In Moving Statement, Joshua Whitehead Withdraws Book From Lambda Literary Award Shortlist

Last week, the Lambda Literary Award shortlists for books published in 2017 were announced; among the Transgender Poetry finalists was Joshua Whitehead, who identifies as a 2SQ "(Two-Spirit, queer Indigenous)," and is the author of Full-Metal Indigiqueer (Talon Books). Today, "[i]n a moving act of radical kinship," Whitehead has withdrawn his book from consideration. His letter to the award organizers has been published at The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing (TIA House) at the University of Calgary, where Whitehead is pursuing a doctorate in Indigenous Literatures and Cultures.

In full-metal indigiqueer, Whitehead writes, "my narrator, zoa, is a cybernetic virus that is agender, asexual, asexed because 'queerness' is not a word we know, we know relationships and accountability and are birthed into our communities knowing our role and how it is we must contribute. I am an otâcimow, a storyteller, and I am making space for Indigenous folx whose language and identities do not fit within those paradigms; my narrator embraces fully the fluidity that 2SQ allows but doesn’t fully embody either/or and nor do I. To put it in the easiest terms for Western languages to understand, I live my life as a gay-femme and not as a trans Indigenous person."

A further excerpt of the letter follows.

I see my trans brethren and sistren who have paved the way for the trans categorizations to be included, recognized, honoured, and valued within Lambda, and only recently may I add, and I love them all the more for it. To be a trans woman, and furthermore to be an Indigenous trans woman, is a fight I do not know, cannot know, and do not seek to further violate and delimit. I stand by my trans kin fully and I, having lived through the intergenerational trauma of MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit folx), the Sixties Scoop, day schools, and transracial adoption, know in my heart and spirits that I am not a proper candidate for this award. After much talk with my communities and kin I have come to the conclusion that I must withdraw my name and stories from this wonderful nomination because it is not my space to occupy—occupation being a story I know all too well. And while I am fully aware that Lambda’s categorizations do not require storytellers to self identify and instead base their nomination on content, this is not something I feel comfortable with. I need to walk through the world in a good way, to work towards miyopimatisowin, the good life, a good way of living. My stories are not written within a vacuum, I am simply an animated avatar, my stories are communal, reciprocal, gifted, pained, and healing. I need to walk my path as an otâcimow in this light, to be ethical, respectable, and most importantly, to give back to those who have supported, raised, and nurtured my voice—many of whom are trans women.

Instead, I dream of the day when award cultures, especially settler queer award institutions, etch out space for 2SQ capacities and oratories...

Find the full statement at TIA House.