Billy-Ray Belcourt

Billy-Ray Belcourt is a Rhodes Scholar and PhD student  from Driftpile Cree Nation in Alberta. His debut collection of poetry, This Wound is a World, is unapologetically Indigenous and queer at the same time. Belcourt issues a call to turn to love and sex to understand how Indigenous peoples shoulder sadness and pain without giving up on the future. 

Belcourt won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for This Wound is a World. The collection also won the 2018 Indigenous Voices Award for most significant work of poetry in English and was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry.

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Books by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Interviews with Billy-Ray Belcourt

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5 years ago

Duration 1:17

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Unreserved11:12Racist experiences prompted Billy-Ray Belcourt to write poetry, then he won the Griffin Poetry Prize

When Billy-Ray Belcourt went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, he'd never written poetry. But racist experiences and feeling "unbodied" while studying overseas inspired his Griffin prize winning book, This Wound Is a World.

The Next Chapter10:21Billy-Ray Belcourt on "This Wound Is a World"

Billy-Ray Belcourt on his debut collection of poetry.

As It Happens6:34U of A student named first-ever First Nations Rhodes Scholar

Billy-Ray Belcourt is one of three University of Alberta students to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and he's the first First Nations student to be awarded the prize.