Nyla Matuk

The poems included in Resisting Canada address, among other things, Indigenous agency, cultural belonging, environmental anxieties, and racial privilege. These poems ask us to judge and resist a statecraft that refuses to acknowledge past and present wrongs. Think of Resisting Canada as a poetic letter to Canada’s politicians and leaders.

Resisting Canada gathers together 28 poets for a conversation bigger than poetic trends. Its organizing principle is Canada—the Canada that established residential schools; the Canada grappling with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; the Canada that has been visible in its welcome of Syrian refugees, yet the not-always-tolerant place where the children of those refugees will grow up; the Canada eager to re-establish its global leadership on the environment while struggling to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty on resource-rich land and enabling further colonization of that land. In the face of global conflicts due to climate change, scarcity, mass migrations, and the rise of xenophobic populisms, Canada still works with a surface understanding of its democratic values—both at their noblest and most deceptive.

The poets:
Jordan Abel
James Arthur
Marie Annharte Baker
Billy-Ray Belcourt
Wayde Compton
Beth Cuthand
Rosanna Deerchild
Marilyn Dumont
Marvin FrancisLouise
Bernice Halfe-Sky Dancer
Jim Johnstone
El Jones
Christine Leclerc
Canisia Lubrin
Lee Maracle
Sachiko Murakami
Arleen Paré
Michael Prior
Shane Rhodes
Janet Rogers
Armand Garnet Ruffo
Ingrid Ruthig
Gregory A. Scofield
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Karen Solie
Moez Surani
Derek Webster
Rita Wong

James Arthur

“I believe in the power of original sin,” writes James Arthur, “in the wound/ that keeps on wounding.” Set against a backdrop of political turmoil in the United States, The Suicide’s Son is about the complicated personal histories that parents inherit, add to, and pass on to their children. This is a confessional book of masks and personae, of depopulated landscapes haunted by history’s violence, of speakers whose conflicted truth-telling is marked by sense of complicity in the falsehoods they glimpse around them. “I’m aging very slowly, because every part of me / is already dead," says Frankenstein’s monster. With his formidable powers of observation and inimitable ear for the cadences of speech, Arthur shows himself to be, in only his second book, one of the best English-language poets writing today.

David Homel

David Homel’s eighth novel is an exquisitely written, brutally honest, brave work from a two-time Governor General Award winner at the peak of his powers.

Phil Brenner has fallen into a slump. All of his life’s achievements have somehow crept into disarray. As a freelance journalist, his career pinnacles keep receding in the rearview, as he struggles to stay relevant in a culture that prizes identity over experience. He feels unfairly cast aside by younger generations, designated the very “white male of privilege” he spent much of his youth rallying against. As a husband, he’s estranged from his wife, whose job supports the suburban lifestyle he never wanted. As a father, his two daughters repel any attempt he makes to connect.

But when a chance arises to cover the refugee crisis in Eastern Europe, Phil seizes the opportunity to reinvent himself into the person he could be, if only he can bring himself to tear down the tired notions of who he has become.

Christine Macgill

Every immigrant that comes to Canada has a story. This book captures ten of those stories and the remarkable resiliency and fortitude of the human spirit. In 1994 one of the worst genocides in human history took place in Rwanda—over one million people were killed in 100 days.

Each chapter in The Hope that Remains focuses on a Rwandan survivor and their journey to escape the violence and chaos that overtook their country. Two of the featured stories follow individuals who fled before the killing began and the events that caused them to flee. Both were then faced with the challenge of being outsiders looking in as events deteriorated and their families were slaughtered. The other eight survivors share their detailed and gripping experiences of trying to stay alive while trapped in a nation of killers.
Twenty-five years after the Rwandan Genocide the scars are still very real and rebuilding and coping with the trauma remains an emotional struggle. Despite their horrific pasts the survivors share feelings of hope, forgiveness, and a belief in a better future. They demonstrate the strength and courage it takes to leave the known behind to seek a better life in a new country. Their journeys to Canada contain humorous moments, thoughtful insights, and an overwhelming love and pride for the nation they now call home.