If the Fire Spoke Back by Connor Lafortune

If the Fire Spoke Back inhabits the space between existential dread and radiance; these are poems that explore the tension between traditional knowledge in colonial institutions, desire, and the profound ways in which writing can compel us to consider our place in the world.

Lafortune’s traditional name, Gchi-Waabshkaa Mukwa, speaks to the weaving between worlds, and provides the frame for his writing and storytelling. Along with inspiration drawn from contemporary spirit-led poetry, the poems shift from the symbolism of fire as destruction to one of fire as an ancestor. Lafortune, acting as a vessel, draws on ancestral gifts and inheritances to translate the words revealed to him, even as he questions the role of fire as an agent of change. Bright and bursting with energy, If the Fire Spoke Back pushes the boundaries of Western literature.

Praise for If the Fire Spoke Back

“If the Fire Spoke Back is a spirited and timely exploration of language, culture, and personal history. Connor Lafortune’s brilliant storytelling on these pages is spellbinding and tremendously heartfelt. There is a distinctive humanity revealed in this collection that can bring readers together and inform others about the multiple worlds Indigenous people inhabit today. It’s a gift to us all.”—Waubgeshig Rice