Description:
A brilliant collection weaving history, personal experience, and Indigenous resilience
Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead: ᒪᒪᐦᑖᐃᐧᓯᐃᐧᐣ ᐸᑯᓭᔨᒧᐤ ᓂᑭᐦᒋ ᐋᓂᐢᑯᑖᐹᐣ mamahtâwisiwin, pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân is a wonder. With inspiring defiance, John-Kehewin plays with form, space, and language, demonstrating which magics cannot be suppressed. Here is an unflinching look at colonialism's sickening trail: its ongoingdetriment to the safety and mental health of Indigenous people, its theft of language, and its intergenerational harms. But here also is the unrelenting power of resistance, and the great strength in truth. Wanda John-Kehewin "stands in her truth" so that other survivors may stand in theirs.
Brief description: Cree poet Wanda John-Kehewin studied criminology, sociology, Aboriginal studies, and creative writing while attending the Writer's Studio writing program at Simon Fraser University. She uses writing as a therapeutic medium through which to understand and to respond to the near decimation of First Nations culture, language, and tradition. She has been published in Quills, Canadian Poetry Magazine, the Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast anthology Salish Seas, and the Writer's Studio emerge anthology. She has shared her writing on Vancouver Co-op Radio, performed at numerous readings throughout the Lower Mainland, and read for the Writers Union of Canada.