisters with distinct, organic voices and Brant’s characteristic warmth. Her work is a simultaneous cry of grief and celebration of human compassion and connection in its shared experience. Through storytelling, her characters wrest their own voices from years of silence and find communion with other souls.

Janice Gould is of mixed European and Concow (koyangk'auwi) descent and grew up in Berkeley, California. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where she received degrees in Linguistics and English, and of the University of New Mexico, where she earned her Ph.D. in English. She recently earned a Master's degree in Library Science from the University of Arizona. Janice's books of poetry include Beneath My Heart (1990), Earthquake Weather (1996), Alphabet (an art book/chapbook, 1990), Doubters and Dreamers (2011), The Force of Gratitude (2017), and Seed (2019). She is the co-editor of Speak to Me Words: Essays on American Indian Poetry (2003), published by the University of Arizona. Janice is an associate professor in Women’s and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she developed and directs the concentration in Native American Studies.

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Lee Maracle is a member of the Sto:Lo nation. She was born in Vancouver and grew up on the North Shore. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Ravensong and Daughters Are Forever. Her novel for young adults, Will’s Garden was well-received and is taught in schools. She has also published on book of poetry, Bent Box, and a work of creative non-fiction, I Am Woman. She is the co-editor of a number of anthologies, including the award winning anthology My Home As I Remember and Telling It: Women and Language across Culture. Her work has been published in anthologies and scholarly journals worldwide. The mother of four and grandmother of seven, Maracle is currently an instructor at the University of Toronto, the Traditional Teacher for First Nation’s House, and instructor with the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and the S.A.G.E. (Support for Aboriginal Graduate Education). She is also a writing instructor at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

In 2009, Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University. Maracle recently received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work promoting writing among Aboriginal Youth, and is 2014 finalist for the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Maracle has served as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and the University of Western Washington.

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• Short-listed, Lambda Literary Awards

“Here poems and, especially, her robust and gritty prose pieces reveal worlds of living richly put to paper; including a marvelous story of a cross-dressing female coyote attempting to play a trick on a fox. Beth Brant is a writer of great depth and brilliant talent.” —Margaret Randall, author of Exporting Revolution and Che on My Mind

“For the native, queer, feminist, literary world: Beth is a home, reminding us that we are not alone in our movements towards liberation.” — Christopher Soto, poet and editor of Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color

“Beth Brant gave us Indigenous feminism and Indigenous queer theory even before we had a name for these practices, all wrapped up in the most beautiful storywork.” — Kim Anderson, author of A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood