Gill's collection in Heating the Outdoors shows an emotionally bare look at a journey of love, loss, and starting over. Gill writes, “I’m haunted by all the space that I will live without you,” words that show the depth of feeling and storytelling in her writing through talented and sparsely written poetic phrases. Marie-Andrée Gill is an award-winning poet and member of the Ilnu Nation. She is the recipient of two Indigenous Voices Awards and the Salon du Live Prize in poetry. Gill has won and been nominated for many other prestigious awards, including the 2020 Artist of the Year by the Quebec Council of Arts and Letters.

Cautions / Content Warnings: Coarse language.
Other End Matter: Notes, Acknowledgements, About the Translator
Contributor Affiliation: Author Marie-Andrée Gill (Ilnu Nation), Translator Kristen Renee Miller
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Source: Books BC - Indigenous Books for Schools

Ilnu Nation member Marie-Andrée Gill grew up on the Mashteuiatsh reserve in the Saguenay region in Quebec, home to the Pekuakamishkueu community. She is the acclaimed author of three French-language poetry collections from La Peuplade: Béante, Frayer, and Chauffer le dehors. Two of her books have been translated into English by Kristen Renee Miller, including Spawn (2020) and Heating the Outdoors (forthcoming in 2023). A doctoral student in literature, Gill's research and creative work focus on the decolonial project of writing the intimate. She hosts the award-winning Radio-Canada podcast "Laissez-nous raconter: L'histoire crochie" (Telling Our Twisted Histories), which "reclaims Indigenous history by exploring words whose meanings have been twisted by centuries of colonization." Gill's work has been nominated for many awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry, and she is a two-time recipient of the Salon du Livre Prize in Poetry. She has also won two Indigenous Voices Awards, including the Best Published Poetry in French prize for Chauffer le dehors. Also in 2020, Gill was named Artist of the Year by the Quebec Council of Arts and Letters.

Marie-Andrée Gill's profile page

Kristen Renee Miller is the managing editor at Sarabande Books. A poet and translator, she is the 2020 winner of the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation and the translator of two books from the French by poet Marie-Andrée Gill: Spawn (2020) and Heating the Outdoors (forthcoming in 2023). Her work can be found widely, including in POETRY Magazine, The Kenyon Review, DIAGRAM, jubilat, and Best New Poets. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the American Literary Translators Association. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Kristen Renee Miller's profile page

• Winner, Indigenous Voices Award for Best Published Poetry in French

“Miller’s translation skillfully delivers the energy and pacing of Gill’s ruminative poems… These pages full of irreverent musings deliver affecting details and candor.” —Publishers Weekly

“A luminous, resilient read that finds resonance in our little hidden wounds.” —Rose Carine Henriquez, Le Devoir

“Heating the Outdoors is a study in tone, beautifully captured in Kristen Renee Miller’s translations from the French.” —Poetry Foundation

“An exceptional third book by the Saguenay poet, who kneels in the beautiful snowbanks of a love that melts all too quickly.” —Dominic Tardif, Le Devoir