A Brief Celebration

In this debut poetry collection, Samantha Nock redefines where and what "home is." A Family of Dreamers delves into the complexities of growing up in rural northeast British Columbia and the love and grief that blooms there. Nock weaves together threads of fat liberation, desirability politics, and heartbreak, while working through her existence as a young Indigenous woman coming of age in the city. She explores the interweaving of trauma and healing, playing with language and connecting to the Lands that raised her in order to challenge colonial narratives.

Written during her twenties, these poems negotiate the tensions between survival, vulnerability, and tenderness. A Family of Dreamers is a love song to northern cuzzins, dive bars, and growing up.

i don't believe in in-between spaces.

i don't believe in long winded monologues

about walking in two worlds.

my existence isn't confusion

and trying to reconcile the fact

that i know how to tell when the seasons are changing

by the way leaves hang

with the fact

that i can count time by bus stops.