{"product_id":"a-history-of-my-brief-body-isbn-9781937512934","title":"A History of My Brief Body","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe youngest ever winner of the Griffin Prize mines his personal history in a brilliant new essay collection seeking to reconcile the world he was born into with the world that could be.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor readers of Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson and fans of \u003ci\u003eHeart Berries\u003c\/i\u003e by Terese Marie Mailhot, \u003ci\u003eA History of My Brief Body\u003c\/i\u003e is a brave, raw, and fiercely intelligent collection of essays and vignettes on grief, colonial violence, joy, love, and queerness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBilly-Ray Belcourt’s debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. Piece by piece, Billy-Ray’s writings invite us to unpack and explore the big and broken world he inhabits every day, in all its complexity and contradiction: a legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it; first loves and first loves lost; sexual exploration and intimacy; the act of writing as a survival instinct and a way to grieve. What emerges is not only a profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEye-opening, intensely emotional, and excessively quotable, \u003ci\u003eA History of My Brief Body\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates over and over again the power of words to both devastate and console us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e* 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir\/Biography, Finalist.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e* A Best Book of 2020 —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBook Riot\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCBC\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, Largehearted Boy, Maudlin House\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In this stunning essay-collection-cum-prose-poem-cycle, Belcourt meditates on the difficulty and necessity of finding joy as a queer NDN in a country that denies that joy all too often. Out of the 'ruins of the museum of political depression' springs a 'tomorrow free of the rhetorical trickery of colonizers everywhere.' Happiness, this beautiful book says, is the ultimate act of resistance.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Michelle Hart, O, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Through his new collection of essays, A History of My Brief Body, I have come to view Billy-Ray as a trusted intellectual and scholar, a prolific creative, and a necessary voice of resistance.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Layli Long Soldier, BOMB\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In his endeavor to honor the reality of Indigenous pain while also remaining steadfastly committed to queer Indigenous joy and utopic futures, Billy-Ray Belcourt has written an incomparable book full of emotion, analysis and poetic beauty.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kai Minosh Pyle, Star Tribune\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Belcourt’s writing is poetic and philosophical, and often meanders in lovely and thought-provoking ways, whether he writes of colonialism, his grandmother, or his queer\/NDN identity. Clearly a student, too, he includes words of other writers, particularly Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson, but his voice is distinctly his own. This timely and intriguing collection would make a great read-alike for Saeed Jones’ How We Fight for Our Lives.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kathy Sexton, Booklist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What Belcourt does transcends genre. The celebrated author is at once deliberate and playful with his use of language. He uses it to engage deeply with the body, its pain and joy and needs, and to push through the thickets of fighting against a settler colonialism that constantly tries to break bodies down from without and within. Collecting fragments of imagery, the scholarly and poetic work of others, and snares of love and capitalism, Belcourt has crafted an outstanding missive.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sarah Neilson, them. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A History of My Brief Body is a breathtaking literary rebellion against the brutalization and simplification of NDN existence, establishing as resistance joy in creativity and its ability to invent worlds.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Samantha Zaboski, Shelf Awareness, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In sharp pieces infused with a yearning for decolonized love and freedom, Belcourt, of the Driftpile Cree Nation, ably balances poetic, philosophical, and political insights throughout this unique book... An urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kirkus Reviews, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A rallying cry for freedom. The ongoingness of resilience demands a manifesto, and here it is: 'Joy is art is an ethics of Resistance.'\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kristen Millares Young, The Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eBilly-Ray Belcourt\u003c\/b\u003e is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is Canada’s first First Nations Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of the poetry collections \u003ci\u003eNDN Coping Mechanisms\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThis Wound Is a World\u003c\/i\u003e, which was awarded the 2018 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, the 2018 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and a 2018 Indigenous Voices Award. In 2018, Belcourt was named by CBC Books as one of “14 Canadian poets to watch,” one of “18 emerging writers to watch,” a “Writer to know,” and one of “ten young Canadians to watch” by the CBC. \u003ci\u003eA History of My Brief Body\u003c\/i\u003e marks his non-fiction debut.","brand":"Two Dollar Radio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48232886730981,"sku":"NP9781937512934","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781937512934.jpg?v=1767720526","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/a-history-of-my-brief-body-isbn-9781937512934","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}