Beaver Hills Forever: A Mtis Poetic Novella [Paperback]

An irreverent and playful novella of Métis voices that reflects the complexities of contemporary prairie life

Conor Kerr's 2024 novelPrairie Edgewas a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust of Canada Fiction Prize. His latest book,Beaver Hills Forever, takes a riotous, uncompromising look at the intertwined lives of four characters, each an abstract expression of the few paths available to Métis people on the Prairies. In alternating poetic verses, Buddy, Baby Momma, Fancy University Boy, and Aunty Prof share their inner dreams, hardships, delusions of grandeur, and existential plights. While the messy day-to-day is created by their own doing, the lives of these four individuals are doubly compromised by Canada's colonial education system and resource extraction industries.

A beguiling and genre-bending work,Beaver Hills Foreveroffers a moving, necessary exploration of education, labour, and the dynamic, ever-changing bonds that bring us back to each other. Here is a diverse, funny, pitch-perfect chorus of voices that rings loud and true over the wide prairie landscape.

Conor Kerr(he/him) is a national award–winning (and losing) Métis/Ukrainian writer and bird hunter living in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). His previous books are the ReLit Award–winning novelAvenue of Champions(Nightwood Editions) and the Giller Prize–nominated novelPrairie Edge(Strange Light), as well as the poetry collectionsAn Explosion of Feathers(Bookland Press) and the Governor General–shortlistedOld Gods(Nightwood Editions).

"Billed 'A Métis Poetic Novella,'Beaver Hills Forever, [Conor Kerr's] fifth book, alternates between four Métis protagonists living in a city like Edmonton, each pursuing brighter futures amid capitalist and colonialist blÓ5