Ivan E. Coyote (born August 11, 1969) is a Canadian

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

performer, writer, and

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

advocate. Coyote has won many accolades for their collections of short stories, novels, and films. They also visit schools to tell stories and give writing workshops. The

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

has called Coyote a "gender-bending author who loves telling stories and performing in front of a live audience." Coyote is

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

and uses ''

singular they Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically oc ...

'' pronouns. Many of Coyote's stories are about gender, identity, and social justice. Coyote currently resides in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Career

Coyote started performing spoken word in 1992, and their work deals with contemporary issues of family, class gender, identity and social justice. In 1996, Coyote co-founded the queer performance group Taste This with Anna Camilleri, Zoe Eakle, and Lyndell Montgomery. Taste This was a multi-genre performance that incorporated live music, poetry and story-telling. The group disbanded in 2000. In 2001, Coyote briefly taught short fiction at

Capilano University Capilano University (CapU) is a teaching-focused public university based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located on the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, with programming that also serves the Sea-to-Sky Corridor and the Sunshi ...

in North Vancouver. In 2010, Coyote, Camilleri and Montgomery regrouped as Swell, and premiered at the 2010 Vancouver Pride in Art Festival. They joined

Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...

in 2000 and have published 10 books with them. Coyote regularly combines storytelling and music and has worked with a number of musicians including

Veda Hille Veda Hille (born August 11, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects.. ''The Vue Wee ...

Dan Mangan Daniel Mangan (born April 28, 1983) is a Canadian musician. He has won two Juno awards and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia, having released 5 studio LPs and numerous EPs and singles. He has scored for featur ...

and

Rae Spoon Rae Spoon is a Canadian musician, composer, producer, performer, and writer from Calgary, Alberta. Their musical style has varied from country to electronic-influenced indie rock and folk punk.Xtra! ''Xtra Magazine'' (formerly ''DailyXtra'' and ''Xtra!'') is an LGBTQ-focused digital publication and former print newspaper published by Pink Triangle Press in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The publication is a continuation of the company's former p ...

and

Xtra! West ''Xtra Vancouver'' (), formerly ''Xtra! West'', was a gay bi-weekly newspaper, published by Pink Triangle Press in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Printed on newsprint in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format from its establishment in ...

and regularly contributes to ''The Georgia Straight'' and ''CBC Radio.'' Coyote has been

writer-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

for

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

in 2007,

Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2023, VPL had more than 4.6 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 10.4 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video gam ...

in 2009, the

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW, or U of W) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers undergraduate programs in art, business, economics, education, science and applied health as well as graduate progra ...

in 2011, and the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

in 2012. They also served on the jury of the 2012

Dayne Ogilvie Prize The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Origina ...

, a literary award for emerging LGBT writers in Canada, selecting

Amber Dawn Amber Dawn is a Canadian writer, who won the 2012 Dayne Ogilvie Prize, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer.Hysteria: A Festival of Women at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, but was cancelled in January of that year. In 2008 they performed spoken word at Montreal's

Edgy Women The Edgy Women Festival (also referred to as Edgy Redux, Femmes Au-delà or Women from the Edge) was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ...

festival and taught a writing workshop. In 2012, Coyote and Spoon collaborated on ''Gender Failure'', a touring

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

show in which they performed music and

pieces about their failed attempts at fitting into the

gender binary The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, Culture, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender binary, ...

. A performance of ''Gender Failure'', as performed at the 27th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, is also available on YouTube. A book based on the show was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2014. On November 14, 2015 Coyote did a TED talk in Vancouver entitled "We all need a safe place to pee," where they discuss the need to have gender neutral bathrooms in all public places. In 2016, they delivered the Florence Bird Lecture at Carleton University. Their lecture was titled "Neither, Nor: How to Circumnavigate the Gender Binary in Seven Thousand Easy Steps". In 2020, Coyote performed as part of

CBC Gem CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

's ''

Queer Pride Inside ''Queer Pride Inside'' is a Canadian television special, which aired June 24, 2020 on CBC Gem. Created by CBC Arts and Buddies in Bad Times as a response to the cancellation of Pride Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it presented a vi ...

'' special.

Writing

Coyote has written eleven books: one with

Press Gang Publishers Press Gang Publishing was a feminist printing and publishing collective active in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, between the early 1970s and 2002.Pike, Lois. "A Survey of Feminist Publishers and Periodicals in Canada" in ''Women and Words/L ...

and ten with Arsenal Pulp Press. Common themes in their work involve identity, gender, community, and class. Coyote's first book, ''Boys Like Her'' (Press Gang Publishers, 1998), was adapted from a live show that was performed by their theater troop, Taste This. ''Close to Spiderman'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2000) and ''One Man's Trash'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002) are both collections of stories told by Coyote's grandmother and written by Coyote. ''Missed Her'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010) is another book of compiled short stories. The works were first published in columns with ''

Xtra Vancouver ''Xtra Vancouver'' (), formerly ''Xtra! West'', was a gay bi-weekly newspaper, published by Pink Triangle Press in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Printed on newsprint in tabloid format from its establishment in 1993, Pink Triangle Press ...

''. ''One in Every Crowd'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012) is an anthology of Coyote's work that was put together by the request of high school teachers and librarians who wanted to share Coyote's writing with students. Without more mature parts of their writing, their works could be accepted by school administration and parents. It was specifically composed for queer youth. ''Tomboy Survival Guide'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016), has won the Stonewall Book Award Honor—an award given to outstanding

literature—and has been long-listed for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in 2017. ''Rebent Sinner'' (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019) is a collection of stories and personal essays that has been favourably received. Coyote toured in 2019 with musician Sarah MacDougall, performing selections from the book along with music. ''Care Of'' (Penguin Random House, 2021) is a collection of communications Coyote has received from audience members and the responses they have written in return.

Reception

Coyote has made significant contributions to the representation of queerness in Canadian literature. Their first collection of short stories, ''Close to Spider Man'', was a finalist for the

Danuta Gleed Literary Award The Danuta Gleed Literary Award is a Canadian national literary prize, awarded since 1998. It recognizes the best debut short fiction collection by a Canadian author in English language. The annual prize was founded by John Gleed in honour of his ...

for short fiction, and it received widespread acclaim across the Canadian critical community for its semi-autobiographical depiction of young, queer women growing up in the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

. Although their short stories received no awards recognition until their collection ''The Slow Fix'' was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award in 2008, and their collections ''One Man's Trash'' and ''Loose End'' received similar recognition as their debut, with outlets such as

Herizons ''Herizons'' is a Canadian feminist magazine published in Winnipeg, Manitoba and distributed to subscribers throughout Canada. Billed as "Canada's answer to ''Ms. magazine''," it is also sold on newsstands. History Founded in 1979 as a volunteer ...

and the Lambda Book Report which praised the brevity and directness of Coyote's writing as it relates to depictions of the complexities of gender, sexuality, and identity. ''Bow Grip'', Coyote's only full-length novel, was the winner of the 2007

ReLit Award The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories."Three indie writers honoured by ReLit Awards". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 19, 2007. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundla ...

for Best Fiction and the Stonewall Honor Book Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Ferro Grumley Award. Their 2016 autobiography ''Tomboy Survival Guide'' also garnered numerous accolades, having been long-listed for the

British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-fiction was a Canadian literary award. and winning the 2017

Stonewall Book Award The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbo ...

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coyote, Ivan 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian spoken word poets Academic staff of Carleton University Academic staff of Capilano University Writers from Whitehorse Living people University of Winnipeg alumni 1969 births Canadian queer writers Canadian LGBTQ poets Canadian anthologists 21st-century Canadian poets Canadian non-binary writers 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people Non-binary poets Poets from Ontario Poets from British Columbia Poets from Yukon