5 books that inspired storyteller and writer Ivan Coyote

Ivan Coyote is a filmmaker, writer and storyteller from Whitehorse. Coyote says their storytelling craft has been shaped by two things: a love of reading andgrowing up listening to the "hundreds of stories" their grandmother would tell the family around the kitchen table.

Rebent Sinneris an essay collection from various aspects of Coyote's life: helping younger LGBTQ folks, paying homage to their heroes, dealing with legislation andgovernments and being part of protests.Rebent Sinneris about Coyote's journey and shares a message of resilience, inclusion and hope.

Rebent Sinneris afinalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

Here are the fivebooks that haveshaped Coyote's life and career.

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

"It's a book about a little girl, kind of a tomboy (I was inspired by this depiction, although it's not overt) and an aspiring writer, who follows a daily 'spy route'and observes her classmates, neighboursand friends, and then writes down her observations. I was obsessed by this novel as a kid. I stitched together my own spy belt, and started taking notes about the comings and goings of people on my own little street in Whitehorse.

I stitched together my own spy belt, and started taking notes about the comings and goings of people on my own little street in Whitehorse.- Ivan Coyote

"I even got stung repeatedly after knocking my head into a wasp's nest in a willow tree, while rapidly retreating from a mission 'observing'the guy in the townhouses one block over get amorous with his girlfriend in a kiddie pool in his backyard. This book made me into a noticer. It taught me to watch peopleand listenand that even the commonplace happenings in my little northern town were rife with storiesand riddled with humanity."

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Woman On the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

"I came across this book because I was dating a woman who was a university student, and she was taking a class called Feminist Utopiasor something like that. I was working waiting tables and landscaping at the time. But I read all of her homework at nightand I fell for this book, hard. It was originally published in 1976, and is speculative science fiction about a Mexican-American woman who is unjustly incarcerated in a mental hospital because she can communicate with a time traveller who lives in a post-apocalyptic society that has adopted many of the goals of the political and social agenda of the 1960s and early 1970s radical movements.

This book unscrewed the top of my head and blew possibility and revolution into it.- Ivan Coyote

"This future had dismantled the patriarchy, racism, homophobia, class subordination, hunger, capitalism, property crime, pollution, etc. This book unscrewed the top of my head and blew possibility and revolution into it. I still think of this society every time I feel overwhelmed by the state of the world today. I read it like a roadmap, like instructions. In fact, I should probably read it again soon."

• Ivan Coyote's memoir is about survival and about being true to yourself

Geek Loveby Katherine Dunn

"This book filled me with a sense of joy at the act of writing as play, at the ability of an author to just completely fabricate a whole world, with its own values and realities, far-fetched and bizarre and impossible, and yet still so completely human, and, at the core of this literal circus side-show of a family, fundamentally about belonging, and bloodand historyand custom and tradition and loyalty and betrayaland just what we inherit and what we must cast aside to become ourselves."

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Angel Wing Splash Pattern by Richard Van Camp

"I first heard Richard read aloud from this book, we were both doing a gig in a library in Winnipeg, and I bought it that day. I think this is the best way to be introduced to the work of a writer like Richard Van Camp.I carried his voice and diction in my head as I read the rest of the book in one sitting.

I think this is the best way to be introduced to the work of a writer like Richard Van Camp.I carried his voice and diction in my head as I read the rest of the book in one sitting.- Ivan Coyote

"This book spoke to me, to my ears as a fellow Northerner, to my brain as a lover of reading and writing short stories and to my heart, as it is both starkly honest and raw about depicting life as a young Dogrib man in Fort Smith, N.W.T., while never forgetting the awkward joy of just being: being a teenager, being a son, being a brother. These stories are sometimes achingly funny, and surrounded by neighboursand familyand dysfunctionand perfectionand healing."

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The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch

"This is a memoir about survival. It's about a childhood thrown from its path and destination by violence and abuse, and it touches her griefand lossand addiction and messiness. But what I loved about this book is what surfaces, what floats. It is mercilessly beautiful writing about finally owning one's bodyand love and motherhoodand the bonds we forge in all the chaos of life.

It is mercilessly beautiful writing about finally owning one's body, and love, and motherhood, and the bonds we forge in all the chaos of life.- Ivan Coyote

"This is the heart turned inside out. It's a life written down without artifice, without pretention, without apologyand not curated for easy consumption. This book reminded me to put on my bravest clothes before sitting down to write."

• How does Ivan Coyote start writing? By making a list and cleaning their house

Ivan Coyote's comments have been edited for length and clarity.