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A writer and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation in Northern Alberta, Billy-Ray Belcourt won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection This Wound is a World, which was also a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. His second book of poetry, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field was longlisted for Canada Reads 2020.
His debut memoir, A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton $25) starts with a letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard in Alberta. From there it expands to the wider, "broken" world around him. It includes his experience of the legacy of colonialism, joys in life, sexual exploration and the act of writing as a survival instinct and way of grieving.
Belcourt's fourth book, and his first novel, A Minor Chorus (Hamish Hamilton, 2022) won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. It was also long listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award.
A collection of intersecting stories, Coexistence (Hamish Hamilton, 2024), explores themes of Indigenous love, loneliness and connection. Set across Canada’s prairies and west coast, its characters navigate reserves, university campuses and existential moments, grappling with the complexities of past, present and future colliding in a single instant. From a mother revealing a secret friendship to her son, a poet confronting his own mediocrity, to a man adjusting to life post-prison, each story resonates with emotional depth. Belcourt’s prose and mastery of literary form make this collection a poignant exploration of beauty, terror and the human need to coexist.
He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta and has been both a Rhodes Scholar and a PE Trudeau Foundation Scholar.
In 2024, Belcourt was an associate professor of Indigenous creative writing at UBC.
Books:
Coexistence (Hamish Hamilton, 2024) $29.95 9780735242036
A Minor Chorus (Hamish Hamilton, 2022) $27.95 9780735242005
A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton – Penguin imprint, 2020) $25 978-0-7352-3778-0
NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field (House of Anansi, 2019) (poetry)
This Wound is a World (Frontenac House, 2017) (poetry)
[BCBW 2025] ILMBC2
His debut memoir, A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton $25) starts with a letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard in Alberta. From there it expands to the wider, "broken" world around him. It includes his experience of the legacy of colonialism, joys in life, sexual exploration and the act of writing as a survival instinct and way of grieving.
Belcourt's fourth book, and his first novel, A Minor Chorus (Hamish Hamilton, 2022) won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. It was also long listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award.
A collection of intersecting stories, Coexistence (Hamish Hamilton, 2024), explores themes of Indigenous love, loneliness and connection. Set across Canada’s prairies and west coast, its characters navigate reserves, university campuses and existential moments, grappling with the complexities of past, present and future colliding in a single instant. From a mother revealing a secret friendship to her son, a poet confronting his own mediocrity, to a man adjusting to life post-prison, each story resonates with emotional depth. Belcourt’s prose and mastery of literary form make this collection a poignant exploration of beauty, terror and the human need to coexist.
He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta and has been both a Rhodes Scholar and a PE Trudeau Foundation Scholar.
In 2024, Belcourt was an associate professor of Indigenous creative writing at UBC.
Books:
Coexistence (Hamish Hamilton, 2024) $29.95 9780735242036
A Minor Chorus (Hamish Hamilton, 2022) $27.95 9780735242005
A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir (Hamish Hamilton – Penguin imprint, 2020) $25 978-0-7352-3778-0
NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field (House of Anansi, 2019) (poetry)
This Wound is a World (Frontenac House, 2017) (poetry)
[BCBW 2025] ILMBC2
