Approaching Fire
Michelle PorterIn Approaching Fire, Michelle Porter embarks on a quest to find her great-grandfather, the Métis fiddler & performer Léon Robert Goulet. Through musicology, jigs & reels, poetry, photographs, & the ecology of fire, Porter invests biography with the power of reflective ingenuity, creating a portrait which expands beyond documentation into a private realm where truth meets metaphor. Weaving through multiple genres & traditions, Approaching Fire fashions a textual documentary of rescue & insight, & a glowing contemplation of the ways in which loss can generate unbridled renewal.
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MICHELLE PORTER is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers. Many of her ancestors told stories using music & today she tells stories using the written word. She holds degrees in Journalism, Folklore, English, & a PhD in Geography. Her academic research & creative work focus on home, memory, & women’s changing relationships with the land.
Her most recent book, Scratching River, a memoir exploring the meaning of her Métis heritage through her older brother’s life story, was published by Wilfrid Laurier Press in April 2022. She’s also published a book of creative nonfiction about her great-grandfather, a fiddler from the Red River, called Approaching Fire (shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award 2021) & a book of poetry, Inquiries, (shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award). Michelle has won numerous awards for her poetry & journalism & her work has been published in literary journals & magazines across the country. Her essay, “Fireweed”, was long-listed for the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize. She is currently the non-fiction editor with Riddle Fence. Currently she is teaching creative writing & Métis Literature at Memorial University. She is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation & she lives in St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador.