Arielle Twist facts for kids

Arielle Twist is a talented artist and writer from the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a Nehiyaw (Cree) person who creates art in many different ways and is also an educator. Arielle describes herself as a Two-Spirit, transgender woman. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Arielle was guided early in her career by another writer, Kai Cheng Thom. After releasing her poetry book, Disintegrate / Dissociate, in 2019, she continued her studies in art and design at OCAD University. She has also created visual art and performance art. Her work has been shown in many places, including the Khyber Centre for the Arts and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In 2020, Arielle won the Indigenous Voices Award for her English poetry and the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for new LGBTQ writers.

Arielle Twist's Career

Writing Journey

Arielle Twist started writing in 2017. Her mentor, Kai Cheng Thom, encouraged her after they met at a book event. Arielle first published an essay called "What It's Like to Be a Native Trans Woman on Thanksgiving" in Them magazine in November 2017.

After this, Arielle performed her poetry for the first time. She also attended a festival in Toronto and spent time at the Banff Centre, where she wrote her first poems. While there, she met Billy-Ray Belcourt, who helped her with her first book.

Arielle's first book, Disintegrate / Dissociate, was published on June 4, 2019. It is a collection of thirty-eight poems. The book explores themes like human relationships, loss, and change. Her poems are described as honest and powerful. They look at topics such as colonization, family connections, and feeling out of place. Arielle has said that writing these poems felt like the most open and honest thing she had ever done. She shared that Disintegrate / Dissociate is about love, loss, and grief, and how she dealt with difficult feelings. One poem in the book, "Manifest," was dedicated to editor Billy-Ray Belcourt.

In late 2019, Arielle also contributed to the Together Apart Series. Her book and essays have brought her recognition and awards, including the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers and the Indigenous Voices Award for English poetry in 2020.

Awards and Recognition

Published Works and Exhibitions