Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 15
- Grade: 10
Few figures in Canadian history have attained such an iconic status as Louis Riel. Celebrated Metis poet Gregory Scofield takes a fresh look at Riel in his new collection, Louis: The Heretic Poems, challenging traditional conceptions of Riel as simply a folk hero and martyr. By juxtaposing historical events and quotes with the poetic narrative, Scofield draws attention to the side of the Metis leader that most Canadians have never contemplated: that of husband, father, friend and lover, poet and visionary.
Scofield also uses the collection to raise attention about the more crucial historical events of Riel's lifetime--such as the Manitoba Resistance and the Northwest Resistance at Batoche--in order to illuminate the history of western Canadian Metis people and their struggles toward recognition. Scofield also examines Riel's own poetry, most of which was devoted to exploring religious themes. Accordingly, religious imagery features strongly in the collection, complemented by a poetic voice that is rhythmic, repetitious, and lush with potent symbolism and simple, powerful images.
About the author
Gregory Scofield is one of Canada's leading Aboriginal writers whose five collections of poetry have earned him both a national and international audience. He is known for his unique and dynamic reading style that blends oral storytelling, song, spoken word and the Cree language. His maternal ancestry can be traced back to the fur trade and to the Metis community of Kinosota, Manitoba, which was established in 1828 by the Hudson's Bay Company. His paternal ancestry is Jewish, Polish and German that is reflective of the immigrant experience to Canada at the turn of the century. His poetry and memoir, Thunder Through My Veins (HarperCollins, 1999) is taught at numerous universities and colleges throughout Canada and the U.S., and his work has appeared in many anthologies. He was the subject of a feature length documentary, Singing Home The Bones: A Poet Becomes Himself (The Maystreet Group, 2007) that aired on CHUM TV, BRAVO!, APTN, and the Saskatchewan Television Network. He has served as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba and Memorial University of Newfoundland. His latest collection, kipocihkan: Poems New & Selected (Nightwood) and the re-publication of I Knew Two Metis Women, along with the companion CD (Gabriel Dumont Institute) will be released in spring 2009. As well, his third collection of poetry, Love Medicine and One Song will be re-released by Kegedonce Press in 2009. He currently lives in Maple Ridge, B.C.
Louis: The Heretic PoemsIn his sixth book of poetry, Scofield enters the world of Louis Riel. Using excerpts from Riel’s writing, Catholic liturgy and the words of Sir John A. McDonald, the author explores the personal world of the controversial martyr and folk hero. Scofield breaks Riel’s persona into four perspectives or roles: the boy, the president, the spokesman and the statesman. A skillful interweaving of imagined interactions with Riel’s encounters with his contemporaries creates an original picture of how Riel might have thought and felt. Riel’s close friend Gabriel Dumont, the women of Batoche, and McDonald present their views on Riel’s predicament.
Scofield won the BC Book Prizes, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 1994.
Caution: Includes some coarse language.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2012-2013.
Other titles by Gregory Scofield
The 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology
A Selection of the Shortlist
asowacikanisa: A Guide to Small Métis Bags
Thunder Through My Veins
Conversations about Indigenous Manhood
Witness, I Am
Indigenous Men and Masculinities
Legacies, Identities, Regeneration
A Guide to Northern-Style Métis Moccasins
A Beginner’s Guide to Métis Floral Beadwork
Under god's pale bones
Poems New and Selected