The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire #108: Chyana Marie Sage

"I wanted to make sure I was being honest, delicate, respectful, and loving with the telling of all of our perspectives."

Since 2010, in various publications, I’ve interviewed authors—mostly memoirists—about aspects of writing and publishing. Initially I did this for my own edification, as someone who was struggling to find the courage and support to write and publish my memoir. I’m still curious about other authors’ experiences, and I know many of you are, too. So, inspired by the popularity of The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire, I’ve launched The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire.

Here’s the 108th installment, featuring

Chyana Marie Sage

, author of Soft as Bones: A Memoir.-Sari Botton

P.S. Check out all the interviews in The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire series.

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Chyana Marie Sage. Photo by Ava Noelle.

Chyana Marie Sage is a Cree, Métis, and Salish memoirist, essayist, poet, and screenwriter from Edmonton, Alberta. Her essay “Soar” won first place in the Edna Staebler Essay Contest, and then won the Silver Medal in the National Magazine Awards.

She lives in NYC, and graduated from Columbia University’s MFA, where she now works as an adjunct Creative Writing professor. She publishes regularly with HuffPost, and her debut memoir, Soft as Bones, is set to be released with House of Anansi in May 2025.

Her writing is a celebration of culture, overcoming adversity, and shows the ways that Indigenous methods, cultural stories and practices have great capacity for healing. When she is not writing, she is most often travelling, as she loves to learn and experience other cultures and ways of life.

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How old are you, and for how long have you been writing?

I am 31 years old and I have been writing for as long as I’ve been able to. Some of my earliest memories are of me writing songs at only 5 years old. I have always been very captivated and taken with the natural world and would write songs about the trees and the sky and then would sit upon my favorite rock in the yard and sing them. I guess I was singing directly to nature in a way. Eventually that transitioned to writing poetry before I eventually turned to prose, which really laid the groundwork for developing my poetic voice as a writer.

What’s the title of your latest book, and when was it published?

It's called Soft As Bones and was released on May 27, 2025.

What number book is this for you?

This will be my first traditionally published book, but in my early 20s I self published two poetry books. Looking back on those, it's so clear to see how much my writing has grown and evolved. Maybe that's just the plight of a writer though, you look back and can sort of hate what you used to write. It's all just necessary steps though to find your voice.

Soft As Bones is a poetic memoir delicately braiding the past and the present. It is my story of overcoming and dealing with intergenerational trauma within Indigenous communities, told through the perspective of my own life story, while weaving together different Cree cultural stories and ceremonies as works of healing throughout the book. It is my braided spiral of culture, family, love, trauma, healing, compassion, and overcoming adversity.

How do you categorize your book—as a memoir, memoir-in-essays, essay collection, creative nonfiction, graphic memoir, autofiction—and why?

It is a poetic, cultural memoir. My prose is very poetic in nature, but as much as I am telling my story and my family’s story, it's actually much bigger than that. My family’s story acts as a microcosm when analyzing how colonialism is still impacting Indigenous communities and people today. That is why it was so important for me to tell this story.

I remember hearing so much ignorant rhetoric my whole life: “It happened so long ago, can't you just get over it?” But it's not about getting over it or still being under it for that matter, it's about taking a beat to analyze the present—particularly the breakdowns in the present and understanding how it all happened. I think in order to heal and move forward you have to do that—you have to trace things back to the source in order to fully understand the present, and then once you can do that, then real healing, growth, and change can happen. I'm hoping that this memoir can help do that, and also help educate those outside of the community to how certain things are occurring within Indigenous communities.

What is the “elevator pitch” for your book?

Soft As Bones is a poetic memoir delicately braiding the past and the present. It is my story of overcoming and dealing with intergenerational trauma within Indigenous communities, told through the perspective of my own life story, while weaving together different Cree cultural stories and ceremonies as works of healing throughout the book. It is my braided spiral of culture, family, love, trauma, healing, compassion, and overcoming adversity.

What’s the back story of this book including your origin story as a writer? How did you become a writer, and how did this book come to be?

Where do I begin… in a way I think my whole life was leading up to this point, me writing this book and having it be the first one before I could go on and tell the other stories living within me. When my father was incarcerated, I would lock myself in my bedroom and write. I wrote him letters that I never sent, poems I never shared, and imaginary stories with alternate endings. I kept a journal for my whole life which was crucial when writing this book and capturing those feelings and memories from early on.

The first impactful book I read was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. As a child, I was drawn to the playfulness of his poems, which took on new meanings as I grew up. It was really during my BA where my voice was coming to life. I tried writing fiction for the first time there, blending my poetic voice with prose. As I was finishing my undergraduate degree, I was compelled to tell my personal story, so I began writing my memoir and enrolled in a graduate-level creative writing course. I crafted a reading list that included Terese Mailhot’s Heartberries. Mailhot’s memoir allowed me to appreciate the non-linear expression of Indigenous traumatic memory, while embracing a poetic voice.

I also did research in prisons during my undergrad with Dr. Sandra Bucerius, providing me with sociological insights and interview methods that I incorporated into my writing. I interviewed my family members to get their perspective of everything and wove those all into the memoir.

All of these unique experiences throughout my life were leading me in this direction, of finally telling the story of Soft As Bones.

Order the book…

What were the hardest aspects of writing this book and getting it published?

If you read the cover description, I think a lot of people would assume the hardest part would be writing about my father, but truthfully, a lot of those moments were some of the “easier” ones. I have done so much therapy and healing in regards to tending to those wounds from childhood that I can talk about them without too much difficulty.

The hardest would be writing about my sisters, because they’re so close to me, and I love them deeply with all my heart. I wanted to make sure I was being honest, delicate, respectful, and loving with the telling of all of our perspectives. A lot of the emotions I had to work through when writing this book were all linked to their stories and truths—which they shared with me through interviews. There were new memories being shared with me that I hadn’t heard before, and my heart wept for all of us, those little girls who were all going through so much, in very different ways.

In terms of publication, I found the process to be pretty straightforward, but I was lucky because my agent actually found me through an article I published with HuffPost before I even graduated. So I was very grateful to be coached through the whole process. My agent Claudia really helped me create my project proposal that we then pitched to sell the book. It was stressful, because deep down I knew this book would sell because I think it's very important when understanding some of the harmful effects of colonialism that are still impacting Indigenous communities today—but even still, you can't help but have a small moment of doubt and wonder, “What if no one actually wants this? Is this truth and story one that people will be able to handle and face?” But I think it landed in the perfect home with House of Anansi.

In a way I think my whole life was leading up to this point, me writing this book and having it be the first one before I could go on and tell the other stories living within me. When my father was incarcerated, I would lock myself in my bedroom and write. I wrote him letters that I never sent, poems I never shared, and imaginary stories with alternate endings. I kept a journal for my whole life which was crucial when writing this book and capturing those feelings and memories from early on.

How did you handle writing about real people in your life? Did you use real or changed names and identifying details? Did you run passages or the whole book by people who appear in the narrative? Did you make changes they requested?

I relied on sociological research methods, because I learned a lot about interviewing people on sensitive subject matter through my time as a research assistant for the University of Alberta Prison Project. I actually applied those to my family members and they were all and have remained so supportive of me telling this story, our story, in hopes it will bring awareness to how what happened in Residential School and the Sixties Scoops is still impacting generations today.

I changed some names and kept others true. I asked the people who show up in the book if they wanted to have a different name or to just use the real one, and everyone I asked actually said that I can use their real ones. Even some of the relationships I wrote about in the book told me to keep their names, but I ended up changing them in a way that felt true to my story — creating those little nicknames.

The only person I let read anything before it was done was Orleane. It was very important to me that she had as much agency in whatever I was sharing about her perspective. She guided me on how much she wanted me to share, but I think we were both in alignment on that anyway because there wasn't anything she wanted me to change. After the first true draft was done before copy-edits, I let my mom and sister Chayla read it, and said if there was anything they wanted me to change then to let me know. Again, neither of them wanted anything changed except some specific details regarding names of any gangs, etc, but how I portrayed their stories they were supportive of.

Who is another writer you took inspiration from in producing this book? Was it a specific book, or their whole body of work? (Can be more than one writer or book.)

I’m sort of a weird writer in the sense that I am not very well-read. A lot of my peers I encountered at Columbia, they all shared their biggest influences and you could see the echoes of those writers in their work, but for me, I actually have a learning disability and was always given extra time in school to finish reading comprehension. I never spoke about this and always did my best to get things done in the allotted time, but I am a very slow reader. The books I read as a kid were things like Twilight, or the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. I loved fantasy, specifically fantasy romance, which isn't exactly something people boast about when taking an Ivy League writing program, but I did write a book of literary nonfiction. I’m just a girl who was always writing, and reading was something that was also secondary. Truthfully—I was watching more films and TV than I was reading.

When I first started writing my memoir, a professor of mine recommended me to read Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, and there are many similarities in our stories. I was so moved by her writing and her story, but she really allowed me to see the ways that non-linear storytelling can be quite productive to the telling of a traumatic story. Even though we have quite different voices on the page, I can see our similarities in terms of our poetic prose and the handling of difficult subject matter. I really admire her writing. It is unapologetic and authentic, and I’m really drawn to those kinds of people and voices.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to publish a book like yours, who are maybe afraid, or intimidated by the process?

I always tell my students or people who approach me about writing a memoir—just pick one memory and start from there. If you look at it as a full book to begin with, it can feel daunting, so pick one memory and just write it, and then do that again, and again, and again, and eventually you have a mosaic that will intuitively begin to take shape. Write the story, and the rest will come. I really believe the universe responds to our intentions and the things we are putting work towards.

What do you love about writing?

I love the release. I have always written to release—whether that's an emotion, or a memory or idea that is looping around in my brain. I love the crafting of words and telling stories. I have been a storyteller my whole life. Whether that was sitting around the fire back in the day rapping stories to my friends, or sitting on a rock in my yard as a child and writing songs about nature. Sometimes, it feels like the words flow through me from someplace else, god or creator or heaven or the universe, whatever you want to call it, when the flow hits you, it is the most uplifting and cathartic experience I’ve ever felt.

What frustrates you about writing?

The first moment of writing something new. When approaching a new project, it's kind of like a blob of a world is floating above you and to sit down and write the first words, it's kind of like plucking out a thread of that information and seeing how you're going to weave it. That first moment can be the hardest, but once you do it, everything starts to flow and take shape.

What about writing surprises you?

How deep a story can go, you almost don't know that when you first start writing and when you're in the thick of it and all the connections start to click into place, it's always kind of mind blowing.

Deep down I knew this book would sell because I think it's very important when understanding some of the harmful effects of colonialism that are still impacting Indigenous communities today—but even still, you can't help but have a small moment of doubt and wonder, “What if no one actually wants this? Is this truth and story one that people will be able to handle and face?” But I think it landed in the perfect home with House of Anansi.

Does your writing practice involve any kind of routine, or writing at specific times?

It does. Every morning, at my desktop, tea beside me. I like to write fresh from my dreamstate because I feel the most lucid and creative then. For a time I used to do it the other way, right before bed, but some time ago it swapped and now I enjoy the morning pages.

Do you engage in any other creative pursuits, professionally or for fun? Are there non-writing activities you consider to be “writing” or supportive of your process?

I enjoy painting or drawing with charcoal but I don't do those nearly as often as I would like. I don't have a lot of spare time because I work five nights a week and try to write during the day. There is something I do regularly that helps but it's not really creative. After writing, I like to circuit train, do yoga, or pilates, or run. I like to reset my brain after writing by doing something physical to balance everything out. I also love to go for nature walks, and during those, my brain tends to be quite immersed in whatever written world I'm occupied with.

What’s next for you? Do you have another book planned, or in the works?

I’m actually currently writing a magical realism novel right now called The Ghosts Are Dancing. I always knew that my first book needed to be Soft As Bones, and now I feel creatively liberated. I’ve had this story brewing in my mind for quite a few years and now I'm finally writing it. During my time at Columbia, I wrote a TV Pilot that I am now adapting into a novel.

The Ghosts are Dancing is a magical realist drama telling parallel stories of a mother and daughter who have been ripped apart by Sixties Scoops and the Residential School System until eventually their worlds will collide again—inspired by my own family’s lived experiences. The main protagonist, Kaia, is a fifteen year old girl who is jumping around foster homes and group homes. She is haunted by the Witigo, but since she was raised outside of her culture, she does not understand it or know what it is. Kaia is representative of how intergenerational trauma continues to affect the generations that come after, and in this case, the generations that came from the victims of Sixties Scoops and Residential Schools.

The Ghosts are Dancing tells that story: it is a story of grave consequence when community and culture have been stripped from Indigenous people and who are now struggling with their identity because of that forced severance, which is exactly the internal conflict of our main Character Kaia, and her mother Ahchakos, whom I refer to as Coco throughout the novel. Eventually, Kaia goes searching for her mother and at the end of the novel, their worlds will collide, bringing understanding and healing to their lineage.

I should have that done by the end of summer. It might actually be a trilogy, but I will know more about that once I get to the end of the book. Right now, I’m just enjoying being in a new written world.

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Check out all the interviews in The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire series.