Passage - Softcover

Passage examines what it means to experience loss and the burden of survival. Through a narrative journey to Northern Ontario and across the Great Lakes, Passage is a poetic voyage through divorce, intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonization, and the discovery of a new sexuality and gender. Striking and raw in sparse lines, the collection showcases a vital Two Spirited identity which transects borders of race, gender, and experience. In Passage, the poet, Giles Benaway, seeks to reconcile herself to the land, the history of her ancestors and the legacy of colonization, and her separation from her partner and family by reflecting the message "the most beautiful thing you know/is the passage that leads to you."

Gwen Benaway is of Anishinaabe and Metis descent. Her first collection of poetry, Ceremonies for the Dead, was published in 2013 and her second collection of poetry, Passage, is forthcoming from Kegedonce Press in Fall 2016. As emerging Two-Spirited Trans poet, she has been described as the spiritual love child of Tomson Highway and Anne Sexton. In 2015, she was the recipient of the inaugural Speaker's Award for a Young Author and in 2016 she received a Dayne Ogilvie Honour of Distinction for Emerging Queer Authors from the Writer's Trust of Canada. Her work has been published and anthologized internationally. She and her many vintage dresses can be found on Instagram @gwenbenaway