Lisa Bird-Wilson on why you should read the poetry collection Passage by Gwen Benaway

June is Indigenous Book Club Month. CBC Books will publish a recommendation each day from an Indigenous writer for a book written by another Indigenous author.

Lisa Bird-Wilson recommends Passage by Gwen Benaway.

"Passage by Gwen Benaway sent me running for my poetry pen just when I thought I was done with poetry like cigarettes and booze, I'd sworn it off. But Benaway's talent blows me away. I'm inspired. I want more. I will read it twice, thrice even. The first time fast, like a poetry junkie, the second time more slowly to let it settle, to revel in the art, the language, the words. This is a collection of poems exploring some of the most important questions of origin and ancestors, sense of place and identity, loss and love. Benaway's collection is raw and engaging and relatable. To my fellow book club members I say, drop everything and read this book now."

• How Gwen Benaway faces her transgender future in her new poetry collection
• Lisa Bird-Wilson on the role of art in reconciliation

Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Mtis writer whose work has been published in numerous Canadian literary magazines. She's the author of the short story collection Just Pretending and the poetry collection The Red Files.