Gabriel's Beach is Neal McLeod's second book with Hagios Press. In this new book he takes on the stories of his relations and ancestors including his Grandfather's harrowing war experiences. McLeod engages in history without losing himself in it, and brings forth the power of a human voice moving story toward myth. In these intuitive, confident, and powerful poems we learn of battles and of survival, and of the ultimate scars that history has served on aboriginal people in this part of North America. Here is a poet who is not only a witness to what his family has endured but he is an artist who shows us a way to connect these stories to our own lives.

Neal McLeod is half Cree (having grown up on the James Smith reserve in Saskatchewan) and half Swedish having had the fortunate opportunity to study abroad at the Swedish Art Academy at Umeå . Neal’s first book of poetry entitled, Songs to Kill a Wîhtikow, was nominated for several Saskatchewan book awards including book of the year in 2005 and book of year at the Anskohk McNally Aboriginal Literature Awards. In 2007, he also published Cree Narrative Memory, which was nominated for book of the year at the Anskohk McNally Aboriginal Literature Awards. In the fall of 2008, he published his second book of poetry entitled Gabriel’s Beach. He teaches Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Neal McLeod's profile page