Rebecca
Thomas
Rebecca Thomas is a Mi’kmaw poet and the daughter of a residential school survivor. She is a former Halifax poet laureate and her debut collection of poetry, I place you into the fire, was a CBC Books’ Best Canadian Poetry pick of 2020. She is also the author of the children’s books I’m Finding My Talk and Swift Fox All Along, which is nominated this year for a Governor General’s Literary Award. Thomas lives in Halifax. She was selected as a 2021 Writers' Trust Rising Star by Sue Goyette.
Program History
Citation
Rebecca Thomas writes with an eloquence that burns and illuminates at once. Righteously. Her work is as fierce in its reach as it is tender. A reader and listener will feel their own heart beating in the way hearts do when they’re being invited to open. Thomas extends this invitation from all directions; here humour is audacious and quick like a river and vulnerability is a source of strength, of dignity. This is writing the world needs for how sure-footed and open it is, how willing it is to meet this time on the planet with the clarity and acuity.