Indigenous poet speaks about craft, writing process for new poetry book – Campbell River Mirror
March 13, 2024
When you read Jess Housty’s new poetry book Crushed Wild Mint, you can almost feel the damp moss squish under your boots, smell the fragrant rose in the air and feel your breath catch in your lungs as you climb Mount Merritt on Hunter Island.
Cúagilákv (Jess Housty) is a Haíɫzaqv (Helitsuk) poet living in Bella Bella. Her new book, Crushed Wild Mint, was published by Nightwood Editions in October. It was Housty’s first book of poems, but she, like many writers, has been putting pen to paper for years.
”I’ve spent my whole life trying to find ways to tell the story of my relationship with the place that I come from, and that’s taken lots of different forms throughout my life,” she said.
