This book is the debut poetry collection of Samantha Nock, an âpihtaw’kos’ân writer. Nock reflects on growing up in the rural area of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and living a thousand miles away in the urban centre of Vancouver. Through her words, Nock redefines the meanings of home. These poems are of love, heartbreak, and grief, and the themes are connected through deep metaphors of place and all things within lands. She entwines Cree words throughout the pages. Within Nock’s poetic stories, memories, and dreams, Nock interweaves emotions with story, memories, and dreams that include family, friends, politics, and colonization and its effects. The poems within this collection are reflected from the life of an Indigenous woman who demonstrates an understanding of survivance, resurgence, and the importance and power of love.

Other End Matter: Quotation sources
Images: None
Contributor Affiliation: Samantha Nock (Cree-Métis)
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Evaluator: Meredith R., Elementary School Teacher, Indigenous Books for Schools

Samantha Nock is a Cree-Métis writer and poet originally from Treaty 8 Territory in the Peace Region of northeast British Columbia. Her family is originally from sâkitawâhk ᓵᑭᑕᐚᕽ (Île-à-la-Crosse), Saskatchewan. Samantha currently resides on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Lands in so-called Vancouver. She has had works published in Maisonneuve, Vice, Prism International, and Best Canadian Poetry, among others. You can find her on Twitter @sammymarie and Instagram @2broke4bingo.

Samantha Nock's profile page

• Short-listed, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
• Long-listed, Pat Lowther Memorial Award

"Nock’s conversational cadence invites the reader to witness a practice of tender and truthful regard between the speaker and her ancestors, her community and herself." —Winnipeg Free Press