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  • $16.95

    ISBN: 9780889229778 | Paperback

    96 pages | Pub. Date: 20160325
    5.5 W × 8.5 H × .35 D inches
    Backlist | Poetry | Bisac: POE011000
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find Injun in your local bookstore

Award-winning Nisg̱a’a poet Jordan Abel’s third collection, Injun, is a long poem about racism and the representation of indigenous peoples. Composed of text found in western novels published between 1840 and 1950 – the heyday of pulp publishing and a period of unfettered colonialism in North America – Injun then uses erasure, pastiche, and a focused poetics to create a visually striking response to the western genre.

After compiling the online text of 91 of these now public-domain novels into one gargantuan document, Abel used his word processor’s “Find” function to search for the word “injun.” The 509 results were used as a study in context: How was this word deployed? What surrounded it? What was left over once that word was removed? Abel then cut up the sentences into clusters of three to five words and rearranged them into the long poem that is Injun. The book contains the poem as well as peripheral material that will help the reader to replicate, intuitively, some of the conceptual processes that went into composing the poem.

Though it has been phased out of use in our “post-racial” society, the word “injun” is peppered throughout pulp western novels. Injun retraces, defaces, and effaces the use of this word as a colonial and racial marker. While the subject matter of the source text is clearly problematic, the textual explorations in Injun help to destabilize the colonial image of the “Indian” in the source novels, the western genre as a whole, and the Western canon.

Winner 2017 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize

Injun is an artful exploration of the brutal colonialism that informs which voices are priviledged. … Injun isn’t just good; it is singular and essential.”
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By Jordan Abel

Jordan Abel is a Nisg̱a’a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize).

Read more about Jordan Abel


news | 2021-06-21
National Indigenous Peoples Day

…Land Claim Fable (2021) by Kevin Loring . 5. Injun (2016) by Jordan Abel . 6. In the Dog House …


news | 2019-08-18
Rita Wong's Public Sentencing Statement

…very existence of life at risk. By breaching the injunction, I had no intention of reducing respect for …


news | 2018-04-10
Four Talon titles nominated for ReLit Awards!

…Farrant Pound @ Guantánamo by Clint Burnham Injun by Jordan Abel Find the full 2017 “long …


news | 2017-08-16
Talon poets in Contemporary Verse 2: Convergence

…Catriona Strang’s Corked (2014), Jordan Abel’s Injun (2016), Clint Burnham’s Pound @ Guantánamo …


news | 2017-06-09
Abel proves able: Jordan Abel wins the Griffin!

…wife of Abel Well, this is just the greatest day. Injun by Jordan Abel is the Canadian winner of the 2017 … Castlegar, BC). And get your hands on a copy of Injun for $16.95. …


news | 2017-04-11
Jordan Abel’s Injun short-listed for the Griffin!

…Jordan Abel! Abel’s latest collection of poetry, Injun , is one of three Canadian books of poetry … are pleased to see such a diverse list this year; Injun is in good company with Violet Energy Ingots by …


news | 2016-09-23
This Sunday: WORD Vancouver!

…in the Sunrise Suite. Jordan Abel will read from Injun at 3:25 p.m. in the Sunrise Suite for FORM AND …


news | 2016-07-14
Tonight in New York City, the Poets House Poetry Publication Showcase opens New York City

…Chan, Impeccable Regret by Judith Fitzgerald, Injun and Un/inhabited by Jordan Abel, Pound @ …


news | 2016-05-11
Listen: Full audio recording of our recent Vancouver launch

…is introduced at minute 23:10 and then reads from Injun. Weyman Chan is introduced at minute 38:19 and …


news | 2016-04-27
Photos from our big launch last night

…sound-based atmosphere, performs a piece from Injun and disintegrates the linguistic constructs of …