Interview by Molly Cross-Blanchard, questions by Kyla Jamieson
Samantha is a Cree/Métis writer and poet from Northeastern BC. Her family originally comes from Ile-a-la-Crosse (Sakitawak), Saskatchewan. She has been published in Red Rising Magazine, Shameless Magazine, SAD Mag, GUTs Magazine, and others. She cares about radical decolonial love, coffee, corgis, and her two cats, Betty and Jughead. She kind of wants to start a podcast one day (which makes this podcast fan extremely stoked).
I first saw Sam read as a featured guest at Locution, a UBC Creative Writing reading series. Her poems had an enviable quality of rich plain-speak, and I immediately wanted to know more about her and hear more of her work. I had a Nehiyaw friend visiting from out of town that week who said after the reading, “I felt like I was her in those poems,” which I think is representative of all we ever want as poets: to stir up some sort of truthful recognition in our readers.
Sam is currently finishing her first poetry manuscript to send to publishers (if social media doesn’t lie, the draft is done!) and would like to see her first book out in the next couple of years. She is also the co-organizer of a bi-monthly community poetry night called Poetry is Bad For You, which has just celebrated its first anniversary. To mark the end of their first chapter they have decided to create a chapbook of all the poets who contributed to making their first year as amazing as it was. Sam and Co. are self publishing and have an active fundraiser to pay for publishing costs and to show some monetary appreciation for the poets. The next Poetry is Bad For You event will take place on May 26 at 8:30 p.m. at The Toast Collective.
So settle in with a cuppa and read what Sam has to say about waking up early, self-publishing, and funny Cree swear words that go over white peoples’ heads.
What’s happening around you—either right around you or outside of where you are?
Currently I’m on my morning bus to work, I generally take the 14 or the 16. If I wanna spice it up I take the 7. If I want to feel intimate with 100 people I’ll take the 95. But this morning I’m on the 16. It’s pretty quiet and it’s rainy and grey outside. Someone thankfully has a window open, I hate it when all the windows are closed. The person next to me is listening to their music really loud and I can hear the faint sound of their jams. There’s some older women chatting at the front of the bus in a language I don’t understand and someone keeps sniffling. I’m sitting at the back of the bus in the corner by the window, my ideal spot.
Why do you live where you live?
I live in a basement suite with my long-term roommate (Lindsay) and our two cats Betty and Jughead. Our house is crappy and falling apart but we have three friends upstairs and a dog friend (Socs) and our landlord isn’t on site, so it feels independent and like we “own” the house. Of course none of us are naive and know we are in the middle of a housing crisis, so we are constantly awaiting our renoviction notice. But I guess I live where I live because of convenience and because it’s nice to live with friends. I continuously live with Lindsay because it’s been six years now and she’s gone from stranger roommate, to friend, to my family. I live with Betty and Jughead because they are sometimes what keep me going day to day. I live in Vancouver because I had to fulfill my duty as a rebellious teenage daughter that needs to leave her small town in search of finding herself in the big city. It’s Métis tradition.
What are you looking forward to this week?
Absolutely nothing — and I feel bad because I feel like I should plug a friend’s event, but I have to be honest… I’m really stoked on not doing a damn thing.
What advice would you give a young writer?
Trust your gut, write even when it hurts, listen to your Elders, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
What’s your morning routine?
I wake up around 6:30-7:00am, feed the cats, make coffee and breakfast, crawl back into bed and put on whatever TV show I’m watching so I can watch it while I eat and drink my coffee. I’m currently watching North of 60. When I’m done I wash my face — I kind of have a wild skincare routine that takes a while so depending on my morning dedication this can take anywhere from 10-30mins (slip into my DMs if you wanna hear that routine). After that I get dressed, do my hair, do my makeup, brush my teeth, give the cats some treats, and head to the bus, and go to work.
I hate being rushed in the morning, so that’s why I wake up so early. I need time to drink coffee and relax before I get myself out the door. I have really bad social anxiety most days so I often have to mentally prepare myself to leave the house. Having that buffer period in the morning really helps me not be a cranky and anxious mess all day.
Weekend days are more or less the same, I just wake up anywhere from 9am-1pm and do a lot more of the laying around in my bed and sometimes I’m hungover.
What’s the first story or poem you remember writing, and how does it relate to your current work?
I used to write so much as a kid, from poems as a child to Harry Potter fan-fiction as a tween (I will never ever tell anyone my fan-fiction nom de plume). One poem I remember writing and am reminded of constantly (because it’s framed at my grandma’s house) is entitled “Look Up” and it is about this time I was out berry picking with my grandma and there was a small black bear up in a tree. I guess the sight inspired me because as soon as I got back to grandma’s I wrote the poem and then typed it out on her Windows 95 desktop beast of a computer. I printed it, to my grandma’s specifications, on decorative paper with a blue sky-with-clouds background. She framed it with a picture of the bear in a tree and it hangs on her living room wall.
I’m not sure how this relates to my current work — I guess I’ve always been inspired by the land I grew up on. My community is not from the Peace Region (Treaty 8 territory in Northeastern BC), but I grew up there, in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John (and many other places in the North). I’ve never really lived south of Prince George until I moved to Vancouver. But the Peace Region will always be home to me, it’s where I learned about living on the land, it’s where I grew up and rebelled and loved in those early years. So I guess since I was a kid I’ve been writing poetry back to that place? I dunno.
What are you most proud of?
Moving out at 18 to a city I’d never been to, earning a degree from a university that has a larger student population than my hometown, and somehow carving out a place for myself.
What’s one risk you’re glad you took?
I’m glad I published my first poem on my blog. Originally a Halfbreed’s Reasoning was going to just be a place where I shared personal essays and articles, etc. But I read Amber Dawn’s Where the words end and my body begins and I got so inspired to finally share my poetry. It was scary and vulnerable, but I am so happy I did it because it has lead to this really wonderful change in my life where I’m being recognized for my writing and meeting so many other amazing people along the way. It literally changed my life.
Is there any advice you like ignoring?
Anything any white dude who reads Bukowski has told me.
Is there a public space you’re fond of? Describe it.
I love bookstores, they’re like a heaven on earth to me. I definitely have a book buying problem, but besides that, I love just going into bookstores to browse and hangout. They’re quiet and smell great (like old books). A couple of my all time favourites are Pulpfiction on Main (2422 Main St.) and Massy Books (229 E. Georgia). A runner up would definitely be MacLeod’s Books (455 W. Pender), but the inside is what I imagine the inside of my brain looks like and it’s borderline over stimulation.
I could also just list a million places outside I love but that’s boring… but once my friend and I went to White Pine beach in late August, right as summer was changing to fall and we waded into the water and the sun was setting. It was warm and still and the water reflected the sunset sky with all its oranges and pinks. It was so unbelievably beautiful. I love the ocean, but I grew up where the Northern Prairies start, so as much as I love the West Coast my northern self gets homesick for fresh water. I love going to lakes and rivers. Don’t go chasing waterfalls, amirite?
Do you have a favourite word? Or a least favourite word? What is it and why do you like/dislike it?
My favourite word is “kiyam” which is this reply in Cree you use to say like “let it be, it’s ok, nevermind.” I actually don’t really know why it’s my fave word.
I think I just love Cree a lot, and Cree humour. I was just thinking the other day about a joke my kokum told me a while ago about how this Elder was asked to give a blessing at an event full of mostly white people, Crees, and Metis and the Elder was saying the blessing in Cree and all the white people were like really into it and then the Elder said something like sisip oskisik and all the Cree and Metis people started laughing and the white people were confused. Sisip is the word for duck and oskisik is the word for eye, if you say them together it’s duck eye which phonetically sounds like a funny Cree swear, takay.
Do you have any “vices”? What’s the relationship between your vices and your writing?
I’m really fighting the urge to make an “emotionally unavailable white boys” joke rn.
You can find Samantha tweeting at @sammymarie. Trust me on this, it’s worth the follow.