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Poetry Native American

You are Enough

love poems for the end of the world

by (author) Smokii Sumac

Publisher
Kegedonce Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2018
Category
Native American, Love, LGBT
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781928120162
    Publish Date
    Dec 2018
    List Price
    $16

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Description

Finalist for the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry in English. In his debut poetry collection you are enough: love poems for the end of the world, Smokii Sumac has curated a selection of works from two years of a near daily poetry practice. What began as a sort of daily online poetry journal using the hashtag #haikuaday, has since transformed into a brilliant collection of storytelling drawing upon Indigenous literary practice, and inspired by works like Billy Ray Belcourt's This Wound is a World, and Tenille Campbell's #IndianLovePoems. With sections dealing with recovery from addiction and depression, coming home through ceremony, and of course, as the title suggests, on falling in and out of love, Sumac brings the reader through two years of life as a Ktunaxa Two-Spirit person. This collection addresses the grief of being an Indigenous person in Canada, shares timely (and sometimes hilarious) musings on consent, sex, and gender, and through it all, helps us come to know that we are enough, just as we are.

About the author

Smokii Sumac (they/he) is a Ktunaxa two-spirit poet and emerging playwright. Their first book, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world won an Indigenous Voices Award. Indigenous sovereignty and centring our own knowledges is deeply important to Smokii’s creative work. He believes in the power of storytelling and has featured Indigenous writers and musicians on The ʔasqanaki Podcast, a limited podcast series that Smokii created and hosts. Their first play, Seven and One Heart, was workshopped in Montreal and developed in Toronto during the 2024 Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival. Smokii will be also releasing a Canada Council–funded spoken word album in spring 2025. Smokii is happy to live in his home territories of ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa, near the banks of the Kootenay River, with his husband, their cats, chicken, and a “big ole rez dog” named Kootenay Lou.

Smokii Sumac's profile page