Stages of Tanning Words and Remembering Spells: Part 1: Scraping Lungs Like Hide

In their second poetry collection, Tawahum Bige explores belonging and voice of a Two-Spirit Dene youth.

These poems are a stark plunge—an answer to how voice emerges for a young Two Spirit growing up in so-called “Surrey, BC,” far from his Łutselk'e Dene territories. The fundamental thrum in which vocal cords produce sound to whisper, cry, holler and laugh—these inner workings are made corporeal through moments of growth from childhood to young adulthood to show how the seeds sprouted for someone who needed to learn to express to find their path.

“Tawahum’s poems invite us into the homeland that is the body and the complex rawness of human identity. This collection teaches us what shatters and what binds, what rises to the surface when we seek connection, and what we might discover in the valleys of hunger and holiness that wait for our careful attention. Stages of Tanning Words and Remembering Spells is an urgent and vivid testament to the sacredness of wounds and the cracked and luminous glow of the unfiltered human spirit. These are words to be tasted, inhabited, and felt to your core.”

“Tawahum Bige’s Stages of Tanning Words and Remembering Spells carves out a singular voice in contemporary poetry—fierce, tender, and unabashedly raw. Echoing the searing intimacy and lyrical witticisms of poets like of Tenille K Campbell and Tommy Pico, Bige has crafted a thoughtful rumination on the nature of transformation and metamorphosis. This collection surprises, delights, and lingers long after the reading is done.”