The Place of Scraps - Paperback

by Jordan Abel (Author)

George Ryga Award for Social Award: Jordan Abel, The Place of Scraps (Finalist)
BC Book Prize, Poetry: Jordan Abel, The Place of Scraps (Winner)

Drawing inspiration from Barbeau's canonical book Totem Poles, Jordan Abel explores the complicated relationship between First Nations cultures and ethnography. His poems simultaneously illuminate Barbeau's intentions and navigate the repercussions of the anthropologist's actions.

Through the use of erasure techniques, Abel carves out new understandings of Barbeau's writing - each layer reveals a fresh perspective, each word takes on a different connotation, each letter plays a different role, and each punctuation mark rises to the surface in an unexpected way. As Abel writes his way ever deeper into Barbeau's words, he begins to understand that he is much more connected to Barbeau than he originally suspected.

Author Biography

Jordan Abel is a Nisga'a writer from Vancouver. His debut poetry collection, The Place of Scraps (Talonbooks, 2013), was awarded the BC Book Prizes' Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Abel was an editor for Poetry Is Dead magazine and the former poetry editor for PRISM international and Geist. He holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia and a BA from the University of Alberta. His work has been published in journals and magazines across Canada, including CV2, The Capilano Review, Prairie Fire, dANDelion, ARC Poetry Magazine, Descant, Broken Pencil, OCW Magazine, filling Station, Grain, and Canadian Literature. His chapbooks Scientia and Injun have been published by above/ground press and JackPine Press, respectively.