Pop-Culture Playlist: Author Billy-Ray Belcourt Loves Maggie Rogers and “Auto-Buys” Rachel Cusk Books

Billy-Ray Belcourt’s latest collection of stories, Coexistence, is in bookstores now. Here’s what Indigenous author, poet and scholar has on his pop culture radar.

Album: Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers

I’ve been listening to Maggie Rogers a lot these days. Her whole oeuvre is in my rotation, but “Don’t Forget Me,” which is the title track on her latest album, is my favourite song of hers. It so beautifully captures the ambivalence of being in your late 20s, watching people solidify into coherent selves around you, missing people who haven’t left you yet (à la Toni Morrison).

Author: Rachel Cusk

Rachel Cusk is an icon, the G.O.A.T., et cetera. Her books, which dispense with the usual narrative conventions, tackle existential questions with a deep commitment to the beauty of individual sentences. Every new book is an auto-buy for me.

Song: “Who I Am“ by Jessica Andrews

I get to profess my love for my grandma and mom and dad with this song. Prairie girlies always sing along too.

Show: Reservation Dogs

I’m still grieving the loss of the FX show Reservation Dogs, which so tenderly and humorously  depicted the contours of life as a young native on a reserve (in this case, in Oklahoma). A tragicomedy for the 21st century, both an articulation of the long aftermath of history and a love letter to the possibility of Indigenous joy.

Podcast: Between the Covers

This podcast out of Tin House, hosted by David Naimon, has some of the most detailed and insightful conversations with writers out there. (Selfish plug: he interviewed me in 2022 for my book, A Minor Chorus.)