Smokii Sumac
{{Short description|Ktunaxa and transmasculine poet}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
Smokii Sumac is a Ktunaxa and transmasculine poet whose first book of poetry, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world was published in 2018 by Kegedonce Press.{{Cite web|url=http://smokiisumac.com/about/|title=About – Smokii Sumac|language=en|access-date=2019-04-16}} The unpublished draft manuscript of the book, then titled "#haikuaday", won the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished English Poetry, while the book itself was awarded the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for English Poetry.{{Cite web|url=https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/how-a-scholarly-association-is-helping-indigenous-writers-to-thrive/|title=How a scholarly association is helping Indigenous writers to thrive|website=University Affairs|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-16}}
Early life and education
Sumac grew up in Invermere, British Columbia. He attended the David Thompson Secondary School. He has talked openly about his recovery from alcoholism and addiction.{{Cite web |date=2019-01-02 |title=Poet finds their new voice |url=https://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/community/poet-finds-their-new-voice/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714142855/https://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/community/poet-finds-their-new-voice/ |archive-date=2020-07-14 |access-date=2019-04-16 |website=The Columbia Valley Pioneer |language=en-US}} He credits the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2017 with inspiring him to begin writing poetry.{{cite journal |title=Smokii Sumac on Being Seen in Poetry, Why Endings Matter, and a New Spin on Love Letters |journal=Open Book |date=February 21, 2019 |url=http://open-book.ca/News/Smokii-Sumac-on-Being-Seen-in-Poetry-Why-Endings-Matter-and-a-New-Spin-on-Love-Letters}}
Formerly, he was a PhD Candidate in Indigenous Studies at Trent University, where he researched "coming home" stories from a Ktunaxa adoptee and two-spirit perspective.{{Cite web |last=Patricia |title=SMOKII SUMAC |url=https://kegedonce.com/authors/item/119-smokii-sumac.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714142844/https://kegedonce.com/authors/item/119-smokii-sumac.html |archive-date=2020-07-14 |access-date=2019-04-16 |website=kegedonce.com |language=en-gb}}
Literary career
His work has been published in Write Magazine, Electric City Magazine and Canadian Literature.
you are enough has been favorably reviewed in publications including Muskrat Magazine{{cite journal |last1=Cole |first1=Jenn |title=You Are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World by Smokii Sumac (Ktunaxa) |journal=Muskrat Magazine |date=May 3, 2019 |url=http://muskratmagazine.com/you-are-enough-love-poems-for-the-end-of-the-world-by-smokii-sumac-ktunaxa/}} and Transmotion.{{cite journal |last1=Morford |first1=Ashley Caranto |title="(big)/little" moments of world-building revolution: a review of Smokii Sumac's you are enough: love poems for the end of the world. |journal=Transmotion |date=February 2019 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=336–339 }} He has performed at various events and venues including the Queer Arts Festival in 2018 and PoetryNOW: 11th Annual Battle of the Bards in 2019. In 2020 Sumac was named as a finalist for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for emerging LGBTQ writers.Ryan Porter, [https://quillandquire.com/omni/finalists-announced-for-the-2020-dayne-ogilvie-prize-for-lgbtq-emerging-writers/ "Finalists announced for the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers"]. Quill & Quire, August 25, 2020.
Sumac's poetry is noted for its frankness about matters of sex and grief.{{cite web |url= https://www.castlegarnews.com/community/ktunaxa-poet-reads-at-touchstones-nelson-for-parade-less-pride-week/|title= Ktunaxa poet reads at Touchstones Nelson for parade-less Pride week|last= Metcalfe|first= Bill|date= 6 September 2021|website= Castlegar News|publisher= Black Press Media|access-date= 22 November 2021|quote=}}{{cite web |url= http://open-book.ca/News/Smokii-Sumac-on-Being-Seen-in-Poetry-Why-Endings-Matter-and-a-New-Spin-on-Love-Letters|title= Smokii Sumac on Being Seen in Poetry, Why Endings Matter, and a New Spin on Love Letters|author= |date= 21 February 2019|website= Open Book|access-date= November 22, 2021|quote=}} Literary critic James Mackay discusses Sumac's work as a product of social media, comparing it to Instapoetry, arguing that "the hashtags in Sumac's work serve to restructure the poems away from being singular units and into becoming fluid and interlinked units of a larger discussion."{{cite journal |last1= Mackay|first1= James|date= July 2021|title= "#morelove. always": Reading Smokii Sumac's Transmasculine First Nations Poetry on and beyond Social Media|url= https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/928|journal= Transmotion|volume= 7|issue= 1|pages= 40–81|doi=10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.928|access-date=22 November 2021}}
Personal life
In addition to writing, Sumac dedicates much of his work to Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.{{cite book |last1=Chazan |first1=May |title=Unsettling Activisms: Critical Interventions on Aging, Gender, and Social Change |last2=Baldwin |first2=Melissa |last3=Evans |first3=Patricia |date=2018 |publisher=Canadian Scholars' Press |page=16}} He currently serves as Interim Senior Manager for Education and Employment with the Ktunaxa Nation.{{cite web |author= |date=September 2021 |title=Ktunaxa Nation Statement on Reconciliation |url=https://www.ktunaxa.org/ktunaxa-statement-of-reconciliation/ |access-date=22 November 2021 |website=www.ktunaxa.org |publisher=Ktunaxa Nation |quote=}}
Sumac identifies as two-spirit, trans masculine, "as an uncle and an auntie". He currently lives in both Peterborough, Ontario and Ithaca, New York with his family and their dog.
Publications
= Poetry collections =
- you are enough: love poems for the end of the world. Kegedonce, 2018.
= Poems and essays =
- "there are hierarchies of grief". 2016 Canadian Literature.
- "All My Relations": Aunties, Cousins, and Indigenous Methods of Recognition. 2017 Write Magazine.
- "No Pipelines on Stolen Native Land". 2017 Electric City Magazine.
- "Two Spirit and Queer Indigenous Resurgence through Sci-Fi Futurisms, Doubleweaving, and Historical Re-Imaginings: A Review Essay". published on July 31, 2018, for Kent University.
- "Just Make Me Look Like Aquaman". Tea and Bannock, 2020.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://smokiisumac.com/about/ smokiisumac.com] - personal website
"Just Make Me Look Like Aquaman: An Essay on Seeing Myself" Tea & Bannock. 2020. [https://teaandbannock.com/2020/02/11/just-make-me-look-like-aquaman-an-essay-on-seeing-myself-smokii-sumac-guest-blogger/]
{{Dayne Ogilvie Prize}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumac, Smokii}}
Category:21st-century Canadian poets
Category:Poets from British Columbia
Category:LGBTQ First Nations people
Category:Canadian transgender writers
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)