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Jesse Thistle is completing his PhD in Indigenous homelessness, and intergenerational trauma.

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Jesse Thistle works with Metis communities to better understand the affects of Intergenerational trauma.

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Jesse Thistle appeared on on the Real Time Podcat.  The episode was titled:
Jesse Thistle - A Conversation About Homelessness in Canada
(November 2020)

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According to a 2016 census, only 8% of Indigenous men have a bechelors degree or higher, making Jesse Thistle part of that 8%.

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Jesse Thistle talks about his experience going back to school in his thirties.

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Jesse Thistle | Simon & Schuster's Books Like Us

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Jesse also says he wrote From the Ashes in an attempt to reconnect with people from his past life and his Indigenous roots:

I'm hoping that when people read my book they can also get a measure of healing and understanding and fellowship and see that they're not alone.

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Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree scholar from Prince Albert, Sask., and currently an assistant professor in Métis Studies at York University in Toronto.

Thistle's chronicles a journey that begins in a Saskatchewan community and leads to the streets of Toronto. In his authorial debut, Thistle combines poetry and memoir to share the intimate story of how he overcame addiction and homelessness to become a decorated Indigenous academic.
Canada Reads will take place July 20-23.
Thistle spoke with host Sarah Penton about what it was like having be part of .

Writing to move forward

"It hurt at first. I was trying to reconnect with memories and a lot of it was traumatic. I didn't understand it and writing my life out in these small fragments through my AA program - which eventually became my book - was very healing. I could see all those things made sense in this larger narrative of my life.

It hurt at first. I was trying to reconnect with memories and a lot of it was traumatic. - Jesse Thistle

"It's been cathartic. It's been a beautiful process of reconnecting with my old self and then forgiving a lot of what happened in the past - and moving forward and being the best person that I can be today.

"It's been very healing. I'm hoping that when people read my book they can also get a measure of healing and understanding and fellowship - and see that they're not alone."

Making amends

"There was a girl whose heart I broke when I was in high school and I didn't mean to. I was just a young kid who was doing drugs and I ended up breaking her heart. She contacted me and she understands why I did what I did. We made amends and this is 24 years later.

I'm hoping that when people read my book they can also get a measure of healing and understanding and fellowship and see that they're not alone - Jesse Thistle

"There's a scene in my book where I'm stealing from the Centennial Flame fountain on Parliament Hill. There's an RCMP officer who guarded the fountain who I say let me do it. They probably just felt sorry for me and let me get away with a little change.

"Well, I got an email about a couple of weeks ago. There's a cop that remembers doing that with somebody that would do that at the fountain. I don't know if it was me or not, and neither does the police officer, but to have him thinking about the kind of person that does that, who I was in the past and getting a measure of empathy from that person's situation from my book - that's all the reward in the world."

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How writing From the Ashes helped Canada Reads author Jesse Thistle make sense of his past | CBC Books

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Thistle's book From the Ashes will be defended by country singer George Canyon on Canada Reads 2020.

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Jesse Thistle started writing From the Ashes in rehab through a blog.  When asked why he decided to continue writing the book afterwards he said:

"It hurt at first. I was trying to reconnect with memories and a lot of it was traumatic. I didn't understand it and writing my life out in these small fragments...was very healing. I could see all those things made sense in this larger narrative of my life."

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Jesse Thistle is Métis/Cree/Scot from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979, after some tragic circumstances within his nuclear family, he was taken in by his paternal grandparents in Brampton Ontario and grew up there. Jesse is happily married to the love of his life Lucie Pekarek-Thistle and is planning to have a family, fingers crossed.

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Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree author, a Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Vanier Scholar and PhD candidate specializing in Indigenous homelessness, addiction and inter-generational trauma.

For Thistle, these issues are more than just subjects on the page. After a difficult childhood, Thistle spent much of his early adulthood struggling with addiction while living on the streets of Toronto.

Told in short chapters interspersed with poetry, his memoir From the Ashes details how his issues with abandonment and addiction led to homelessness, incarceration and his eventual redemption through higher education. CBC Books named Thistle a 2020 writer to watch.

George Canyon defended From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle on Canada Reads 2020.

Thistle spoke with CBC Books about how he wrote From the Ashes.

Accidental author

"I went to rehab and part of it was to write my four steps. I looked at what I did wrong to other people - and what other people did wrong to me - and at the events that traumatized me that led to a lot of resentments and shame.

"I decided to stick them on a blog. I was cataloguing them that way. The Toronto Star did a story on me that caught the attention of Simon & Schuster. I sent them my collection of four steps from rehab. They contacted me right away and said, 'This is going to make an amazing book, we want to publish you.'"

Flashes of memory

"If you look through the book, you'll see flashes of light every time I was traumatized. The way that my mind works, it's like looking through a shard of broken glass, with all the different light fragments. I can only capture them in one- and two-page memories because they either score my soul and I bleed too much or I can't remember because my mind blocks it out.

It was painful, but it was also very beautiful. These were really hard, painful, sharp memories. - Jesse Thistle

"It was painful, but it was also very beautiful. These were really hard, painful, sharp memories. But I also saw there were people that were trying to help me, like the kind shop owner who gave me food or my friend at the shelter who watched out for my shoes. My brother Jerry always took care of me and took me in and I had a lot of support from my wife, Lucie. It's the good and the bad."

Second chances

"People are complex and they do a lot of good and a lot of bad. No one's all virtuous and pristine and pure - and nobody's totally evil and deserves not to be forgiven. My life is an expression of that. I did a lot of horrible things to a lot of good people. I have to think about those things. But, ultimately I know that - like a lot of people - I was broken-hearted. And that led to homelessness, that led to criminality, that led to all those negative things.

No one's all virtuous and pristine and pure - and nobody's totally evil and deserves not to be forgiven. My life is an expression of that. - Jesse Thistle

"What pulled me out was the love people wrapped around me - my wife, my grandmother, reconciling with my grandfather - and loving myself."

Finding a voice

"I learned how to read in jail, basically, so I'm just going on instinct. I don't know any other way to write. I don't even think I'm a writer - I didn't know what I was doing - this is all just the way I remember it. It's the way I think, and the way I thought about it is the way it came out. I can't consciously explain it. It's like someone asking, 'What's going on when you turn on the light?'"

Reclaiming Indigenous identity

"I'm Métis-Cree and we have a very specific history as proud resistance fighters. We're not all alcoholics, we're not all homeless people, we're not all out on the streets, we're not all criminals - all those things I believed about myself. We're actually lawyers and doctors and people that contribute to society.

What pulled me out was the love people wrapped around me - my wife, my grandmother, reconciling with my grandfather - and loving myself. - Jesse Thistle

"It's strange that university became the vector that re-Indigenized me. In the past, educational institutions are what stripped away Indigeneity. Then I had to go back and connect with my community and do all the things that community members do. But initially, it was reading about positive Indigenous role models and believing that I could be like that too."

No lost causes

"I want people to understand that you can't just write people off because they've done something wrong. You have to give people a second chance. I'm one of those people.

"I would hope that people understand that becoming homeless and being in the justice system was not a choice of morality. It wasn't because I was just making bad choices. I was traumatized and I was trying my best to survive. I hope people understand that. It's about having a community of people that can love you back into the circle."

Jesse Thistle's comments have been edited for length and clarity. You can read more interviews in the How I Wrote It series here.

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How Jesse Thistle survived addiction, homelessness and incarceration - and became a Canada Reads finalist | CBC Books

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Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree author, a Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Vanier Scholar and PhD candidate specializing in Indigenous homelessness, addiction and inter-generational trauma. For Thistle, these issues are more than just subjects on the page. After a difficult childhood, Thistle spent much of his early adulthood struggling with addiction while living on the streets of Toronto.

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Jesse Thistle (born 1976) is a Métis- Cree author and assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto. He is the author of the internationally best-selling memoir, From the Ashes. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York University where he is working on theories of intergenerational, historic trauma, and survivance of road allowance Métis people. This work, which involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness, has been recognized as having wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.

Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979 he and his two brothers were removed from his family home and moved to Brampton, Ontario to be brought up by his paternal grandparents. During his late teens and twenties Thistle struggled with addiction, homelessness and served several brief stints in jail for petty theft. After an unsuccessful robbery attempt in 2006, Thistle turned himself in to police and entered a drug rehabilitation program.

Much of Thistle's historical research is based on the stories and experience of his family and ancestors. His mother, Blanche Morissette, is Métis-Cree and was a member of the Park Valley road allowance community in Big River, Saskatchewan. His father, Cyril "Sonny" Thistle, is of Scot-Algonquin ancestry and has been missing since 1982. Thistle's maternal great grandmother, Marianne Ledoux Morissette, was present and supported the Métis Resistance in 1885 during the Battle of Batoche. The documentary Family Camera directed by Marc de Guerre for TVOntario includes images of the Morissette family and interviews with Thistle, his mother and aunts where they recount the history and experience of living in the road allowance community and the legacy of the Canadian government's treatment of the Métis people.

Thistle obtained a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies with a Specialized Honours in History from York University in 2015. His undergraduate thesis is entitled: James Bay and Mattawa as an Interconnected Fur Trade Region: Illuminating Lake Timiskaming's Historic Metis Community and was supervised by York historian Carolyn Podruchny. He completed a Masters of History at the University of Waterloo in 2016 where his thesis was entitled: The Puzzle of the Morrissette-Arcand Clan: A History of Metis Historic and Intergenerational Trauma and where he worked with Susan Roy. In the fall of 2016 Thistle began work on a PhD in the History Department at York University.

Thistle is a Trudeau Scholar, a prestigious award administered by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a Vanier scholar and was awarded a Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016. He has won numerous other awards, including the Odessa Award in 2014 and the Dr. James Wu prize in 2015 for his paper "We are children of the river: Toronto's Lost Metis History."

Thistle's use of academic research as a means of healing and understanding of his personal story as an Indigenous person growing up disconnected from his community and its history and his past experiences with homelessness, addiction and incarceration has formed the basis for his original and innovative research contributions. Thistle's historical research has used his own past and identity as a way to examine the position of Metis people and culture within Canadian society, particularly around the idea of inter-generational trauma. The idea is that trauma suffered by previous generations can echo through the generations.[citation needed ]

Early historical research Thistle conducted to argue in favour of the possibility of habitation of Métis people in the historic area of Toronto was revisited by Thistle in 2016 in the article "Listening to History: Correcting the Toronto Metis Land Acknowledgement." Thistle's research now suggests there were no permanent Métis settlements in Toronto and he suggests the standard land acknowledgement text used in the Toronto area, in particular by the Toronto District School Board, that includes the Metis is incorrect. A position he reiterates in an article in the New Yorker magazine.

The main thrust of Thistle's research involves research into the road allowance Métis in Saskatchewan through the research into his own family history. The recovery of his family history and making connections to his Indigenous culture through archival documents forms the backbone of his practice and documented in the article "Archives as Good Medicine" as well as in the short film kiskisiwin | remembering, a documentary film directed by Martha Stiegman. Along with Podruchny, Thistle conducted a series of site visits and interviews in northern Saskatchewan and his PhD thesis is entitled: Indigence, Invisibility, and Indifference: Metis Life in Road Allowances Communities on the Canadian Prairies. His work on the Road Allowance Métis community has been featured on programs such as the CBC Radio's " Unreserved" program.

He was the National Representative for Indigenous Homelessness (2015-2017) for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness for their research priority areas and in that position he called for an Indigenous understanding of homelessness, arguing most current strategies for addressing homelessness do not account for the impacts of inter-generational trauma, the deep sense of loss of culture and connection to the idea of home for survivors of experiences such as residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, and that addressing Indigenous homelessness must take Indigenous worldviews into account. Thistle published a new definition of Indigenous homelessness in October, 2017. Thistle no longer works directly in the homelessness or housing sectors as he believes since the CoVid crisis and opioid crisis the nature of homelessness in Canada has changed to the point that his knowledge is outdated.

In 2019 Thistle published a memoir entitled From the Ashes. The memoir detailed his childhood, youth, and early adulthood, dealing with issues such as foster care, homelessness and addiction, and his quest for higher education that led ultimately to a professorship and love and emplacement. The book was praised for its openness in expressing loss and pain, and for its eloquence, especially as it relates the multigenerational impacts of colonization and trauma. Among the book's greatest champions are noted psychologist Gabor Mate, NYT bestselling authors Emma Donoghue and Amanda Lindhout, and the creator of Housing First Sam Tsemberis. "From the Ashes" appeared on numerous bestseller lists since release and was Canada's bestselling title by a Canadian author in 2020, and was the best selling Indigenous memoir of the last 20 years, ranking 4th overall of Canadian memoirs published between 2006-2021, behind only Chris Hatfield, Wayne Gretzky, and Amanda Lindhout. In 2020 it was also selected by George Canyon as his choice for the CBC Canada Reads competition but was voted off during the second round.

#1 Bestselling Indigenous memoir in Canada between 2005-2023 - From the Ashes.

#1 Bestselling Canadian book of 2020 (any genre or format) - From the Ashes

#1 Most borrowed Canadian non-fiction book of 2021 - From the Ashes

#1 Bestselling Canadian non-fiction book of 2020 - From the Ashes

#1 Bestselling two-year-old Canadian book; #2 bestselling two-year-old book in Canada (both domestic and international) - 2019-2021 (any genre of format) - From the Ashes

Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for non-fiction

Named one of 50 most influential Torontonians of 2019.

Jameson, Elizabeth; Podruchny, Carolyn; Thistle, Jesse A. (2018). "Women on the Margins of Imperial Plots: Farming on Borrowed Land". Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 29: 158. doi:10.7202/1065722ar.

Thistle, Jesse (2019). From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781982101213.

Thistle, Jesse. The Puzzle of the Morrissette-Arcand Clan: A History of Metis Historic and Intergenerational Trauma. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Thistle, Jesse A. The Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, Toronto: York University, 2017. http://homelesshub.ca/IndigenousHomelessness

Thistle, Jesse A. "We are children of the river: Toronto's Lost Metis History," YOUR Review, vol 3 (2016).[1]

Thistle, Jesse A., "kiskisiwin - remembering: Challenging Indigenous Erasure in Canada's Public History Displays," Active History (July 3, 2017).[2]

Thistle, Jesse A. "Listening to History: Correcting the Toronto Metis Land Acknowledgement," Active History (December 2, 2016).[3]

Thistle, Jesse A. "Dishinikawshon Jesse: A Life Transformed," Aboriginal Policy Studies 5, 1 (2015): 69-93.[4]

Podruchny, Carolyn, and Jesse Thistle. "A Geography of Blood: Uncovering the Hidden Histories of Metis Peoples in Canada." In Spaces of Difference: Conflicts and Cohabitation, edited by Ursala Lehmkuhl, Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink, and Laurence McFalls, 61-82. New York: Waxmann, 2016.

1. ^ Winter, Jesse (2016-08-17). "He was once a homeless drug addict. Now he's one of York's top students". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781.

2. ^ Muzyka, Kyle (Oct 17, 2019). "How Jesse Thistle's deeply personal memoir 'happened by accident'". Unreserved, CBC.

3. ^ Thistle, Jesse (2015). "Archives as Good Medicine: Rediscovering Our Ancestors and Understanding the Root Causes of Intergenerational Trauma". Revue YOUR Review (York Online Undergraduate Research). 2: 140.

4. ^ "From scrip to road allowances: Canada's complicated history with the Métis". CBC. April 28, 2019.

5. ^ Boon, Sonja; McNeill, Laurie; Rak, Julie; Rifkind, Candida (2022-12-29). The Routledge Introduction to Auto/biography in Canada. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-80094-4.

6. ^ Boon, Sonja; McNeill, Laurie; Rak, Julie; Rifkind, Candida (2022-12-29). The Routledge Introduction to Auto/biography in Canada. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-80094-4.

7. ^ "From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle is the #1 bestselling Canadian print book of 2020 so far". CBC Books, October 20, 2020.

8. Sue Carter, ^ "Jesse Thistle, Zalika Reid-Benta, J.R. McConvey win Kobo's Emerging Writer Prizes". Quill & Quire, June 25, 2020.

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Jesse Thistle (born 1976) is a Métis- Cree author and assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto. He is the author of the internationally best-selling memoir, From the Ashes. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York University where he is working on theories of intergenerational, historic trauma, and survivance of road allowance Métis people.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From the Ashes is a 2019 memoir by Métis- Cree academic and writer Jesse Thistle.

The memoir documents Thistle's difficult upbringing, struggles with homelessness, addiction and his Indigenous identity, yet is centred on the theme of love. It concludes with his success in academia, finding love, and community emplacement. From the Ashes is the bestselling Indigenous memoir in Canada over the last 20 years, ranking 4th overall of Canadian memoirs published between 2006-2021, behind only Chris Hatfield, Wayne Gretzky, and Amanda Lindhout.

The book was met with praise from reviewers, attracted awards for Thistle and was a Canadian bestselling book in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree professor at York University who researches Michif road allowance life in mid 20th-century Saskatchewan. He has also worked in the fields of Indigenous homelessness, addiction and intergenerational trauma. From the Ashes is Thistle's first book.

The book documents Thistle's difficult upbringing in Saskatchewan, his father's addiction issues, and being taken into state custody before being cared for by his grandparents in Brampton, Ontario. From the Ashes details Thistle's struggle with his own Indigenous identity, his relationship with his brothers, his use of drugs, being kicked out of his grandparents home and his time living on the streets in Vancouver, Brampton, Ottawa and Toronto.

Thistle's story is told over short chapters, and makes use of prose and poetry. As a young adult, Thistle struggles with suicidal ideation, and he is jailed, before finding redemption through university education.

Jesse Winter writing in The Toronto Star describes the narration as brutal and humble. Michelle Nolden, writing in Toronto Life described it as inspirational and praised the author's brutal honesty and bravery and described the book as a "beautiful story of hope, love and perseverance".

As of October 2020, From the Ashes was the bestselling Canadian book of 2020 in any genre or format; it finished the year in this spot. The book was the most borrowed Canadian non-fiction book of 2021 and the bestselling Canadian non-fiction book of 2020. It was also the bestselling two-year-old Canadian book in 2021. The book was featured in the Canadian Broadcasting's Canada Reads competition in 2020.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia From the Ashes is a 2019 memoir by Métis- Cree academic and writer Jesse Thistle. The memoir documents Thistle's difficult upbringing, struggles with homelessness, addiction and his Indigenous identity, yet is centred on the theme of love. It concludes with his success in academia, finding love, and community emplacement.

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About The Book

*#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
*Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction
*Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards
*Winner, High Plains Book Awards
*Finalist, CBC Canada Reads
*A Globe and Mail Book of the Year
*An Indigo Book of the Year
*A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of the Year
In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. If I can just make it to the next minute...then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead.
From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up.

Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse's drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around.

In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education-and newfound love-he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family.

An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds.

From the Ashes PROLOGUE
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

Matthew 11:12

THE DEAD SILENCE SCREAMED DANGER.

Frenzied squeaks of jail-issued blue deck shoes on sealed cement followed by wet smacks, fast pops, loud cracks, and finally a dull thud confirmed it. A guy lay crumpled on the range floor, our range quartermaster told us. He wasn't conscious. His legs were seized straight, quivering uncontrollably. He had pissed and shit himself.

We didn't need to see it with our own eyes. The unseen, the unknown, in jail is often worse than the seen, the known.

The next day, after cell search, I heard that he had died en route to hospital.

Someone said he'd stolen a bag of chips from another inmate's canteen, but who knew?

Who cared?

It was jail justice. The thief got what he deserved. According to us, according to society. At least that's what I told myself. All I knew for sure was that I didn't know anything and I hadn't seen anything. I'd only heard it, but I wouldn't even tell the guards that much. I had to survive, and the only way you did that was by keeping your mouth shut, turning your head away.

What was I doing here in jail anyway? Why had I put myself in the midst of this filth, this horrible violence?

The answer was simple.

I did it to save my leg-and my life.

Reading Group Guide

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From the Ashes
Jesse Thistle
Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for FROM THE ASHES includes an introduction and discussion questions. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Introduction

Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.

From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. Consider Jesse's childhood pain and constant longing for his parents' love. How are hunger and longing significant to Jesse and his memories of his childhood? How do they shape who he becomes? How do these feelings transform throughout the memoir?

2. Consider Jesse's taunts and anger toward his brother. What exactly does Jesse seem to hate? Why do you think Jesse rejects his heritage despite his longing? How can we make connections between his anger at his parents, his frustration with himself, and his rejection of his heritage?

3. Throughout the memoir, the power of choice, and the results of making the "right" choice, weigh on Jesse. In what ways does he seem to feel like he has no choice, like he must behave in ways he knows are wrong? How do others try to convince him that he does have a choice? What seems to fuel Jesse's decisions throughout the book?

4. How can we consider Jesse's actions as a function of the many traumas he's faced? How did his brothers somehow heal from that trauma? What does the story suggest about the healing powers of reclaiming one's heritage/becoming self-aware?

5. Why does it affect Jesse so much when Karen tells him he should be proud of his heritage? Why do you think he was scared to tell her at first? Why does it seem to be so significant to him that she'd say that and that her family took enthusiastic interest?

6. When Jesse and his grandmother go to shop at the Bay, she declares, "Our family built this country, Jesse." How does her past and her story contrast with the common European understanding of Canadian history?

7. How do Jesse's interactions with other minorities underline the themes of power imbalances throughout the memoir? What does the book suggest about how these communities fit into Canada as a nation?

8. Jesse describes his ancestors as the "forgotten people." In what ways is he a "forgotten" person? How is his personal history and familial history forgotten? What mechanisms, structurally and historically, are in place to make a people forgotten, and how do they configure here? What other communities might be considered forgotten?

9. Consider when Priest tells Jesse that all convicts are "broken-hearted people hurt by life" and that it's all just "love gone bad." How is this true for Jesse? What in his life had broken his heart? How has love gone bad for him?

10. Consider how many help Jesse in his life, despite his issues. What does that suggest about humanity? How does their goodwill help him? Are their ways in which it hurts him? How are these acts inevitably complicated and fraught?

11. What role does identity, as well as its implications and roots, play in this memoir? How does Jesse's identity change throughout? How does his understanding of who he is change? What impact did not understanding his identity have on him?

12. In Jesse's dedication, he names several ways that Indigenous communities were affected by Canadian policies and colonial strategies. For instance, he discusses the Sixties Scoop, residential schools, and, in the body of the memoir, land wars and treaties. How does he make the connection between these policies and his own personal struggles?

About The Author

Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. From the Ashes was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award, and High Plains Book Award, and also a finalist for CBC Canada Reads. Jesse won a Governor General's Academic Medal in 2016, and is a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a Vanier Scholar. A frequent keynote speaker, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife, Lucie, and is at work on multiple projects, including his next book. Visit him at JesseThistle.com.

Raves and Reviews

"A heartbreaking and honest debut." The Globe and Mail

"Blown away by [this] eloquent memoir of Métis life and surviving the streets . . . [a] strong contender for #CanadaReads."
- EMMA DONOGHUE, New York Times bestselling author of Room

"In spare and often brutal prose . . . Thistle weaves a narrative punctuated with joy and comedy and ultimately redemption."
-Toronto Star

"A gritty memoir recounting the devastating long-term effects of childhood abandonment. . . . The theme of estrangement is powerfully portrayed in what is ultimately a story of courage and resilience certain to strike a chord with readers from many backgrounds."
- Library Journal

"[This] powerful and moving memoir is also a scathing indictment of the treatment of Indigenous people and the myriad ways systems fail them."
- Booklist

"Stereotypes and conventional understandings are about to be challenged. . . . In the world Thistle inhabits, poverty, addiction, and homelessness are all one step over a line. Some are pushed, some stumble, and some jump. . . . The places Thistle takes us come together to illustrate a common theme: we look for home wherever we can find it. Over the course of the book, Thistle builds a better world for himself, one day and one decision at a time. It is a remarkable transformation to witness, and the arc of his story will make the reader want to cheer."
- Quill & Quire, starred review

Resources and Downloads

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From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle - *#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER *Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction *Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards *Winner, High Plai...

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Scars and Stars | CBC Books Loaded

Books · Canadian

Scars and Stars is Métis-Cree writer Jesse Thistle's first collection of poetry.

Jesse Thistle

Fans of Jesse Thistle's extraordinary debut From the Ashes have already had the pleasure of reading his poetry, which is sprinkled throughout his bestselling memoir. In Scars & Stars, he digs deeper into the poetic form, which is especially close to his heart.

Charting his own history, the stories of people from his past, the burning intensity of new and unexpected love, the complex legacies of family and community, and the beauty of parenthood, this collection is a profound meditation that expands his engagement with the ideas and experiences that have shaped his body of work thus far.

Throughout the collection, prose pieces complement the poems, and to bring readers into Jesse's life with greater intimacy than ever before. The result is an unforgettable furthering of his singular story, one that is sure to delight his many readers, but also serve as a perfect entry point for those new to the work of one of our most thrilling and honest writers. ( From McClelland & Stewart)

Scars & Stars is available on Oct. 18, 2022.

Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Sask., and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. His memoir From the Ashes was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award, and the High Plains Book Award, and a finalist for Canada Reads 2020.

Thistle won a Governor General's Academic Medal in 2016, and is a 2016 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2016 Vanier Scholar. A frequent keynote speaker, he lives in Hamilton, Ont., with his wife Lucie.

Interviews with Jesse Thistle

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Scars and Stars is Métis-Cree writer Jesse Thistle's first collection of poetry.

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Scars and Stars by Jesse Thistle | Penguin Random House Canada

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A beautiful and moving collection of poems and stories from the author of the #1 bestselling memoir From the Ashes.

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Jesse Thistle explains the long road that led him to write International Bestseller, FROM THE ASHES

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Genre: Collection of poems
- Jesse Thistle allows readers of Stars and Scars to understand his story more intimately than before.  His poems focus on love, family and community, and parenthood.

Awards:

National Bestseller

Other Accomplishments:

Jesse Thistle won a Governor General's Academic Medal in 2016

Jesse Thistle is a 2016 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2016 Vanier Scholar

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Genre: Memoir
- From the Ashes follows Jesse Thistle's struggles with homelessness, addiction, and his Indigenous Identity.  Jesse's memoir amplifies the theme of love and kindness.

Awards:

Bestselling Indigenous Memoir in Canada

Bestselling Canadian book of 2020

Finalist for CBC Canada Reads

Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction

Winner of the Indigenous Voices Award

Winner of the High Plains Book Award

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Jesse Thistle discusses formative life experiences

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A 'Mental Health Morning' with author Jesse Thistle

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Family:

Mother: Blanche Morissette

Father: Cyril Thistle

Brothers: Josh and Jerry Thistle

Wife: Lucie Pekarek-Thistle

Daughter: Rose Thistle

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Birthplace: Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

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Name: Jesse Thistle

Birthdate: 1976

Nation: Metis-Cree