Smokii Sumac Explained

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book of poetry, you are enough: love poems for the end of the world was published in 2018 by Kegedonce Press.^[1] The unpublished draft manuscript of the book, then titled "#haikuaday," won the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished English Poetry, while the book itself was awarded the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for English Poetry.^[2]

Personal life

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. He credits the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2017 with inspiring him to begin writing poetry.^[3]

In addition to writing, Sumac dedicates much of his work to Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.^[4] He currently serves as Interim Senior Manager for Education And Employment with the Ktunaxa Nation.^[5] 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.^[6]

Sumac identifies as a two-spirit, trans masculine, "as an uncle and an auntie".^[7] He currently lives in both Peterborough, Ontario and Ithaca, New York with his family and their dog.^[1]

His mother serves as Chief of the Shuswap Indian Band.^[8]

Literary work

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^[9] and Transmotion.^[10] 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.^[11]

Sumac's poetry is noted for its frankness about matters of sex and grief.^[12] 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."^[13]

Publications

• "Just Make Me Look Like Aquaman." Tea and Bannock, 2020.
• you are enough: love poems for the end of the world. Kegedonce, 2018.
• '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.

External links

• 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/

Notes and References

1. Web site: About – Smokii Sumac. en. 2019-04-16.
2. Web site: How a scholarly association is helping Indigenous writers to thrive. University Affairs. en-US. 2019-04-16.
3. Smokii Sumac on Being Seen in Poetry, Why Endings Matter, and a New Spin on Love Letters . Open Book . February 21, 2019 .
4. Book: Chazan . May . Baldwin . Melissa . Evans . Patricia . Unsettling Activisms: Critical Interventions on Aging, Gender, and Social Change . 2018 . Canadian Scholars' Press . 16.
5. Web site: Ktunaxa Nation Statement on Reconciliation. . September 2021. www.ktunaxa.org. Ktunaxa Nation. 22 November 2021.
6. Web site: SMOKII SUMAC. Patricia. kegedonce.com. en-gb. 2019-04-16.
7. Web site: Poet finds their new voice. 2019-01-02. The Columbia Valley Pioneer. en-US. 2019-04-16.
8. Web site: Shuswap Band Chief and Council.
9. Cole . Jenn . You Are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World by Smokii Sumac (Ktunaxa) . Muskrat Magazine . May 3, 2019 .
10. Morford . Ashley Caranto . "(big)/little" moments of world-building revolution: a review of Smokii Sumac's you are enough: love poems for the end of the world. . Transmotion . February 2019 . 5 . 1 . 336–339 .
11. Ryan Porter, "Finalists announced for the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers". Quill & Quire, August 25, 2020.
12. Web site: Ktunaxa poet reads at Touchstones Nelson for parade-less Pride week. Metcalfe. Bill. 6 September 2021. Castlegar News. Black Press Media. 22 November 2021. Web site: Smokii Sumac on Being Seen in Poetry, Why Endings Matter, and a New Spin on Love Letters. . 21 February 2019. Open Book. November 22, 2021.
13. Mackay. James. July 2021. "#morelove. always": Reading Smokii Sumac's Transmasculine First Nations Poetry on and beyond Social Media. Transmotion. 7. 1. 40–81. 10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.928. 22 November 2021.