Gwen Benaway Explained

Gwen Benaway
Birth Name:Giles Benaway
Birth Date:1987
Occupation:Poet
Language:English
Nationality:Canadian
Citizenship:Canadian
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Gwen Benaway (born Giles Benaway) is Canadian poet and activist. As of October 2019, she was a PhD candidate in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto.[1] Benaway has also written non-fiction for The Globe and Mail and Maclean's.[2]

Activism

Benaway, who claims Anishinaabe and Métis descent,[3] is an advocate for the rights of transgender Indigenous people.[4] However, her claims to Indigenous identity have been called into question.[5]

She has spoken publicly about the healthcare system and transphobia.[6] Benaway has said, ″I guess I can't tell the difference between living and writing, the social and the political, the body and the voice, the binary and the limitlessness of my heart. I'm trans, and by that I mean I'm beyond what the world can contain."[7]

Benaway was one of the most prominent activists against the Toronto Public Library's decision to allow the feminist writer Meghan Murphy and the Radical Feminists Unite group to hold a speaking event at the library in 2019.[8] She protested against the event to express her objection to comments Murphy had made about transgender people and Murphy's opposition to the establishment of transgender rights legislation.[9] In an interview, Benaway said she had been "kettled in the library" by the Toronto police during the protest.[10]

Publications

Benaway's poetry reflects her experience as a trans woman, and often speaks about the ongoing realities of colonial violence.[11] Scholar of LGBT and Two-Spirit Indigenous literatures Lisa Tatonetti described Benaway's work as "aesthetically beautiful" and wrote of Benaway's Passage that "while an incredibly personal book from a self-described feminist confessional poet, Passage, in its lyric beauty, its bravery, and its testament to survival and rebirth, is a gift to readers as well."[12] The peer assessment committee for the Governor General's Literary Awards described Holy Wild as "lyrical rhythmic and fierce. It was an extraordinary experience reading this burning, honest manifesto."[13]

Benaway has published three poetry collections to date, with one further announced:

Benaway curated the following collection of short fiction:

Benaway's writing has been featured in the following collections:

Essays and articles

Awards

In 2015, Benaway was the inaugural winner of the "Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker's Award for Young Authors" for Ceremonies for the Dead[24] [25] In 2016 she received the Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ writers.[26]

She won Prism International's Creative Non-Fiction contest in 2017 for her piece "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".[27]

In 2019 Benaway won the Governor General's Literary Award for English poetry for Holy Wild.[28] The collection of poems look at the intersection of Indigenous and transgender identities. The book was also shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry at the 31st Lambda Literary Award,[29] the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.

In 2019, Benaway's essay "A Body Like a Home" won a Gold medal in the 42nd National Magazine Awards in the Personal Journalism category.[30]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gwen Benaway and two other U of T community members win Governor General's Literary Awards. University of Toronto News. en. 2020-03-02. 29 October 2019 . Jovana . Jankovic.
  2. Web site: 'Our Intimate Relations Reveal so much of our Oppressions', an Interview with Gwen Benaway. Open Book. en. 2019-03-04. 2019-03-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043031/http://open-book.ca/Columnists/Our-Intimate-Relations-Reveal-so-much-of-our-Oppressions-an-Interview-with-Gwen-Benaway. dead . James . Lindsay . 5 September 2018.
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20191021195106/https://gwenbenaway.com/about/ About Gwen Benaway
  4. News: Gwen Benaway on the Convergence of Knowing and "Holy Wild". 2017-09-27. the Town Crier. 2018-10-24. en-US. 2018-10-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20181024192317/http://towncrier.puritan-magazine.com/the-writing-life/holy-wild/. dead.
  5. Niigaan Sinclair, "Claims of Indigenous identity often fraudulent". Winnipeg Free Press, August 31, 2020.
  6. News: When it comes to health care, transphobia persists. 2018-10-24.
  7. Web site: To create other worlds inside this one. October 29, 2018. Saima. Desai. briarpatchmagazine.com. en. 2019-03-04.
  8. Web site: Planned event reignites debate about libraries' role as forum for free speech. Thompson. Nicole. 2019-10-27. CP24. en. 2019-10-28.
  9. News: The Canadian Press. Hundreds protest Toronto library event featuring controversial speaker. October 29, 2019. CBC News. March 2, 2020.
  10. Web site: The Chat with Governor General's Literary Award Winner Gwen Benaway. Corkum. Trevor. 49thshelf.com. en. 11 November 2019. 2020-03-02.
  11. Book: Faulkner, Sandra. Poetic Inquiry As Social Justice and Political Response. Vernon Press. 2019. 978-1-62273-752-9. Delaware. 68.
  12. https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/637/1360 View of REVIEW ESSAY. Weaving the Present, Writing the Future: Benaway, Belcourt, and Whitehead's Queer Indigenous Imaginaries | Transmotion
  13. Web site: Holy Wild GGBooks 2019 (Poetry). Governor General's Literary Awards. en. 2020-03-02. 2020-03-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20200302223551/https://ggbooks.ca/holy-wild. dead.
  14. http://www.cbc.ca/books/six-indigenous-writers-to-watch-1.4150045 "Six Indigenous writers to watch"
  15. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/leanne-betasamosake-simpsons-this-accident-of-being-lost-and-gwen-benaways-passage-reviewed-multiple-realms/article34516107/ "Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's This Accident of Being Lost and Gwen Benaway's passage, reviewed: Multiple realms"
  16. Web site: 'Reluctant' activist and trans poet to participate in three-generation Indigenous panel Calgary Herald. Eric. Volmers. 2020-02-26. en. 2020-03-04.
  17. Web site: Maiden, Mother, And Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes, Book by Gwen Benaway (Paperback) chapters.indigo.ca. indigo.ca. en. 2018-12-20.
  18. Web site: A Body Like a Home. 2018-05-30. Hazlitt. en. 2019-10-28.
  19. Web site: Repair. Benaway. Gwen. 2019-05-03. GUTS. en-US. 2019-10-28. 2019-10-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20191021194831/http://gutsmagazine.ca/repair/. dead.
  20. Web site: Pussy. 2018-12-12. carte blanche. 2019-10-28.
  21. Web site: Gwen Benaway. Gwen Benaway. en. 2018-12-20. 2018-12-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20181221011509/https://gwenbenaway.com/. dead.
  22. https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/374 Ahkii: a Woman is a Sovereign Land | Transmotion
  23. Web site: Junot Diaz Abuse: What The Writer Doesn't Say in His 'New Yorker' Essay. www.flare.com. 2019-10-28. 2019-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20191028175440/https://www.flare.com/news/junot-diaz-abuse/. dead.
  24. Web site: Past Winners - Young Authors Award . Legislative Assembly of Ontario . 9 March 2015 . 28 March 2024.
  25. News: A transgender poet reflects on her first year of experiencing womanhood CBC Arts. CBC. 2018-10-24. en-US.
  26. https://www.straight.com/life/715896/vancouver-poet-leah-horlick-wins-2016-lgbt-literary-award "Vancouver poet Leah Horlick wins 2016 LGBT literary award"
  27. http://prismmagazine.ca/2017/10/05/announcing-the-2017-creative-nonfiction-contest-winners/ "The 2017 Creative Non-Fiction Contest Winners"
  28. News: Here are the winners of the 2019 Governor General's Literary Awards. van Koeverden. Jane. October 29, 2019. CBC Books. October 29, 2019.
  29. Ryan Porter, "Vivek Shraya, Joshua Whitehead among Canadian finalists for Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire, March 7, 2019.
  30. Web site: Announcing the Winners of the 42nd Annual National Magazine Awards. 2019-06-01. National Magazine Awards. en-CA. 2020-03-02.

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