Permanent Astonishment

Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family. Growing up in a land of ten thousand lakes and islands, Tomson relished being pulled by dogsled beneath a night sky alive with stars, sucking the juices from roasted muskrat tails, and singing country music songs with his impossibly beautiful older sister and her teenaged friends. Surrounded by the love of his family and the vast, mesmerizing landscape they called home, his was in many ways an idyllic far-north childhood. But five of Tomson's siblings died in childhood, and Balazee and Joe Highway, who loved their surviving children profoundly, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. And so when Tomson was six, he was flown south by float plane to attend a residential school. A year later Rene joined him to begin the rest of their education. In 1990 Rene Highway, a world-renowned dancer, died of an AIDS-related illness.Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up in the Land of Snow and Skyis Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest, and survival. (From Doubleday Canada)

Permanent Astonishmentwonthe 2021 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Highway is a novelist, children's author, playwright and musician. He is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation. His work includes Canadian theatre classicsThe Rez SistersandDry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, the novelKiss of the Fur Queenand children's novelsCaribou Song,Dragon Fly KitesandFox on the Ice.

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Why Tomson Highway wrote Permanent Astonishment

"I needed to assess my life. It's a good way to assess your life. I think everybody has a story that's worth writing, you know? Who knows what will become of it. It could be a fluke. My first success was a fluke.

You don't sit down to write a hit; that's the last thing on your mind. You do it just to clean up your mind.- Tomson Highway

"You don't sit down to write a masterpiece. You don't sit down to write a hit;that's the last thing on your mind. You do it just to clean up your mind. It's likehousekeeping for your soul or your spirit. You clean out the cobwebs and the dust and ... take your life into stock. Then if you're lucky, and also you have a very good education,it'll get you somewhere eventually with a tremendous amount of patience. And so I decided to write this book because of that."

Read more in his interview with CBC Books.

Interviews with Thomson Highway

Tomson Highway on his debut novel

26 years ago

Duration 12:07

CBC's The National profiles author Tomson Highway upon the 1999 publication of his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen.

Unreserved13:56Tomson Highway on love, music and story

Tomson Highway, is a playwright, novelist and music maker whose writing about life on the reserve brought him international fame, awards, and many accolades.