a shelf of my ancestors (Digital)
Poetry by Kate Pashby; 28 pages.
5×8 in, 13×20 cm
What happens when human remains are objectified, when they are assigned serial numbers in a catalog and placed into storage? a shelf of my ancestors confronts this objectification, contrasting these impersonal identifiers with human emotions and experiences. These poems weave together stories of the ancient Indigenous people who the bones may have belonged to, the foreigners who took the bones away, modern Indigenous peoples’ struggles against oppression, and the Indigenous author who is working to bring their ancestors’ remains back home.
Language: English
Publication date: December 15th, 2023
ISBN (Softcover): 9798880602391
11 CAD = ~8.3 USD = ~6.45 GBP
(Click here for the print edition purchase page.)
|
Goodreads page
"a shelf of my ancestors is frustrating and beautiful in all the right ways. Part One has us caught up in bureaucracy and legends and letters and semantics. Part Two speaks of defiance, allegory, ancestorial point of view and hope. Simply excellent work by Kate Pashby. Just marvellous." — Daniel Poitras, Edmonton poet |
"To read a shelf of my ancestors is to share in an archivist’s rage. To witness real people reduced to specimens, as a gentle and clinical poet pulls you further into a spiraling history. Pashby’s strong voice, historian’s heart, and aching storytelling make this chapbook a vital part of the narrative."
-- Kit E Lascher, Editor-in-Chief of Trash Wonderland Magazine "a shelf of my ancestors is an emotionally resonant collection of poems with an electric voice that explores colonization as a living practice, one that commodifies even the bones of the ancestors." — Audrey T. Carroll, author of In My Next Queer Life, I Want to Be |
