Gwen Benaway

Gwen Benaway is an Anishinaabe and Métis poet and activist from Canada.[1] She is a PhD candidate in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto.[2] Benaway has also written non-fiction for The Globe and Mail and Maclean's.[3]

Gwen Benaway
Born1987
OccupationPoet
LanguageEnglish, Anishinaabe
ResidenceMontreal, Canada
NationalityCanadian, Anishinaabe, Métis
CitizenshipCanadian

Activism

Benaway is a well known advocate for the rights of transgender Indigenous people.[4] She has spoken publicly about the healthcare system and transphobia.[5] Benaway has said, ″I guess I can't tell the difference between living and writing, the social and the political, the body and the voice, the binary and the limitlessness of my heart. I'm trans, and by that I mean I'm beyond what the world can contain."[6]

Benaway was one of the most prominent activists against the Toronto Public Library's decision to allow Meghan Murphy and the Radical Feminists Unite group to hold a speaking event at the library in 2019.[7] She attended the protest against the event to stand up for transgender rights.[8] In an interview, Beneway describes being "kettled in the library" by the Toronto police during the protest.[9]

Publications

Benaway's poetry reflects her experience as a transwoman, and often speaks about the ongoing realities of colonial violence.[10] Scholar of LGBT and Two-Spirit Indigenous literatures Lisa Tatonetti described Benaway's work as "aesthetically beautiful" and wrote of Benaway's Passage that "while an incredibly personal book from a self-described feminist confessional poet, Passage, in its lyric beauty, its bravery, and its testament to survival and rebirth, is a gift to readers as well."[11] The peer assessment committee for the Governor General's Literary Awards described Holy Wild as "lyrical rhythmic and fierce. It was an extraordinary experience reading this burning, honest manifesto."[12]

Benaway has published three poetry collections to date, with one further announced:

  • Benaway, Gwen (2013). Ceremonies for the Dead. Chippewas of Nawash First Nation: Kegedonce Press. ISBN 978-0-9868740-5-5.[13]
  • Benaway, Gwen (2016). Passage. Chippewas of Nawash First Nation: Kegedonce Press. ISBN 9781928120087.[14]
  • Benaway, Gwen (2018). Holy Wild. BookThug. ISBN 9781771664394.
  • Benaway, Gwen (2020). day/break. Book*hug.[15]

Benaway curated the following collection of short fiction:

  • Benaway, Gwen (2019) Maiden, Mother, and Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes [16] ISBN 978-1-988715-21-6

Benaway's writing has been featured in the following collections:

  • Love beyond body, space, and time: an Indigenous LGBT sci-fi anthology (2016) Winnipeg: Bedside Press ISBN 9780993997075
  • NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American women (2017) Toronto: Annick Press. ISBN 9781554519576
  • Refuse: CanLit in ruins (2018) Toronto: Bookhug. ISBN 9781771664332

Essays and Articles

Awards

In 2015, Benaway received the inaugural Speaker's Award for a Young Author.[23] In 2016 she received the Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ writers.[24]

She won Prism International's Creative Non-Fiction contest in 2017 for her piece "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".[25]

In 2019 Benaway won the Governor General's Literary Award for English poetry for Holy Wild.[26] The collection of poems look at the intersection of Indigenous and transgender identities.[2] The book was also shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry at the 31st Lambda Literary Award,[27] the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[9]

In 2019, Benaway's essay "A Body Like a Home" won a Gold medal in the 42nd National Magazine Awards in the Personal Journalism category.[28]

References
  1. "'Peeling bark off a birch tree': Indigenous teaching helps Gwen Benaway through her sex reassignment surgery". Unreserved, February 4, 2018.
  2. "Gwen Benaway and two other U of T community members win Governor General's Literary Awards". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. ""Our Intimate Relations Reveal so much of our Oppressions," an Interview with Gwen Benaway". open-book.ca. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  4. "Gwen Benaway on the Convergence of Knowing and "Holy Wild"". the Town Crier. 2017-09-27. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  5. "When it comes to health care, transphobia persists". Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  6. Oct 29, Saima Desai; Facebook, 2018 7 min read Share Twitter. "To create other worlds inside this one". briarpatchmagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  7. Thompson, Nicole (2019-10-27). "Planned event reignites debate about libraries' role as forum for free speech". CP24. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  8. "Hundreds protest Toronto library even featuring controversial speaker". CBC News. The Canadian Press. October 29, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  9. Corkum, Trevor. "The Chat with Governor General's Literary Award Winner Gwen Benaway". 49thshelf.com. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  10. Faulkner, Sandra (2019). Poetic Inquiry As Social Justice and Political Response. Delaware: Vernon Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-62273-752-9.
  11. View of REVIEW ESSAY. Weaving the Present, Writing the Future: Benaway, Belcourt, and Whitehead's Queer Indigenous Imaginaries | Transmotion
  12. "Holy Wild | GGBooks 2019 (Poetry)". Governor General's Literary Awards. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  13. "Six Indigenous writers to watch". CBC Books, July 9, 2017.
  14. "Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s This Accident of Being Lost and Gwen Benaway’s passage, reviewed: Multiple realms". The Globe and Mail, March 31, 2017.
  15. February 26, Eric Volmers Updated; 2020 (2020-02-26). "'Reluctant' activist and trans poet to participate in three-generation Indigenous panel | Calgary Herald". Retrieved 2020-03-04.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. Inc, Indigo Books & Music. "Maiden, Mother, And Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes, Book by Gwen Benaway (Paperback) | chapters.indigo.ca". indigo.ca. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  17. "A Body Like a Home". Hazlitt. 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  18. Benaway, Gwen (2019-05-03). "Repair". GUTS. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  19. "Pussy". carte blanche. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  20. "Gwen Benaway". Gwen Benaway. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  21. Ahkii: a Woman is a Sovereign Land | Transmotion
  22. "Junot Diaz Abuse: What The Writer Doesn't Say in His 'New Yorker' Essay". www.flare.com. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  23. "A transgender poet reflects on her first year of experiencing womanhood | CBC Arts". CBC. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  24. "Vancouver poet Leah Horlick wins 2016 LGBT literary award". The Georgia Straight, June 10, 2016.
  25. "The 2017 Creative Non-Fiction Contest Winners". Prism International, October 5, 2017.
  26. van Koeverden, Jane (October 29, 2019). "Here are the winners of the 2019 Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  27. Ryan Porter, "Vivek Shraya, Joshua Whitehead among Canadian finalists for Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire, March 7, 2019.
  28. "Announcing the Winners of the 42nd Annual National Magazine Awards". National Magazine Awards. 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
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