Gwen Benaway

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 Meghan Murphy and the Radical Feminists Unite group to hold a speaking event at the library in 2019.[8] She attended the protest against the event to stand up for transgender rights.[9] In an interview, Benaway describes being "kettled in the library" by the Toronto police during the protest.[10]

Benaway's poetry reflects her experience as a transwoman, 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, Gwen (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, Gwen (2019) Maiden, Mother, and Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes [17] ISBN 978-1-988715-21-6

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

• "Finding refuge in trans sisterhood" Xtra, November 20, 2019.
• "A Body like a Home", HazLitt, May 30, 2019 (a long-form essay about her gender-confirmation surgery)[18]
• "Repair," Guts Magazine, May 3, 2019[19]
• "The real price of transphobia," (Opinion) Xtra, February 12, 2019.
• "Pussy," carte blanche, December 12, 2018 (essay on trans women's bodies and transmisogyny)[20]
• "Being loved back with Boy Meets Girl," Xtra, November 16, 2018.
• "Decolonial Love Letters to Our Bodies," Tea & Bannock, April 28, 2018 (a collaboration with Anishinaabe artist Quill Christie-Peters). [21]
• "trans girl in love", Room Magazine (a long form essay about sexual violence, abusive relationships, and being a trans girl in love)
• "Dreaming of home" (a short essay on losing her "virginity").
• "Ahkii: a Woman is a Sovereign Land," Transmotion 3, no. 1 (2017) [22]
• "The power-and the violence-of being an Indigenous trans woman," Maclean's. June 21, 2017.
• "No Contact Rule," carte blanche, June 12, 2017, (an essay on Canadian literature).
• "What Junot Diaz Doesn't Say," Flare Magazine, April 23, 2013 (an essay on the price that women pay to further men's self development).[23]

In 2015, Benaway received the inaugural Speaker's Award for a Young Author.[24] In 2016 she received the Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ writers.[25]

She won Prism International's Creative Non-Fiction contest in 2017 for her piece "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".[26]

In 2019 Benaway won the Governor General's Literary Award for English poetry for Holy Wild.[27] 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,[28] 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.[29]