Wikipedia

Gwen Benaway

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'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

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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