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Gwen Benaway

Summary

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]

Gwen Benaway
BornGiles Benaway
1987
OccupationPoet
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanadian

Activism edit

Benaway, who claims Anishinaabe and Métis descent,[3] is a well known 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.[clarification needed][10]

Publications edit

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, Giles (2013). Ceremonies for the Dead. Chippewas of Nawash First Nation: Kegedonce Press. ISBN 978-0-9868740-5-5.[14]
  • Benaway, Gwen (2016). Passage. Chippewas of Nawash First Nation: Kegedonce Press. ISBN 9781928120087.[15]
  • Benaway, Gwen (2018). Holy Wild. BookThug. ISBN 9781771664394.
  • Benaway, Gwen (2020). day/break. Book*hug.[16]

Benaway curated the following collection of short fiction:

  • Benaway, Gwen (2019) Maiden, Mother, and Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes [17] ISBN 978-1-988715-21-6

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

  • Love beyond body, space, and time: an Indigenous LGBT sci-fi anthology (2016) Winnipeg: Bedside Press ISBN 9780993997075
  • NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American women (2017) Toronto: Annick Press. ISBN 9781554519576
  • Refuse: CanLit in ruins (2018) Toronto: Bookhug. ISBN 9781771664332

Essays and articles edit

  • "Finding refuge in trans sisterhood" Xtra, November 20, 2019.
  • "A Body like a Home", HazLitt, May 30, 2019 (a long-form essay about her gender-confirmation surgery)[18]
  • "Repair", Guts Magazine, May 3, 2019[19]
  • "The real price of transphobia", (Opinion) Xtra, February 12, 2019.
  • "Pussy", carte blanche, December 12, 2018 (essay on trans women's bodies and transmisogyny)[20]
  • "Being loved back with Boy Meets Girl", Xtra, November 16, 2018.
  • "Decolonial Love Letters to Our Bodies", Tea & Bannock, April 28, 2018 (a collaboration with Anishinaabe artist Quill Christie-Peters).[1] Archived 2018-12-21 at the Wayback Machine [21]
  • "trans girl in love Archived 2019-10-28 at the Wayback Machine", Room Magazine (a long form essay about sexual violence, abusive relationships, and being a trans girl in love)
  • "Dreaming of home" (a short essay on losing her "virginity").
  • "Ahkii: a Woman is a Sovereign Land", Transmotion 3, no. 1 (2017) [22]
  • "The power-and the violence-of being an Indigenous trans woman", Maclean's. June 21, 2017.
  • "No Contact Rule", carte blanche, June 12, 2017, (an essay on Canadian literature).
  • "What Junot Diaz Doesn't Say", Flare Magazine, April 23, 2013 (an essay on the price that women pay to further men's self development).[23]

Awards edit

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.[1] 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.[10]

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]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Jankovic, Jovana (29 October 2019). "Gwen Benaway and two other U of T community members win Governor General's Literary Awards". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  2. ^ Lindsay, James (5 September 2018). "'Our Intimate Relations Reveal so much of our Oppressions', an Interview with Gwen Benaway". Open Book. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  3. ^ About Gwen Benaway. Official site, Accessed 26 June 2020. "Gwen Benaway is a trans girl of Anishinaabe and Métis descent."
  4. ^ "Gwen Benaway on the Convergence of Knowing and "Holy Wild"". the Town Crier. 2017-09-27. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  5. ^ Niigaan Sinclair, "Claims of Indigenous identity often fraudulent". Winnipeg Free Press, August 31, 2020.
  6. ^ "When it comes to health care, transphobia persists". Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  7. ^ Desai, Saima (October 29, 2018). "To create other worlds inside this one". briarpatchmagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  8. ^ Thompson, Nicole (2019-10-27). "Planned event reignites debate about libraries' role as forum for free speech". CP24. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  9. ^ "Hundreds protest Toronto library event featuring controversial speaker". CBC News. The Canadian Press. October 29, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Corkum, Trevor (11 November 2019). "The Chat with Governor General's Literary Award Winner Gwen Benaway". 49thshelf.com. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  11. ^ Faulkner, Sandra (2019). Poetic Inquiry As Social Justice and Political Response. Delaware: Vernon Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-62273-752-9.
  12. ^ View of REVIEW ESSAY. Weaving the Present, Writing the Future: Benaway, Belcourt, and Whitehead's Queer Indigenous Imaginaries | Transmotion
  13. ^ "Holy Wild | GGBooks 2019 (Poetry)". Governor General's Literary Awards. Archived from the original on 2020-03-02. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  14. ^ "Six Indigenous writers to watch". CBC Books, July 9, 2017.
  15. ^ "Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's This Accident of Being Lost and Gwen Benaway's passage, reviewed: Multiple realms". The Globe and Mail, March 31, 2017.
  16. ^ Volmers, Eric (2020-02-26). "'Reluctant' activist and trans poet to participate in three-generation Indigenous panel | Calgary Herald". Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  17. ^ "Maiden, Mother, And Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes, Book by Gwen Benaway (Paperback) | chapters.indigo.ca". indigo.ca. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  18. ^ "A Body Like a Home". Hazlitt. 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  19. ^ Benaway, Gwen (2019-05-03). "Repair". GUTS. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  20. ^ "Pussy". carte blanche. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  21. ^ "Gwen Benaway". Gwen Benaway. Archived from the original on 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  22. ^ Ahkii: a Woman is a Sovereign Land | Transmotion
  23. ^ "Junot Diaz Abuse: What The Writer Doesn't Say in His 'New Yorker' Essay". www.flare.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-28. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  24. ^ "Past Winners - Young Authors Award". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 9 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  25. ^ "A transgender poet reflects on her first year of experiencing womanhood | CBC Arts". CBC. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  26. ^ "Vancouver poet Leah Horlick wins 2016 LGBT literary award". The Georgia Straight, June 10, 2016.
  27. ^ "The 2017 Creative Non-Fiction Contest Winners". Prism International, October 5, 2017.
  28. ^ van Koeverden, Jane (October 29, 2019). "Here are the winners of the 2019 Governor General's Literary Awards". CBC Books. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  29. ^ Ryan Porter, "Vivek Shraya, Joshua Whitehead among Canadian finalists for Lambda Literary Awards". Quill & Quire, March 7, 2019.
  30. ^ "Announcing the Winners of the 42nd Annual National Magazine Awards". National Magazine Awards. 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2020-03-02.

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