"In Our Own Aboriginal Voice" (Rebel Mountain, 2016), a collection of stories, poems and plays by First Nations writers, is edited by Lori Shwydky. She is currently in her fourth year (honour roll) at Vancouver Island University, majoring in Creative Writing & Publishing. She has also completed various writing for children & young adult fiction courses at the University of British Columbia.
Publishing credits:
-short story: "Cherry Pie" in Hot & Bothered: Short Short Fiction of Lesbian Desire (Anvil Press) edited by Karen X. Tulchinsky
-poem: "The Statement," published in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, volume 8, issue 5, October 1997
-book review: "Philip Roy's Seas of South Africa" in Portal Magazine 2014
Lori Shwydky has been on the Dean's Honour's list at VIU since 2012. She was the recipient of Meadowlarks Award 2014 for outstanding achievement in Creative Writing.
In 2015, Shwydky founded Rebel Mountain Press in Nanoose Bay and holds the position of managing editor. She was a team member in the creation of Portal magazine (2013-14) acting in the roles of fiction editor, copy editor, and business manager.
Shwydky is a board member of the Young Readers Choice Awards Society and publishers' liaison for the Red Cedar Book Awards. She completed an internship with book publisher Ronsdale Press in Vancouver in the spring of 2014.
She lives in Nanoose Bay.
Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press $13.95) 2018
Nowadays when you enroll in a college you are likely going to be asked to give your name, age and your PGP--your preferred gender pronoun. Your professor might be strictly required to address you in accordance with your PGP. Will that be 'she' and 'her,' or 'he' and 'him'? Or 'it' or 'they' or none of the above?
Also, please choose between Mr, Miss, Ms or Mx.
There aren't two sexes anymore because there never were two sexes. Those who wish to reject the old school binary system can now do so under the ever-expanding umbrella of LGBTQQIAAP which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Allies and Pansexual.
That second A for Allies represents those who so strongly support the rejection of the binary system that they want inclusion under the umbrella, too, although they might easily be able to be accepted as male or female.
All of which leads to Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press $13.95) a literary anthology born of struggle, strength, resilience, compassion and determination. A group reading took place at the Vancouver Public Library, May 14, 2019 at 7 pm.
In her foreword, Robin Stevenson (author of Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community (Orca, 2017), notes that the LGBTQ2SIA community in Canada is comprised of those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two-Spirited, gender queer, Canadian-born, immigrant, refugee, Indigenous and settler.
"They are teenagers and seniors; single and married; coming out to parents and becoming parents themselves. Woven together, these voices leave me with a sense of hopefulness: a belief that the creativity and fierce commitment of our community will carry us forward as we work to create a Canada that lives up to the dream of freedom and safety it represents to so many people around the world."
The line-up of contributors, edited by publisher Lori Shwydky, includes authors Teryl Berg, Kyle Chen, Wendy Judith Cutler, Corrie Hope Furst, Kevin Henry, Anne Hofland, Chantal Hughes, Masaki Kidokoro, Dale Lee Kwong, Austin Lee, JL Lori, Eka Nasution, Adam Nixon, Rainer Oktovianus, Gail Marlene Schwartz, Caelan Sinclair, LS Stone, Sosania Tomlinson, E.T. Turner, Hayley Zacks-and artists Joni Danielson, Wokie Clark Fraser, Austin Lee, Trinity Lindenau, Rainer Oktovianus.
978-0-9947302-7-5
BOOKS:
Editor: In Our Own Aboriginal Voice (Rebel Mountain 2016) $10.00 978-0-9947302-4-4
Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press, 2019) $13.95
[BCBW 2019]
Publishing credits:
-short story: "Cherry Pie" in Hot & Bothered: Short Short Fiction of Lesbian Desire (Anvil Press) edited by Karen X. Tulchinsky
-poem: "The Statement," published in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, volume 8, issue 5, October 1997
-book review: "Philip Roy's Seas of South Africa" in Portal Magazine 2014
Lori Shwydky has been on the Dean's Honour's list at VIU since 2012. She was the recipient of Meadowlarks Award 2014 for outstanding achievement in Creative Writing.
In 2015, Shwydky founded Rebel Mountain Press in Nanoose Bay and holds the position of managing editor. She was a team member in the creation of Portal magazine (2013-14) acting in the roles of fiction editor, copy editor, and business manager.
Shwydky is a board member of the Young Readers Choice Awards Society and publishers' liaison for the Red Cedar Book Awards. She completed an internship with book publisher Ronsdale Press in Vancouver in the spring of 2014.
She lives in Nanoose Bay.
Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press $13.95) 2018
Nowadays when you enroll in a college you are likely going to be asked to give your name, age and your PGP--your preferred gender pronoun. Your professor might be strictly required to address you in accordance with your PGP. Will that be 'she' and 'her,' or 'he' and 'him'? Or 'it' or 'they' or none of the above?
Also, please choose between Mr, Miss, Ms or Mx.
There aren't two sexes anymore because there never were two sexes. Those who wish to reject the old school binary system can now do so under the ever-expanding umbrella of LGBTQQIAAP which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Allies and Pansexual.
That second A for Allies represents those who so strongly support the rejection of the binary system that they want inclusion under the umbrella, too, although they might easily be able to be accepted as male or female.
All of which leads to Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press $13.95) a literary anthology born of struggle, strength, resilience, compassion and determination. A group reading took place at the Vancouver Public Library, May 14, 2019 at 7 pm.
In her foreword, Robin Stevenson (author of Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community (Orca, 2017), notes that the LGBTQ2SIA community in Canada is comprised of those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two-Spirited, gender queer, Canadian-born, immigrant, refugee, Indigenous and settler.
"They are teenagers and seniors; single and married; coming out to parents and becoming parents themselves. Woven together, these voices leave me with a sense of hopefulness: a belief that the creativity and fierce commitment of our community will carry us forward as we work to create a Canada that lives up to the dream of freedom and safety it represents to so many people around the world."
The line-up of contributors, edited by publisher Lori Shwydky, includes authors Teryl Berg, Kyle Chen, Wendy Judith Cutler, Corrie Hope Furst, Kevin Henry, Anne Hofland, Chantal Hughes, Masaki Kidokoro, Dale Lee Kwong, Austin Lee, JL Lori, Eka Nasution, Adam Nixon, Rainer Oktovianus, Gail Marlene Schwartz, Caelan Sinclair, LS Stone, Sosania Tomlinson, E.T. Turner, Hayley Zacks-and artists Joni Danielson, Wokie Clark Fraser, Austin Lee, Trinity Lindenau, Rainer Oktovianus.
978-0-9947302-7-5
BOOKS:
Editor: In Our Own Aboriginal Voice (Rebel Mountain 2016) $10.00 978-0-9947302-4-4
Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (Rebel Mountain Press, 2019) $13.95
[BCBW 2019]
Articles: 1 Article for this author
In Our Own Aboriginal Voice
Review (2016)
It's not often you find the writings of a teenager lumped in with those of a man serving a life prison sentence. In Our Own Aboriginal Voice (Rebel Mountain 2016) is a collection of stories that spans such diverse experiences because most First Nations writing, by definition, includes difficult and treacherous life paths.
The book from recently-established Rebel Mountain Press will be launched at the Vancouver Central Library on December 3, from 2 to 3 pm. Several of the contributing authors will be on hand to read from their stories, poems and plays.
"In compilations as this, there is opportunity to explore the depths of cultural knowledge,"; writes Da'naxda'xw Awaetlala Nation member Terri Mack in the book's forward, adding, "...we find many bumps in the journey as each new layer of ourselves, our past, our ancestor's past, reveal themselves to us. Those moments of pain, of shame, of pride and of love are all interspersed with the continued onslaught of contemporary views and news.";
Dominant similarities that Mack feels connects many First Nations include, "Our mutual desire to learn where we came from and to replicate what was once an amazing culture that we feel incredibly proud of belonging to."; Through telling their own stories, Mack says that aboriginals can discover their roots and that endeavour has never been so important. Their stories, "Feed us. They make us strong,"; writes Mack. "The time for our own stories has arrived, our own written words, our own voices.";
The life story of Jerry Smaaslet, from the Carrier Sikanni clan in Fort Ware, B.C., starts tragically but evolves to a period of hard-earned wisdom. This Is My Story - In My Own Voice relates how he grew up with abusive foster parents. "They told me that all Indians were beggars, thieves, and savages. They whipped me with a horses' harness and flogged me with a willow branch. My foster mother would make me undress to my underwear then force me to kneel on beans in a corner for a half-hour at a time.";
By the time Jerry Smaaslet was ten years old, he says he was, "...full of anger and hatred. I lived in fear of being punished, abused, and assaulted. I hated everyone and bitterness ruled my life.";
Turning to booze and drugs, his solution for solving problems, "meant hitting someone or breaking something. I had no idea how to live.";
He eventually landed in jail. The story does not tell of the circumstances that led to his life sentence. Rather he focuses on getting clean and finds peace in traditional First Nation teachings: the Red Road and the Seven Sacred Teachings of the Grandfathers and Grandmothers. "This path does not tell me how to solve my problems, however; it simply offers a way to seek my own answers and find the courage to fight for who I truly am - in a good way that harms no one, least of all myself.";
Smaaslet has advice for others entering the uncharted waters of adulthood. "My message and advice to young people today is, 'Do not do as I did, by not telling a loved one or asking an Elder for help - that is what they are there for.";
In a second story, Medicine Wheel, Smaaslet outlines an aboriginal method for leading a good life. It's good counsel for someone like Kirsten Sam, a young Tseshaht First Nation writer attending high school in Port Alberni. Her poem Teenagers is a searing expose of the anger, cynicism and ultimately confusion experienced by aboriginals leaving childhood behind while trying to negotiate the rough terrain leading to adulthood.
"We get no sleep because we do homework and study all night just to
end up with a big F on that test.
In high school best friends turn into enemies, lollipops turn into cigarettes, pop become alcohol, detention turns into suspension, kisses turn into sex.
Getting high used to mean being on a swing; not smoking.
Using protection meant using a helmet. We tried to grow up too fast.
Remember when boys had cooties and enemies were just your
siblings? Race issues were who ran the fastest.
War was a card game.
Drugs were just for colds,
and skinned knees were the only pain felt.
Being a teenager is overrated.";
by Beverly Cramp / BCBookLook