Episode 03: jaye simpson & Emily Riddle

In this episode, nehiyaw writer Emily Riddle talks with Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer writer jaye simpson about their debut poetry collection, it was never going to be okay.

jaye simpson is a Two-Spirit Oji-Cree person of the Buffalo Clan with roots in Sapotaweyak and Skownan Cree Nation who often writes about being queer in the child welfare system, as well as being queer and Indigenous. simpson’s work has been performed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (2017) in Peterborough, and in Guelph with the Vancouver Slam Poetry 2018 Team. simpson has recently been named the Vancouver Champion for the Women of the World Poetry Slam and their work has been featured in Poetry Is Dead, This Magazine, PRISM international, SAD Mag, GUTS Magazine and Room. simpson resides on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwəta’Ɂɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations peoples, currently and colonially known as Vancouver, BC.

Emily Riddle is a nehiyaw iskwew and a member of the Alexander First Nation. She grew up in Edmonton, where she once again finds herself writing about women, governance, art and the romance of these all. Her writing has been published in the Teen Vogue, The Globe and Mail, Vice, Canadian Art, Prism International, among others. She is a library worker and researcher who is trying to spend more time writing both poetry and non-fiction in 2020, while remaining committed to reality tv viewing and kombucha brewing.

Get it was never going to be okay here.

Follow jaye on Twitter.
Follow Emily on Twitter.
Emily's on the CBC Poetry Prize longlist.

Visit Glass Bookshop's website.
Follow Glass Bookshop on Instagram.
Follow Glass Bookshop in Twitter.
Like Glass Bookshop on Facebook.