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Jesse Thistle
Memoir & Personal Growth
Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree historian and memoirist whose work explores intergenerational trauma, Métis survivance, and his experiences of addiction and homelessness.
Biography
Jesse Thistle, born in 1976, is a Métis-Cree author and registered citizen of the Métis Nation Saskatchewan. He is an assistant professor in the department of humanities at York University in Toronto and a PhD candidate in its history program. His research examines intergenerational and historic trauma and the survivance of road allowance Métis people, drawing on reflections about his own experiences of addiction and homelessness.
Thistle’s 2019 memoir, From the Ashes, recounts his childhood in foster care and with his paternal grandparents, followed by struggles with substance use and life on the streets. The book won the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for nonfiction and was a CBC Canada Reads finalist. He also wrote the 2022 poetry collection Scars and Stars.
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Books by Jesse Thistle
From the Ashes
From the Ashes (2019) traces Thistle’s life from childhood separation from his parents and foster care through addiction, petty crime and homelessness. The memoir describes his efforts to overcome trauma and addiction and understand his Métis-Cree identity.