Beaver Hills Forever

An irreverent and playful novella of Métis voices that reflects the complexities of contemporary prairie life

Conor Kerr's 2024 novel Prairie Edge was a finalist for both the Giller Prize and the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust of Canada Fiction Prize. His latest book, Beaver Hills Forever, takes a riotous, uncompromising look at the intertwined lives of four characters, each an abstract expression of the few paths available to Métis people on the Prairies. In alternating poetic verses, Buddy, Baby Momma, Fancy University Boy, and Aunty Prof share their inner dreams, hardships, delusions of grandeur, and existential plights. While the messy day-to-day is created by their own doing, the lives of these four individuals are doubly compromised by Canada's colonial education system and resource extraction industries.

A beguiling and genre-bending work, Beaver Hills Forever offers a moving, necessary exploration of education, labour, and the dynamic, ever-changing bonds that bring us back to each other. Here is a diverse, funny, pitch-perfect chorus of voices that rings loud and true over the wide prairie landscape.

Conor Kerr (he/him) is a national award–winning (and losing) Métis/Ukrainian writer and bird hunter living in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). His previous books are the ReLit Award–winning novel Avenue of Champions (Nightwood Editions) and the Giller Prize–nominated novel Prairie Edge (Strange Light), as well as the poetry collections An Explosion of Feathers (Bookland Press) and the Governor General–shortlisted Old Gods (Nightwood Editions).