Bad Banana

Writing is cathartic, says poet, who voices his trauma in new collection Tuesday, October 7th, 2025   Joseph Dandurand. Photo by Peter Arkell   By Shari Narine Windspeaker.com Books Feature Writer Joseph Dandurand’s latest collection of poetry, I Would Like to Say Thank You, is a raw look into a life that has been both hard and rewarding. The Kwantlen First Nation poet calls writing poetry cathartic even if he’s sharing something with the reader that he has kept to himself for years. “I think probably the emotion that I'm in in that moment when I'm creating something might allow me to put my guard down and allow trauma to be voiced in a way that is, unfortunately, soothing and traumatic at the same time,” said Dandurand. His process is such that he allows whatever is in his head to flow on to the paper...

A Magical Sturgeon Illustrator Elinor Atkins, Author Joseph Dandurand Nightwood Editions ISBN: 9780889713901 [Paperback / softback | 7 in x 8.5 in - 32 pp] 2022   Written and illustrated in the tradition of the Kwantlen people, Joseph Dandurand's second book A MAGICAL STURGEON is an endearing tale of two sisters and their connection with nature. In the water sat a sturgeon, born there, so they say, thousands of years ago, though the sturgeon themselves have been here for two hundred million years. It was at first a little egg, a big egg, born into the river. Now the sturgeon is back but how did it get here? How did the first sturgeon come to be? Earth and the river, moons and suns and clouds. Time, thousands of years and the Skwó:wech has seen it all. But what gift does the sturgeon have for us? So begins this second charming story for children by Kwantlen storyteller Joseph Dandurand. The sturgeon,...