jaye
simpson
jaye simpson is an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer from the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation and the author of the poetry collection it was never going to be okay. Their work has been performed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word 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 Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver).
Award History
2021 Finalist
Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging WritersJury Citation
“jaye simpson’s poetry is masterful, unpredictable, and artistically undeniable. They command every corner of the page with authenticity and finesse, taming their work with strength and authority. Not broken by the colonial world they inhabit, but made whole despite it. You witness plenty of rage, yet bask in their care and celebrate their joy. The love simpson’s poetry offers to their trans Indigenous kin is definite. They are a vital part of Canada’s literary future: when simpson speaks, you listen.”
— 2021 Dayne Ogilvie Prize jury (Daniel Allen Cox, Eva Crocker, and Danny Ramadan)
