Billy-Ray Belcourt

Billy-Ray Belcourt (born November 21, 1994) is a poet, scholar, and author from the Driftpile Cree Nation.

Belcourt's works cover a variety of topics and themes, including decolonial love, grief, intimacy, queer sexuality, and the role of Indigenous women in social resistance movements. Belcourt is the author of the poetry collection This Wound Is a World, which was chosen as one of CBC's best poetry books of 2017 and won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize. Belcourt was the 2016 recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship and is an associate professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Life Belcourt grew up in the community of Driftpile, Alberta. He was raised by his grandparents and began writing poetry around the age of 19.

As an undergraduate student, Belcourt studied comparative literature at the University of Alberta where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2016. While at the University of Alberta, Belcourt was actively involved as "an advocate for LGBTQ and Indigenous communities", which included serving as the Aboriginal Student Council president. He was also a Youth Facilitator with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN).

In 2015, Belcourt was selected as a recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship to study at Wadham College, Oxford University, for the 2016–2017 school year. In 2017, Belcourt graduated from Oxford University with a master's degree in women's studies. His master's thesis focused on "the role of Indigenous women in social resistance movements." This was followed by his second book in 2019: NDN Coping Mechanisms, Notes from the Field. In 2020, he released his third book, A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir, accompanied by A History of My Brief Body: Essays.

In 2020, Belcourt completed a PhD in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was one of the shortlisted books for the 2026 edition of the Canada Reads competition, defended by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers.

Publications

Books

Essays and scholarship

Creative writing and poetry

Awards + Year Nominated work Award Category Result Ref.

Danuta Gleed Literary Award

2021 A History of My Brief Body 2020 NDN Coping Mechanisms Alberta Literary Awards Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

2019 N/A Indspire Awards Youth – First Nation

Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize N/A Indigenous Voices Awards Most Significant Work of Poetry in English by an Emerging Indigenous Writer Griffin Poetry Prize

Gerald Lampert Award

Raymond Souster Award

CBC Best Books of the Year Canadian Poetry

"Love Is a Moontime Teaching" P. K. Page Founders' Award for Poetry

2016 N/A Rhodes Scholarship CBC featured This Wound Is a World in their top ten poetry collections from 2017, stating that the book is "perspicuous in style and exacting in its determination to upend genre and form." Leanne Betasamosake Simpson named it as her favorite book of 2017, calling Belcourt "a sovereign genius" and the collection "a radical celebration of Indigenous life and our beautiful, intimate rebellion." Lisa Tatonetti called it a "powerful meditation on the intersections of violence, love, and the body."

NDN Coping Mechanisms was well-received, being included in Library Journal 's Best Books 2019 and the Writers' Trust of CanadaBest Books of 2019. It was named CBC Books' best Canadian poetry book of 2019. It was a finalist for the 2020 ReLit Award for poetry.

A History of My Brief Body was described by Kirkus Reviews as an "urgently needed, unyielding book of theoretical and intimate strength." The book was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir or Biography at the 33rd Lambda Literary Awards.