This collection of poetry shows different experiences of an Indigenous queer person who grew up in the foster system. Their deep reflection of trauma, while addressing lived experiences of transphobia and homophobia, racism, and cultural genocide, makes this collection an honest and beautifully painful account that raises awareness of the work that still needs to be done. We observe the speaker processing different stages of their life, all while referencing their own Cree language and particular landscapes such as the Downtown Eastside of what is called Vancouver. The poetry does not follow Eurocentric structures and would be excellent to add to any poetry collection or to present in sections to students (with prereading).

Caution: Foster system, abuse, racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia, gender dysphoria, sex work, MMIWG, and drug use.

112 pp., 5.5 × 8"

jaye simpson (Oji-Cree of the Buffalo Clan, roots in Sapotaweyak and Skownan Cree Nation)

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

jaye simpson is a Two-Spirit Oji-Cree person of the Buffalo Clan with roots in Sapotaweyak and Skownan Cree Nation who often writes about being queer in the child welfare system, as well as being queer and Indigenous. simpson’s work has been performed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (2017) in Peterborough, and in Guelph with the Vancouver Slam Poetry 2018 Team. simpson has recently been named the Vancouver Champion for the Women of the World Poetry Slam and their work has been featured in Poetry Is Dead, This Magazine, PRISM international, SAD Mag, GUTS Magazine and Room. simpson resides on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwəta’Ɂɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations peoples, currently and colonially known as Vancouver, BC.

jaye simpson's profile page

• Short-listed, Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers
• Winner, Indigenous Voices Award: Published Poetry in English

jaye simpson debuts with a remarkable collection of words taking you through the poetics of desire, kinship and distinct feeling. This selection of work cements their necessary place within the literary canon of queer Indigenous script as a writer whose pivotal and articulate voice evokes that familiar sense of yearning, care and ancestral knowledge with every page.

Justin Ducharme, co-editor of Hustling Verse: an Anthology of Sex Workers' Poetry

jaye simpson’s it was never going to be okay is a symphony of unrelenting rage and undying hope that beckons to be heard, seen and held with the utmost care. In this stunning debut they speak truths to the complexities of the body, land and memory through an intimately structured and poignant cadence. This collection will leave you longing for more and, in the legacy of trans Indigenous literature, change lives.

Arielle Twist, author of Disintegrate/Dissociate

jaye simpson marshals a vast economy of images because their subject matter is as large as an entire country, as the colonial past, as structures of oppression and indifference that undermine Indigenous and trans livability. At the level of craft, simpson makes use of the codes of tragedy, polemic, autobiography and the lyric artfully and powerfully. By the book’s end, buoyed by its final beautiful and tender section, a kind of love letter to trans Indigenous peoples, one is called on to build a new world. In this way, jaye simpson's poetry is a vital artifact of a decolonial future!

Billy-Ray Belcourt, 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize winner for This Wound Is a World