A poetic memoir as intricately woven as a dreamcatcher about overcoming the pain of generational trauma with the power of traditional healing.
In her deeply affecting memoir, Soft as Bones, Chyana Marie Sage shares the pain of growing up with her father: a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. She details the shame and guilt she carried for years after her family’s trauma as she went from one dysfunctional relationship to another, from one illegal drug to another. In revisiting her family’s history and weaving in the perspectives of her mother and sisters, Chyana examines the legacy of generational abuse, which began with her father’s father, who was forcibly removed from his family by the residential schools and Sixties Scoops programs.
Yet hers is also a story of hope, as it was the traditions of her people that saved her life. In candid, incisive, and delicate prose, Chyana braids personal narrative with Cree stories and ceremonies, all as a means of healing one small piece of the mosaic that makes up the dark past of colonialism shared by Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island.
A poetic memoir as intricately woven as a dreamcatcher about overcoming the pain of generational trauma with the power of traditional healing.
In her deeply affecting memoir, Soft as Bones, Chyana Marie Sage shares the pain of growing up with her father: a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. She details the shame and guilt she carried for years after her family’s trauma as she went from one dysfunctional relationship to another, from one illegal drug to another. In revisiting her family’s history and weaving in the perspectives of her mother and sisters, Chyana examines the legacy of generational abuse, which began with her father’s father, who was forcibly removed from his family by the residential schools and Sixties Scoops programs.
Yet hers is also a story of hope, as it was the traditions of her people that saved her life. In candid, incisive, and delicate prose, Chyana braids personal narrative with Cree stories and ceremonies, all as a means of healing one small piece of the mosaic that makes up the dark past of colonialism shared by Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island.
Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — May 27, 2025 |
Specifications | 296 pages | 5.5 in x 8.5 in |
Written By |
CHYANA MARIE SAGE<\/strong> is a Cree, Métis, and Salish writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Her essay “Soar” won first place in the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest, then won Silver in the National Magazine Awards. She graduated with an MFA in creative non-fiction from Columbia University, where she taught as an adjunct professor. Her journalism has appeared in HuffPost<\/em>, the New Quarterly<\/em>, and the Toronto Star<\/em>. She teaches Indigenous youth how to foster self-love and healing for Connected North and models in her spare time. When she isn’t working, she is travelling and seeing nature around the world.<\/p>\n |
Written By |
CHYANA MARIE SAGE<\/strong> is a Cree, Métis, and Salish writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Her essay “Soar” won first place in the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest, then won Silver in the National Magazine Awards. She graduated with an MFA in creative non-fiction from Columbia University, where she taught as an adjunct professor. Her journalism has appeared in HuffPost<\/em>, the New Quarterly<\/em>, and the Toronto Star<\/em>. She teaches Indigenous youth how to foster self-love and healing for Connected North and models in her spare time. When she isn’t working, she is travelling and seeing nature around the world.<\/p>\n |
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“Chyana Marie Sage’s writing is a gift that gleams with all of its teeth and skin and soft parts of the earth … A stunning new voice that pushes the boundaries of form, whose stories swirl across time like sweetgrass braids, like tendrils of smoke.” — Kinsale Drake, author of The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket<\/em><\/strong><\/p>” —
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“A searing, poetic memoir filled with resilience and strength … for anyone on a journey of reconciling the pain of the past with the hopes for the next generations.” — Dallas Goldtooth, writer, actor, and community organizer<\/strong><\/p>” —
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“Chyana Marie Sage writes with an unflinching emotional clarity, lyrical prose, and a wisdom well beyond her years.” — Tanya Talaga, author of The Knowing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>” —
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“Soft as Bones<\/em> moves like a river across vast territories of recovery and reckoning: it moves powerfully and runs deep, with prose that carries many worlds on its shoulders … Chyana Marie Sage is a truth-teller, and she has given us an incredible gift.” — Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters <\/em><\/strong><\/p>” —