Episode 20: Jordan Abel

In this episode of the pod, poet Matthew James Weigel interviews writer Jordan Abel about his latest book, NISHGA. They discuss genre b(l)ending, the work of reclamation, the interconnectedness of the Jordan Abel Literary Universe, and so much more.

Matthew James Weigel is a Dene and Métis poet and artist who holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and is currently pursuing an MA in English at the University of Alberta. He is the designer for Moon Jelly House press and his words and art have been published by people like Arc Poetry Magazine, Book*Hug, The Polyglot, and The Mamawi Project. Matthew is a National Magazine Award finalist, Cécile E. Mactaggart award winner, and winner of the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award. His debut full-length collection Whitemud Walking is forthcoming in early 2022 with Coach House Books. His chapbook It Was Treaty / It Was Me is available now.

Jordan Abel is a Nisga'a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize). Abel's work has recently been anthologized in The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century (Hayward), The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry (Anstruther), Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope), Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene (Wesleyan), and The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (ARP). Abel's work has been published in numerous journals and magazines — including Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, and Poetry Is Dead — and his visual poetry has been included in exhibitions at the Polygon Gallery, UNIT/PITT Gallery, and the Oslo Pilot Project Room in Oslo, Norway. Abel recently completed a Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University, and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures and Creative Writing. NISHGA was published by McClelland and Stewart in May 2021.

You can order NISHGA here.