A History of My Brief Body

* A Best Book of 2020 —Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, CBC, Globe and Mail, Largehearted Boy, Maudlin House

“In this stunning essay-collection-cum-prose-poem-cycle, Belcourt meditates on the difficulty and necessity of finding joy as a queer NDN in a country that denies that joy all too often. Out of the ‘ruins of the museum of political depression’ springs a ‘tomorrow free of the rhetorical trickery of colonizers everywhere.’ Happiness, this beautiful book says, is the ultimate act of resistance.”
—Michelle Hart, O, The Oprah Magazine

“Through his new collection of essays, A History of My Brief Body, I have come to view Billy-Ray as a trusted intellectual and scholar, a prolific creative, and a necessary voice of resistance.”
—Layli Long Soldier, BOMB

“In his endeavor to honor the reality of Indigenous pain while also remaining steadfastly committed to queer Indigenous joy and utopic futures, Billy-Ray Belcourt has written an incomparable book full of emotion, analysis and poetic beauty.”
—Kai Minosh Pyle, Star Tribune

“Belcourt’s writing is poetic and philosophical, and often meanders in lovely and thought-provoking ways, whether he writes of colonialism, his grandmother, or his queer/NDN identity. Clearly a student, too, he includes words of other writers, particularly Ocean Vuong and Maggie Nelson, but his voice is distinctly his own. This timely and intriguing collection would make a great read-alike for Saeed Jones’ How We Fight for Our Lives.”
—Kathy Sexton, Booklist

“What Belcourt does transcends genre. The celebrated author is at once deliberate and playful with his use of language. He uses it to engage deeply with the body, its pain and joy and needs, and to push through the thickets of fighting against a settler colonialism that constantly tries to break bodies down from without and within. Collecting fragments of imagery, the scholarly and poetic work of others, and snares of love and capitalism, Belcourt has crafted an outstanding missive.”
—Sarah Neilson, them.

“A History of My Brief Body is a breathtaking literary rebellion against the brutalization and simplification of NDN existence, establishing as resistance joy in creativity and its ability to invent worlds.”
—Samantha Zaboski, Shelf Awareness, starred review

“In sharp pieces infused with a yearning for decolonized love and freedom, Belcourt, of the Driftpile Cree Nation, ably balances poetic, philosophical, and political insights throughout this unique book… An urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A rallying cry for freedom. The ongoingness of resilience demands a manifesto, and here it is: ‘Joy is art is an ethics of Resistance.'”
—Kristen Millares Young, The Washington Post