Sarain Frank Soonias

Photo credit
Alex Turner

Biography

Sarain Frank Soonias is Cree and Ojibwe. He began writing poetry in 2020, and now focuses on acting and playwriting. His poetry collection All Wrong Horses On Fire That Go Away In The Rain was written over five months during a severe breakdown while attending therapy through a TRC initiative for children and grandchildren of Residential School and 60’s Scoop survivors. He strongly believes that the notion of colonization is poisonous for all concerned parties.

Micro-interview

Did you read poetry when you were in high school? Is there a particular poem that you loved when you were a teenager?

When I was a kid I read a book called There Are My People Sleeping by Sarain Stump. 

My favourite poem was There Is My People Sleeping.

Why?

When did you first start writing poetry? And then when did you start thinking of yourself as a poet?

I don't remember writing poetry before I was about 30. I wrote a few stanzas over a year and posted them on IG. Beyond that I just always appreciated writers who could string a few words together and make it read powerful without needing to flex their muscles. I've never thought of myself as poet.

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?

I think the best any of us can aspire to in general is to be authentic. I think poetry reads true when it's distilled down to the purest form of the writers expression. Something like that. 

Publications

Title
All Wrong Horses On Fire That Go Away In The Rain
Publisher
NeWest Press
Editors
Claire Kelly
Date
2025
Publication type
Book
Poem title(s)
The Eagle And The Man
Title
Arc Poetry Magazine
Date
2022
Publication type
Periodical/Magazine
Poem title(s)
It's Not My Home
Title
Canadian Literature Review
Date
2021
Publication type
Periodical/Magazine
Start here: