Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Fire Song
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.adamgarnetjones.com/
CITY: Toronto
STATE:
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no2017013037 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017013037 |
| HEADING: | Jones, Adam Garnet |
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| 005 | 20170202073513.0 |
| 008 | 170201n| azannaabn |n aaa c |
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| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)oca10693088 |
| 040 | __ |a NcU |b eng |e rda |c NcU |
| 100 | 1_ |a Jones, Adam Garnet |
| 370 | __ |c Canada |2 naf |
| 374 | __ |a Motion picture producers and directors |a Screenwriters |2 lcsh |
| 377 | __ |a eng |
| 670 | __ |a Fire song, 2016: |b credits frame (written and directed by Adam Garnet Jones) |
| 670 | __ |a adamgarnetjones.com website, viewed February 1, 2017: |b CV page (based in Toronto, Ontario; BFA from Ryerson University) |
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, screenwriter, producer, story editor, cinematographer, and director. Telefilm Canada, content analyst and indigenous liaison.
AWARDS:Air Canada Audience Choice Award, ImagineNATIVE (media arts festival), and Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize, both for Fire Song (film); Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Performance awards, Canadian Film Festival, for Great Great Great (film).
WRITINGS
Screenwriter, producer, and director on films, including Fire Song, 2015, and Great Great Great, 2017.
Screenwriter on short films, including Cloudbreaker, 2006, and A Small Thing, 2008.
Director on films and short movies, including Cloudbreaker, 2006, A Small Thing, 2008, Wave a Red Flag, 2009, and I Liar, 2012.
Scriptwriter for television series, including Cashing In, 2009.
Story editor for television series, including Mohawk Girls, 2014.
SIDELIGHTS
Adam Garnet Jones is a Canadian filmmaker, novelist, producer, and director. His film work includes the feature-length movies Fire Song and Great Great Great. Fire Song won the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at ImagineNative, the largest indigenous media arts festival in the world, noted a writer on the Adam Garnet Jones website. It also won several more awards at that festival. Great Great Great also won awards, including prizes for best film, best screenplay, and best performance at the Canadian Film Festival.
In addition to his work in film, Jones has also been a scriptwriter for television. He has created scripts for programs such as Cashing In and Mohawk Girls. He was also story editor for several episodes of Mohawk Girls. Jones has served as director, producer, editor, and cinematographer on a number of short films as well.
Jones is of Cree, Metis, and Danish background. He works as a content analyst and indigenous liaison at Telefilm Canada.
Jones’s young adult novel Fire Song is adaptation of his feature film of the same name. In an interview on the website Open Book, Jones stated, ”the screenplay started as a supernatural drama, so I think it’s fair to say it changed quite a bit from the original idea. The film took about seven years from the time I began writing to the time I finished the film. The novelization took about a year and a half more, and the story underwent a significant transformation when I shifted from one medium to another.”
Fire Song tells the story of Shane, an indigenous Canadian Anishinaabe. Tragedy has his Shane and his family hard, and he and those around him are suffering significantly. His fifteen-year-old Sister, Destiny, has recently committed suicide for unknown reasons. In the aftermath, his mother has become deeply depressed and despondent, hardly ever leaving Destiny’s bedroom.
Shane is a two-spirit or gay individual, and has problems with his identity and with worries about what the other people on the reservation will think of him if he comes out. These troubles are shared by his boyfriend, David, the grandson of a tribal elder, who refuses to come out because of the possible repercussions. To keep up an illusion, Shane pretends that Tara is his girlfriend, though he is afraid that he will eventually hurt her, even if unintentionally. Shane thought he had he opportunity to escape the reservation, but the funds have been delayed, and possibly lost, because of a paperwork error. He is also conflicted over his desire to leave the reservation since it could be seen as a betrayal to the tribe.
Shane wants to leave the reservation and take David with him, but circumstances prevent it. Another tragic death sends Shane into a state of depression and hopelessness of his own, and he has to struggle mightily to overcome his own significant personal troubles while helping his mother and those he cares for.
Shannon Ozirny, writing in the Toronto Globe & Mail, commented: “The subject matter and the voice make Fire Song important, but there’s a lot more here that makes it transformative. The book shows the complex decision-making processes Shane must undergo to confront and solve his problems.” Shane, Ozirny observes, does not have the benefit and “privilege of free, unfettered choice. He has to constantly drill down through several seemingly impenetrable layers of outside perception before he can move forward.”
A Kirkus Reviews writer called Fire Song a “touching story that has been a long time coming for the Indigenous community.” Catherine Thureson, writing in Foreword Reviews, found it to be a “powerful, challenging book that is full of deeply meaningful turns as it boldly encourages living life to the best of one’s abilities.” Ozirny concluded, “Fire Song is necessary because of its subject matter, perspective and voice, but remarkable because it so effectively articulates how choice is a privilege that Indigenous people such as Shane rarely get to experience in our country.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Foreword Reviews, March 27, 2018, Catherine Thureson, review of Fire Song.
Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), May 7, 2018, Shannon Ozirny, “Review: Adam Garnet Jones’s Fire Song Explores How Choice Is a Luxury Rarely Afforded to Indigenous People,” review of Fire Song.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2018, review of Fire Song.
Quill & Quire, March, 2018, Dory Cerny, “Adam Garnet Jones Adapts His Award-Winning Film into a YA Novel with Universal Appeal,” profile of Adam Garnet Jones.
School Library Journal, February, 2018, Jill Baetiong, review of Fire Song, p. 103.
Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 2018, Ed Goldberg, review of Fire Song, p. 56.
ONLINE
Adam Garnet Jones website, http://www.adamgarnetjones.com (June 13, 2018).
National Screen Institute website, http://www.nsi-canada.ca (March 8, 2018), “Adam Garnet Jones Releases Fire Song as a Novel,” review of Fire Song.
Open Book, http://www.open-book.ca. (February 20, 2018), “Adam Garnet Jones on Finding the Story in His Powerful New Novel Fire Song,” interview with Adam Garnet Jones.
Bio
Adam Garnet Jones (Cree/Métis/ Danish) has written and directed a series of award-winning films that toured the international film circuit from Toronto to L.A., Sydney, Berlin and Beijing. He is currently working as Content Analyst and Indigenous Liaison at Telefilm Canada.
Adam released his first dramatic feature-length film, “Fire Song”, at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015. “Fire Song” went on to win the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at ImagineNATIVE, the world’s largest Indigenous Media Arts Festival before picking up three more audience choice awards and two jury prizes for best film. Even before the film was green-lit for production, the script for “Fire Song” won the WGC's Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize. “Fire Song” can be seen now on Netflix USA.
Adam's second feature, "Great Great Great", picked up awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Performance when it premiered at the Canadian Film Festival.
Not content to work only in film, Adam has also distinguished himself as a television writer. He wrote scripts for the series “Cashing In” and “Mohawk Girls." He also had a hand in creating the upcoming series, “Awakening” with Big Soul Productions. His own series, "Unfit" is being developed by Muse Productions.
Portrait of Adam Garnet Jones by Jalani Morgan
Portrait of Adam Garnet Jones by Jalani Morgan
http://www.adamgarnetjones.com/aboutadamgarnetjones/
Adam Garnet Jones
Biography
Mini Bio (1)
Adam Garnet Jones is a Canadian writer, editor and director of Cree and Métis heritage whose work includes over 20 short films that have been broadcast on television and the big screen, and have received positive international response. Jones grew up in Alberta and British Columbia before moving to Toronto, Ontario to study at Ryerson University, from which he received a B.F.A. in film studies. "Fire Song" was his feature length directorial debut.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Red Haircrow
Filmography
Jump to: Writer | Director | Producer | Editor | Cinematographer | Second Unit Director or Assistant Director | Camera and Electrical Department | Editorial department | Miscellaneous Crew
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2017 Great Great Great (co-writer)
2015 Fire Song (written by)
2014 Mohawk Girls (TV Series) (story editor - 7 episodes)
- Beast (2014) ... (story editor)
- Tube Steak (2014) ... (story editor)
- Lobster Club (2014) ... (story editor)
- Where's My Warrior? (2014) ... (story editor)
- Hanky Spanky (2014) ... (story editor)
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2012/I Liar (Short)
2009 Wave a Red Flag (Short)
2009 Cashing In (TV Series) (written by - 1 episode)
- Episode #1.2 (2009) ... (written by)
2008 A Small Thing (Short) (written by)
2006 Cloudbreaker (Short)
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2017 Great Great Great
2015 Fire Song
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2009 Wave a Red Flag (Short)
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2006 Cloudbreaker (Short)
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2017 Great Great Great (producer)
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2012/I Liar (Short) (producer)
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2009 The Bathroom Project (Short)
2005 Marnie Love (Short)
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2011 I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends (Video short)
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2011 I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends (Video short) (assistant director)
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2013 Conversation #2 (Documentary short) (camera operator)
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2006 Colourbars (Short) (colorist)
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2011 I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends (Video short) (script supervisor)
Jones, Adam Garnet. Fire Song
Ed Goldberg
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.6 (Feb. 2018): p56+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
Jones, Adam Garnet. Fire Song. Annick Press, March 2018. 232p. $18.99. 978-1-55451-977-4. 2Q * 2P * J * S
Seventeen-year-old Shane, a Canadian Anishinaabe Indian, is suffering. His fifteen-year-old sister, Destiny, recently committed suicide. His mother, Jackie, is depressed and rarely leaves Destiny's bedroom. His boyfriend, David, will not come out because he believes the reservation will not understand him. Shane pretends that Tara is his girlfriend, knowing that, ultimately, he will hurt her. In addition, his chance to escape the reservation by going to college in Toronto is in jeopardy. Shane struggles to take care of his mother and prevent his life from derailing. Once the "good boy" upon whom everyone relied, he is now weighing new options, some of which may not be legal. He feels conflicted about using Tara, his feelings for David, and his desire to move away from the reservation.
Jones's debut novel, adapted from his award-winning movie of the same name, is a tepid attempt to describe a conflicted soul. His use of language, such as "... Davids rubbery blueberry nipples" and "It's clammy, like the wrapping on a marked-down package of chicken legs" is cringe- worthy. Taras voice is the only one that rings true; thus, the highlights of the book are the few chapters containing her poetry, narrated by Tara as she describes her difficult life, her mother's departure, and her love for Shane. Books covering similar themes in better ways are Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (HarperCollins, 2016/ VOYA August 2016) or More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (Soho Teen, 2015/ VOYA April 2015).--Ed Goldberg.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Goldberg, Ed. "Jones, Adam Garnet. Fire Song." Voice of Youth Advocates, Feb. 2018, p. 56+.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529357121 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=b294b139. Accessed 15 May 2018.
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Jones, Adam Garnet: FIRE SONG
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jones, Adam Garnet FIRE SONG Annick Press (Children's Fiction) $18.95 3, 13 ISBN: 978-1-55451-978-1
After the sudden death of his sister, Shane, an Anishinaabe teen, is left to carry the weight of grief for his family.
His mother is inconsolable. His girlfriend has become clingy. And his secret love, David, keeps him at a distance, as the pair hasn't quite found a way to co-exist within a reservation community where there are no openly gay couples. Shane is dealt another crushing blow after his sister's memorial when he discovers that the funding for his college tuition deposit hasn't been approved by the band. College in Toronto is the one escape that Shane believes will offer him a semblance of a future that might not be forever lost within the cyclical trauma that exists in his community-- even though his family sees his leaving the rez to go to college as a betrayal. From the first page, Cree/MAaAaAeA@t filmmaker Jones (adapting his award-winning film of the same name) uses a poetic voice to interlace the landscape and the main character as one symbiotic being. Complex, vulnerable emotion is embedded within the specificity of the writing in this dramatic prose debut. Jones avoids clichAaAaAeA@s of reservation life, humanizing the stories of how h people reconcile the trauma of suicide, missing family members, same-sex relationships, and the isolation of a community left to fend for itself.
A touching story that has been a long time coming for the Indigenous community. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jones, Adam Garnet: FIRE SONG." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643012/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0f774f48. Accessed 15 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522643012
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Fire Song
Catherine Thureson
ForeWord.
(Mar. 27, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 ForeWord http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Adam Garnet Jones; FIRE SONG; Annick Press (Children's: Young Adult Fiction) 9.95 ISBN: 9781554519774
Byline: Catherine Thureson
Full of sorrow and longing, Adam Garnet Jones's Fire Song is a beautifully written story about self-discovery and navigating the difficult path between dreams and responsibility.
Shane is an Anishinaabe teenager from Ontario torn between his home responsibilities and his desire to go to college. His inheritance from his father can't be used for tuition; it is needed at home. His sister committed suicide and his mother is lost in mourning. He is also torn between his socially acceptable relationship with Tara and his secret love for David, the grandson of a tribal elder.
Fire Song is an emotionally challenging book. Life on the reservation is shown to be desolate; poverty, drugs, alcohol, and hopelessness dominate the community. The promise of a better life off of the reservation is an abstract dream, and leaving would be seen as selfish, a dereliction of duty to the tribe.
Themes of self-discovery and coming of age are universal, and Shane is sympathetic as he tries to strike a balance between his dreams and his obligations. The choices he faces are painted with unflinching honesty -- no matter what he decides, there's no guarantee of happiness.
Jones's writing shines. Shane is a wonderfully complex character, and his conflicting emotions as he interacts with Tara, David, and his family come across well. Lovely spiritual aspects are included as Shane contemplates life and death, the ceremonies and traditions of his tribe, and the landscape of the world around him.
Fire Song is a powerful, challenging book that is full of deeply meaningful turns as it boldly encourages living life to the best of one's abilities.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Thureson, Catherine. "Fire Song." ForeWord, 27 Mar. 2018. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533913777/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=9945d084. Accessed 15 May 2018.
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JONES, Adam Garnet. Fire Song
Jill Baetiong
School Library Journal.
64.2 (Feb. 2018): p103. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
JONES, Adam Garnet. Fire Song. 232p. An nick Pr. Mar. 2018. Tr $18.95. ISBN 9781554519781.
Gr 9 Up--Shane is a gay Anishinaabe high school student. His sister, Destiny, has just committed suicide for unknown reasons. Shane's mom holes herself up in Destiny's room in a deep depression. At her memorial service, Shane goes emotionally adrift. The only person that truly makes Shane happy is David. Everything else about his life sucks: the teen has to pretend to have a girlfriend while sneaking around with David because he doesn't think his community would accept his sexuality. Shane decides that he must leave the reservation and wants David to go with him. He even tries selling drugs to get some escape money. After his girlfriend, Tara, commits suicide, Shane withdraws further within himself and begins to wonder if his life is worth leading. This complex, well-written debut will resonate with young people. The primary and secondary characters are fully developed and the pacing will keep readers engaged. Despite the dangerous turn of events, the two boys eventually find love and acceptance. VERDICT A great coming-out novel with Native American protagonists; recommended for all teen collections.--Jill Baetiong, Kaneville Public Library, IL
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Baetiong, Jill. "JONES, Adam Garnet. Fire Song." School Library Journal, Feb. 2018, p. 103.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526734121 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=e36a8504. Accessed 15 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526734121
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Adam Garnet Jones releases Fire Song as a novel
Feature film Fire Song, from Adam Garnet Jones (Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program, NSI Storytellers, NSI Diverse TV Director) and Laura Milliken (Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program), has been adapted into a new novel written by Adam.
The book is published by Annick Press and is available starting March 13. A launch event, hosted by Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto, follows on March 21.
Fire Song follows the turmoil of Shane, a gay Anishnaabe teenager struggling to support his family in the aftermath of his sister’s suicide. Determined to take care of his mother, he is torn between his responsibilities at home and the promise calling to him from the city.
The film was accepted to the Telefilm Canada Micro-Budget Production Program in 2014 after being nominated by NSI.
Read a recent interview with Adam about Fire Song.
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Adam Garnet Jones on Finding the Story in his Powerful New Novel Fire Song
Date
February 20, 2018
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Adam Garnet Jones Lucky Seven Interview
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Filmmaker Adam Garnet Jones started writing and making movies in his teen years, and even in those early works, he never shied away from difficult, complex storytelling. So it's no surprise that his novel, Fire Song (Annick Press), brings that same power and fearlessness to bear on the story of Shane, a young man who has just lost his younger sister to suicide. Blindsided by the loss, Shane is left reeling, even as he tries to process his feelings for his friend, Daniel -- the only person on the rez he truly loves now that his sister, Destiny, is gone.
The deep, honest, gripping quality of Jones' writing shines on the page even in Shane's darkest moments. It earned Jones a starred Kirkus review and a rave review from School Library Journal, which praised the novel's complexity, resonance with young readers, and arresting prose, amongst other accolades.
We're thrilled to welcome Adam to Open Book today to talk about Fire Song as part of our Lucky Seven series. He tells us about the challenges he faced as a Two-Spirited person that inspired Fire Song, about the process of adapting Fire Song (which began its life as a film) into a novel, and why moments of writer's block sometimes take him literally underground.
Open Book:
Tell us about your new book and how it came to be.
Adam Garnet Jones:
Fire Song started its life as a screenplay, and it became my first feature-length film. In truth, I never imagined it as a novel until the opportunity came. People joke that I’m doing it backwards, which might be true. The idea for the film came because much of my own early life as a Two-Spirited person was dominated by suicidal depression and alienation. Like most people who feel that kind of darkness within them, for a long time I thought I was the only one. As I got older, I moved to Vancouver and then Toronto. I was looking for community, and in some ways I found it. As I connected with other Queer and Indigenous youth, I learned how many of us share the story of loneliness, isolation, depression, and suicide.
At the time, the media occasionally reported on suicide “clusters” in First Nations communities, but it was always with a veil of mystery surrounding it, as though the depths of that kind of pain was so deep, so inexplicable that the origins were almost magical, impossible to understand. But for me, the reasons for the epidemic of suicides are clear. Young people feel hopeless as a direct result of historical genocide, systemic poverty and oppression, substance abuse, the demonization of traditional culture (including sexuality) and its replacement with Christianity. Not to mention residential schools, the poisoning and theft of the land, and the frustrating persistence of the question “why?” coming from the mouths of non-Indigenous Canadians.
When I wrote the film, I wanted to talk about the network of systemic issues at play for young Two-Spirited people, but I also wanted to tell a story about resilience and the strength of family in the face of unimaginable pain. Fire Song premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015, and it went on to find audiences all over the world. Annick Press, contacted me because they thought that the story had strong potential as a young adult novel. They thought they might have another writer work on the adaptation, but after living with the story for so long, it was important for me to try to take on the adaptation myself. I wrote a few chapters on spec to demonstrate what my take on the adaptation would be, and Annick gave me the green light to move ahead with the rest.
OB:
Is there a question that is central to your book, thematically? And if so, did you know the question when you started writing or did it emerge from the writing process?
AGJ:
When I began writing, I knew that I did not want Fire Song to be about a young guy who hates his home, so he sets off to find happiness in the big city. That story has been told over and over and, for Indigenous people - particularly Two-Spirit people - it’s a false promise. It’s a lie. And the lie is tempting for writers because, structurally speaking, it provides a clear goal and an easy resolution to the problems of these kinds of stories. But those stories tell readers, “if you don’t like where you are, just move. If you don’t move, it must not be that bad.” The problem is, this structure conforms to assimilationist narratives about Indigenous people. It places blame on Indigenous people for systemic oppression by forcing a false binary: stay and suffer or leave and (probably) suffer. In order to tell a story that felt truer to my community, I had to figure out what resolution Shane was looking for. It turned out that the story wasn’t about a young man choosing which fork to take in the road of his life; the story was about a broken family trying to heal. Once I knew that the story was about a broken family, I knew what the ending needed to be.
OB:
Did this project change significantly from when you first starting working on it to the final version? How long did the project take from start to finish?
AGJ:
The screenplay started as a supernatural drama, so I think it’s fair to say it changed quite a bit from the original idea. The film took about seven years from the time I began writing to the time I finished the film. The novelization took about a year and a half more, and the story underwent a significant transformation when I shifted from one medium to another. The biggest difference is the addition of a written interiority. With screenplays, you are only supposed to write what will be seen and heard in the final film; all of the sense of a character’s interior life has to come from their actions, the subtext of the dialogue, and the actor’s performance. It was wonderful to have the freedom to put some of that interiority on the page. My editor will tell you that I got excited and went too far at first and had to pull back during the edit. 4. What do you need in order to write – in terms of space, food, rituals, writing instruments? I don’t need much. I need a laptop and some space. Sometimes I need quiet and other times I want some vocal-free music to keep me inside it. I stopped eating breakfast when I started writing more or less full-time. I found that if I begin working on an empty stomach, I can keep my mind clear until lunch. If I eat and then sit down first thing in the morning I get sluggish. I also disabled my Facebook news feed to limit that particular temptation.
OB:
What do you do if you're feeling discouraged during the writing process? Do you have a method of coping with the difficult points in your projects?
AGJ:
I find that the best thing to do when I’m feeling discouraged is to go back and re-read what I’ve been writing and focus on editing. The editing process forces me to remember what it is that I actually wanted to say, and reminds me that it isn’t all garbage. It also feels good to cut out the bits that are garbage and leave the rest. I sometimes write in the basement of the gym, away from cell phone and internet signals. When I hit a block, I can hop into the shower or the sauna to clear my mind. Sometimes I wonder why the gym isn’t full of frustrated writers on their laptops.
OB:
What defines a great book, in your opinion? Tell us about one or two books you consider to be truly great books.
AGJ:
A great book is many things, but perhaps most importantly, it’s one that comes along at just the right time in your life. It has to be very well written, of course, but it also has to have the spirit of something unseen, a magic that makes it seem like the book is whispering only to you. And sometimes it really is just for you. We’ve all passed on books we adore to friends or family who shrug their shoulders when asked whether or not they liked it. I’m too often disappointed by that response, as though it’s an indication of how well that person does or doesn’t understand me. The Lesser Blessed is a book that caught me off guard. It shouted at me from its opening lines and made me love it almost beyond reason. I remember throwing it across the room at one point because I was so electrified by some bit of language. The Grapes of Wrath knocked me over when I was eleven and kept knocking me over when I read it again and again through my teens. The Color Purple has been important to me. When so much good writing has anger and cynicism at its core, reading Alice Walker is a reminder that, although more rare and likely more difficult, great writing can spring forth from love and generosity.
OB:
What are you working on now?
AGJ:
Right now, I am developing a TV series that deals with the people involved on different sides of the Indigenous foster care system. I’m also developing a film about the horror of growing into a man when the all the men in your life are monsters. I have a new novel in mind, about how my family’s community was forcibly enfranchised in the 50’s, but it’s difficult to know where to begin. Isn’t it always?
_________________________
Adam Garnet Jones is a Cree/Métis filmmaker and writer who grew up in Edmonton and the B.C. interior. He experienced an abusive childhood and began making films as a teenager in part to work through that pain. Much of Adam’s work deals with stories focused around sexuality, abuse, suicide, depression, and Indigenous cultural identity. Soon after Adam began making films, he started to help other youth share their own stories. It was through this sharing that he learned just how frequent the experiences of isolation, hopelessness, and despair are for LGBT and Two-Spirited people. The story for Fire Song was inspired by Adam’s own experiences as a teenager, by the experiences of the brave, resilient LGBT and Two-Spirited young people he has come to know, and by those who have been lost. Adam lives in Toronto.
Adam Garnet Jones adapts his award-winning film into a YA novel with universal appeal
Adam Garnet Jones
Adam Garnet Jones (Jalani Morgan)
When Adam Garnet Jones’s film, Fire Song, debuted in 2015, it immediately garnered the screenwriter and director (who is of Cree-Métis and Danish descent) accolades and festival awards. But the Canadian indie – about an Indigenous teen named Shane, whose sister has died by suicide and who’s hiding his homosexuality while dealing with a demanding high school girlfriend – also caught the eye of a children’s publisher. Annick Press’s Rick Wilks saw its potential as a YA novel.
Jones liked the idea, as long as he could write the adaptation. Even though he’d never written prose, handing off a story that grew out of his own history of depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as his feelings of isolation as a queer Indigenous man, didn’t appeal. Not surprisingly, Jones found the reality of working in unfamiliar territory challenging and blew his three month deadline. (It took 18 months to complete.) But the change in medium was liberating, too. Free of the logistics of filmmaking, Jones found himself able to concentrate fully on the story itself and go beyond what he could explore onscreen, including some boundary-pushing sex scenes between Shane and his boyfriend.
Adam Garnet Jones Fire Song
Fire Song
He also put a greater focus on secondary characters such as Tara, Shane’s unsuspecting girlfriend, whose fate comes as a shock to both the other characters and the reader. “I knew that if the book were to focus entirely on Shane’s point of view, then there would be two [tragedies involving] young Indigenous women that were totally unexplained, and that felt like a huge oversight and a missed opportunity as a writer, and also for the community.”
Feeling drained by the experience of making the movie and going through a subsequent “dark and dry period, creatively,” Jones says that delving back into the world of Fire Song to do the adaptation was harrowing but also a pleasure. And it’ll all be worth it if his debut novel (released this month) speaks to young readers. “I think most people can identify with those feelings of loneliness and isolation,” he says, “and trying to find yourself and grow into the person that you want to be.”
By Dory Cerny
Issue Date: March 2018
Tagged with: Adam Garnet Jones, children's publishing, Fire Song, kidlit spotlight, profile
Review: Adam Garnet Jones’s Fire Song explores how choice is a luxury rarely afforded to Indigenous people
Shannon Ozirny
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published May 7, 2018
Updated May 7, 2018
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Fire Song by Adam Garnet Jones.
Title: Fire Song
Author: Adam Garnet Jones
Publisher: Annick Press, 232 pages
Realistic teen books with heavy content usually generate two types of assessments: They are deemed either “problem novels” or “necessary.” If a difficult thing happens in the life of a teenage protagonist – addiction, sexual assault, a mental-health crisis – it can dominate all conversation about the book. These novels become drug books. Or mental-health books. Focus on the subject matter eclipses everything else.
“Necessary” gets tagged on when a title is the first of its kind or gives voice to a previously silent issue or group of people. Deeming a book necessary is often a legitimate and important observation, but too often it’s where analysis stops. The plot is described, it’s lauded for being groundbreaking, end of discussion.
Adam Garnet Jones is a Cree filmmaker and writer who first told the story of Fire Song on the big screen. He’s now written the novel adaptation of his 2015 award-winning film, and it’s definitely a tough read. Shane is 17 years old, Anishinaabe and living on a reserve in Ontario. He’s grieving his younger sister’s suicide and struggling with his mother’s depression, his sexuality and the possibility of leaving the reserve to move to Toronto.
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Adam Garnet Jones is a Cree filmmaker and writer who first told the story of Fire Song on the big screen. He’s now written the novel adaptation of his 2015 award-winning film.
JalanI Morgan
Fire Song is unquestionably necessary. YA books featuring Shane’s contemporary, Indigenous, two-spirited perspective barely exist because the children’s and teen publishing industry is dominated by white people. Just over 1 per cent of the 3,700 books received by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in 2017 were by First Nations authors. The CCBC is American, but this data includes some international publications. Our national counterpart with the same acronym, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, is working on a similar study. Suicide rates among Indigenous people in Canada are also many times higher than those of non-Indigenous people.
The subject matter and the voice make Fire Song important, but there’s a lot more here that makes it transformative. The book shows the complex decision-making processes Shane must undergo to confront and solve his problems. Unlike the scads of contemporary books about teens in the majority, Shane does not have the privilege of free, unfettered choice. He has to constantly drill down through several seemingly impenetrable layers of outside perception before he can move forward.
Firsthand experience with government assistance forces Shane to confront the fact that making good, logical decisions has little positive impact on his future. So much is out of his control. Because of a minor paperwork error at a reserve office, he’s ineligible for financial support to attend postsecondary school. He experiences “An army of smiling people in government offices and band offices saying ‘we want to help!’ and then explaining why they can’t.” Shane isn’t trying to establish himself as a victim or build a tidy dichotomy of good and evil, with settlers in the villain role. He’s genuinely grappling with the inescapable reality of living in a place where people “are speaking for people they’ll never know ... These priests, social workers, teachers, government bureaucrats, they’re all gravediggers in a war zone, doing their job with efficiency and compassion, but they’re convinced it’s hopeless.” If and when he does leave for university in Toronto, he’ll face another trap, having to fulfill the role of “noble Indian with a sense of humor and sturdy roots twisting back through history.”
Shane also has to contend with the expectations of his family and community on the reserve. With the loss of his sister, he’s responsible for his devastated, despondent mother and their house that’s fallen into major disrepair. All the while, he’s carefully managing his sexuality and trying to hide his involvement with David, the best friend of his dead sister. Shane deliberately tries to leave his room messy and look a bit unkempt to pass for what others will perceive as “a real boy.” Everyone around him, including David, treats the subject of two-spirited people with uneasy silence. Sexuality isn’t just another problem Shane has to contend with; it’s another layer of his reality that he has to work through.
Just as things start to look hopeful, more pain and loss comes in the last third of the book. But in the midst of these dark circumstances, Shane remains a beautiful and soaring character. He is deeply introspective, at one point seeing his own struggle over leaving the reserve reflected in an Anishinaabe story about destiny. He also remains inextricably connected to his sister’s spirit, seeing and hearing her all the time. The plot brings the problems, but the character of Shane brings hope. He’s never truly alone, never truly untethered, because of how deeply connected he is to his family, his culture and his spirituality. Seeing Shane maintain these connections in the midst of such hardship, rather than finding concrete solutions to all the big problems, is what makes this a rewarding reading experience.
One of the most affecting moments in Fire Song is when Shane realizes that “having nothing to lose isn’t the same as being free, but it might be the closest he’ll ever get.” This is not the same as the old adage of “you have to hit bottom before you can come back up.” Shane’s story is more than a linear descent followed by an upward climb out of hardship. It’s about power, and how difficult it is to excavate choice out of situations of real powerlessness. Fire Song is necessary because of its subject matter, perspective and voice, but remarkable because it so effectively articulates how choice is a privilege that Indigenous people such as Shane rarely get to experience in our country.
Shannon Ozirny reviews young-adult books for The Globe and Mail.