Few people can justify a memoir at the age of 33. Gregory Scofield is the exception, a young man who has inhabited several lives in the time most of us can manage only one. Thunder Through My Veins is his traumatic, tender and hopeful story of his fight to rediscover and accept himself.Born into a Métis family of Cree, Scottish, English and French descent but never told of his heritage, Gregory knew he was different. His father disappeared after he was born, and at five he was separated from his mother and sent to live with strangers and extended family. There began a childhood marked by constant loss, poverty, violence and self-hatred. Only his love for his sensitive but battered mother and his Aunty Georgina, a neighbor who befriended him, kept him alive.It wasn’t until he set out to search for his roots and began to chronicle his life in evocative, award-winning poetry, that he found himself released from the burdens of the past and able to draw upon the wisdom of those who went before him.Thunder Through My Veins is the strong, beautiful bridge that spans Gregory Scofield’s often opposing cultural backgrounds. Heartbreaking, but ultimately redeeming, his is a universal story of self-discovery, acceptance and the power of art to heal.

Thunder Through My Veins Tpb

Scofield, Gregory

Biographies & Memoirs

Harper-perennial

Gregory Scofield's Thunder Through My Veins is the heartbreakingly beautiful memoir of one man's journey toward self-discovery, acceptance, and the healing power of art. Few people can justify a memoir at the age of thirty-three. Gregory Scofield is the exception, a young man who has inhabited several lives in the time most of us can manage only one. Born into a Métis family of Cree, Scottish, English and French descent but never told of his heritage, Gregory knew he was different. His father disappeared after he was born, and at five he was separated from his mother and sent to live with strangers and extended family. There began a childhood marked by constant loss, poverty, violence and self-hatred. Only his love for his sensitive but battered mother and his Aunty Georgina, a neighbor who befriended him, kept him alive. It wasn't until he set out to search for his roots and began to chronicle his life in evocative, award-winning poetry, that he found himself released from the burdens of the past and able to draw upon the wisdom of those who went before him. Thunder Through My Veins is Gregory's traumatic, tender and hopeful story of his fight to rediscover and accept himself in the face of a heritage with diametrically opposed backgrounds.

Thunder Through My Veins: A Memoir

Arts & Literature

Anchor Canada

The first anthology of urban Aboriginal songs by Gregory Scofield is a retrospective of the award-winning poet's pivotal work to date. The word kipocihkan is Cree slang for someone who is mute or unable to speak, and charted in this book is Scofield's journey out of that silence to become one of the most powerful voices of our time. "I make offerings to my Grandmothers and Grandfathers when I write. I ask them to come and sit with me, to give me courage and strength. I ask them to help me be honest, reflective of the ceremony that I am about to begin. I ask them to guide me, to help me touch people. I ask to make good medicine, even out of something bad. When people read my work it's not just the book that they read, it's the medicine behind the words. That's where the power comes from. That's where the healing comes from." --Scofield in January Magazine

kipocihkân: Poems New and Selected

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Nightwood Editions

Few figures in Canadian history have attained such an iconic status as Louis Riel. Celebrated Metis poet Gregory Scofield takes a fresh look at Riel in his new collection, Louis: The Heretic Poems, challenging traditional conceptions of Riel as simply a folk hero and martyr. By juxtaposing historical events and quotes with the poetic narrative, Scofield draws attention to the side of the Metis leader that most Canadians have never contemplated: that of husband, father, friend and lover, poet and visionary.Scofield also uses the collection to raise attention about the more crucial historical events of Riel's lifetime--such as the Manitoba Resistance and the Northwest Resistance at Batoche--in order to illuminate the history of western Canadian Metis people and their struggles toward recognition. Scofield also examines Riel's own poetry, most of which was devoted to exploring religious themes. Accordingly, religious imagery features strongly in the collection, complemented by a poetic voice that is rhythmic, repetitious, and lush with potent symbolism and simple, powerful images.

Louis: The Heretic Poems

Witness, I Am is divided into three gripping sections of new poetry from one of Canada's most recognized poets. The first part of the book, "Dangerous Sound," contains contemporary themed poems about identity and belonging, undone and rendered into modern sound poetry. "Muskrat Woman," the middle part of the book, is a breathtaking epic poem that considers the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women through the reimagining and retelling of a sacred Cree creation story. The final section of the book, "Ghost Dance," raids the autobiographical so often found in Scofield's poetry, weaving the personal and universal into a tapestry of sharp poetic luminosity. From "Killer," Scofield eerily slices the dreadful in with the exquisite: "I could, this day of proficient blooms, / take your fingers, / tie them down one by one. This one for the runaway, / this one for the joker, / this one for the sass-talker, / this one for the judge, / this one for the jury. / Oh, I could kill you."

Witness, I Am

In The Gathering, Gregory Scofield applies the sacred teachings of the Medicine Wheel to the harsh reality of life on the skids. Using poetry as a healing metaphor, he embarks on a personal journey that parallels the historic and contemporary displacement of the Métis people. With anger, humor, and powerful language, The Gathering offers rare insight into the world of Canada's Métis, creating a bridge between Native and non-Native worlds.

The Gathering

Raincoast Books, Polestar

Love Medicine melds intensely erotic imagery with elements of the Canadian bush and the rhythm of Cry words and phrases  Scaffold's poems come from an honest and candid place. See Magazine

Love Medicine and One Song/ Sakihtowin-Maskihkiy Ekwa Peyak-Nikamowin (English and Cree Edition)

United States

Kegedonce Pr

In  Singing Home the Bones,  Gregory Scofield honors and reclaims the history of his native Métis family while exploring newly revealed secrets about his long-lost father's Jewish heritage. Through a series of powerful and ambitious "conversations" (with "the Dead," "the Missing," and the "Living"), Scofield brings his ancestors to life, intimately connecting their lives with his own story. Infused with the Cree language, deeply reverent, often funny,  Singing Home the Bones  speaks in the fresh yet familiar voice of one of Canada's leading poets.

Singing Home the Bones

Contemporary

"[Scofield's] lyricism is stunning, gets within the skin. Be careful. These songs are so beautiful they are dangerous." - Native American poet, singer, and storyteller Joy Harjo "These are poems that dig deeply into oral tradition in order to speak shattering truths of street life in 'the urban rez.'" - The Small Press Magazine

Native Canadiana

Raincoast Books

Love Medicine melds intensely erotic imagery with elements of the Canadian bush and the rhythm of Cry words and phrases Scaffold's poems come from an honest and candid place. See Magazine

Love Medicine and One Song

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