Joining Transatlantic Agency

After chatting with Billy-Ray Belcourt, he of the astounding Griffin Prize, Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and 2018 Indigenous Voices Award winning poetry book, This Wound is a World, I’ve decided to get a literary agent. Sorry, that first sentence was seriously just a huge plug for Billy-Ray’s book, and his work in general, did you know he is only 23?! TWENTY-THREE. These young writers, these young people in general, are just so inspiring, and no amount of avocado-toast millennial hit-pieces is going to change that!

I want to be super duper clear that I love my publisher Portage & Main Press! Not only do we have a fantastic working relationship, these are some of the kindest, most generous, and wonderful people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. They go so far above and beyond, all the time, and I definitely want to keep working with them on projects into the future! Also you should check out all their amazing publications.

Actually, this isn’t just an announcement that I’m now working with Stephanie Sinclair at Transatlantic Agency, it’s more of a plug for a bunch of really great Indigenous authors that Stephanie also represents. Because I love their work, and I think you’ll love it too!

For example, have you read Joshua Whitehead yet? His poetry collection, Full-Metal Indigiqueer is nerdy, brilliant, and at times, devastating. My personal favourite piece is “The Fa-[ ted] Queene, an Ipic P.M.” which is a glorious play on traditional English poetry.  His novel Jonny Appleseed is described as “a tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve.” I almost read it in one sitting; I ended up giving a copy away to someone on the bus one day and had to buy a new copy that afternoon! Also that amazing beaded and quilled bison on the front was made by my cuzzin Erin-Marie Konsmo.

Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017, Jordan Abel’s third collection of poetry, Injun is a fascinating poem that is also an excavation and exploration and answer to the term “Injun”. Just reading about the process that led to this book is something!

Stephanie also represents Alicia Elliot, also known as @WordsandGuitar on twitter, the author of so many incredible magazine articles, and an all around badass.

Then there’s Norma Dunning whose book, Annie Muktuk and Other Stories won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award this year! Transatlantic also represents Leanne Simpson, Katherena Vermette, Angela Sterritt, and many other authors.

Me, I’m working on a collection of short stories that envision Métis people into the near and far future, exploring the concept of Indigeneity in post-singularity, and post-human contexts. I mean, officially this is also my Master’s Thesis, but I can only fit four stories into that, so I’m going to be fleshing it out with a few more outside of my academic work; don’t worry, it’s not going to be dry, at all!

So I’m super excited to be working with Transatlantic, and now I’d better get back to it!