We are what claims us: short stories

Abstract

We Are What Claims Us is a short story collection exploring the ways stories are sacred, how each telling and retelling is an iteration of ceremony and healing. Stories such as “Notes from Over the Rainbow” and “Swimming Studies” are insights into intergenerational trauma and how bodies relate to land and water, love and belonging. “Can You Tell Me a Joke About Your Profession?” explores obsession, creativity and music as a means to control and overcome pain and isolation. “Ancestral Arguments,” and “Only Young” navigate the complexities of identity, queerness, and Indigeneity. We Are What Claims Us translates what it means to find yourself in the thick of or on the other side of trauma - what parts we own, which parts contain us, and ultimately what we need to relinquish. These stories are decolonial attempts to name, claim and undo harm.