I wound up really enjoying this one. It is a collection of poems and prose reflecting on the life of the modern Native with ties to history. It deals with social justice, relationships, race, etc. What struck me was the simplicity of it all. The words are chosen with care as a poet might with a deeper meaning. Most of the poems are in lowercase without punctuation to drive the point home. It sat with me. ( )

I listened to this on Hoopla--and it is narrated by the author. What better way to experience stories and songs written in a traditional native storytelling tradition than by listening to the author read them?

And these are fantastic. They are serious but funny--and some are very funny. The humor is dry and sarcastic and satirical. They are also painful, as her characters are living in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world not acknowledged or seen as such by most of the non-indigenous Canadians around them.

Everything in here is good. My favorites: Doing the Right Thing; Unsubstantiated Health Benefits; and Situational Update 7.

This book is often listed as poetry, but they felt like the "stories" in the title, because each tells a story (long or short, they are all contained). They aren't what I would consider songs (none are sung on the audio, for example), but they certainly sound like verse. The downside of listening is, of course, that I don't know how the native words, names, and many places are spelled; nor how the stories look on the page (verse?).

I found this while looking through Thunderbirdwomanreads' Instagram feed, trying to find a book for Native November that I had not already read that was also available on Hoopla. ( )

A quick read that I found very captivating. I didn't always understand what was going on or who was speaking but it shall go into my beloved pile all the same. ( )

Simpson uses fiction as a vehicle to tell the truth.

And when fiction feels true, or real, it makes it all that much better. Her short fiction has distinctive multiple voices but I can feel her author’s touch in all of them and she makes me think about how I could be a better author or writer.

Her work as a musician means that her poetry reads and sounds like music. What I adore about her poetry is that it is not forced, it does not feel abstract in any way, I understand almost all of her poems which is a rare thing. Sometimes, with other authors, I just have to accept that if I read a poetry collection, I’m reading it for the language but not so with Simpson’s work.

Her work is so grounded and unapologetic — it’s sentimental and sweet and her creativity feels sacred, like nothing can touch it. I love that when I read her works I feel like she’s there within the story itself. She’s not a puppeteer, steering the character’s from above, but she’s weaving the story like a tapestry and telling it as she weaves, so that I feel like her fiction is a living, breathing thing.

Simpson feels like someone who is so surrounded by fiction that it just pours out of her. I actually also really enjoyed how she wrote social media interactions in her short fiction. They feel actually authentic rather than manufactured and forced, as though writing on social media or using hashtags is somehow beneath all other authors. How many books have we all read that feature teenagers talking to each other via text using random acronyms and anagrams and bizarre vocab that we, as young people who regularly use social media, have never even seen before?

Although, I will be curious to see how this book ages. What will happen to Instagram in 10 years time? Although Simpson doesn’t reference it directly, it’s odd to think about the fact that technology will change so much in the next five years, let alone 10.

Her writing was so commanding but she felt so comfortable in her prowess. I loved this book. ( )

Flash stories, songs, poems, and fragments. I can’t really describe this book properly except to say it was beautiful and resonated deeply with me. Truly a must for any Indigenous post-colonial person. ( )