Photo credit: Martha Hewson

Jesse Thistle

JESSE THISTLE is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. FROM THE ASHES was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award, and High Plains Book Award, and also a finalist for CBC Canada Reads. Jesse won a Governor General’s Academic Medal in 2016, and is a 2016 Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2016 Vanier Scholar. A frequent keynote speaker, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife, Lucie, and is at work on multiple projects, including his next book.

From the Ashes

In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.

Editions →

Photo credit: Martha Hewson

Jesse Thistle

JESSE THISTLE is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. FROM THE ASHES was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award, and High Plains Book Award, and also a finalist for CBC Canada Reads. Jesse won a Governor General’s Academic Medal in 2016, and is a 2016 Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2016 Vanier Scholar. A frequent keynote speaker, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife, Lucie, and is at work on multiple projects, including his next book.

From the Ashes

In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.

Editions →

Also by Jesse


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Also by Jesse


Scars & Stars

Charting his own history, the stories of people from his past, the burning intensity of new and unexpected love, the complex legacies of family and community, and the beauty of parenthood, this collection is a profound mediation that expands his engagement with the ideas and experiences that have shaped his body of work thus far.

!ndigo Exclusive Edition
Buy Now →

Praise for From the Ashes

  • PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (Starred review)
    Readers will be gripped.
    PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (Starred review)
  • KIRKUS REVIEWS
    A courageously heartfelt journey from profound self-destruction to redemption.
    KIRKUS REVIEWS
  • GABOR MATÉ, MD, Bestselling author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
    In this page-turner of a memoir—raw, honest, gripping, wrenching, and inspiring—Jesse Thistle gifts us with an intimate and bracing look into the realities, traumas, and triumphs of Indigenous life in today’s North America
    GABOR MATÉ, MD, Bestselling author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
  • — EMMA DONOGHUE, New York Times bestselling author of Room (quote from Twitter)
    Blown away by [this] eloquent memoir of Métis life and surviving the streets by con-turned-scholar Jesse Thistle, [a] strong contender for #CanadaReads.
    — EMMA DONOGHUE, New York Times bestselling author of Room (quote from Twitter)
  • — <strong><i>BOOKLIST</i>  </strong>
    “[This] powerful and moving memoir is also a scathing indictment of the treatment of Indigenous people and the myriad ways systems fail them.”
    — <strong><i>BOOKLIST</i>  </strong>
  • — KATHERENA VERMETTE, bestselling author of The Break
    “The best stories are the ones that stay with you. From the Ashes will stay with me for a long time. Maarsii to Jesse for coming through to tell this story. It is an important one. The revolutionary kind. The kind of story that changes how you look at the world, that shows us how amazing human beings can be, so capable, strong, resilient, powerful.”
    — KATHERENA VERMETTE, bestselling author of The Break
  • — LIBRARY JOURNAL
    “A gritty memoir recounting the devastating long-term effects of childhood abandonment. . . . The theme of estrangement is powerfully portrayed in what is ultimately a story of courage and resilience certain to strike a chord with readers from many backgrounds.”
    — LIBRARY JOURNAL
  • — AMANDA LINDHOUT Bestselling co-author of A House in the Sky
    From the Ashes is an illuminating, inside account of homelessness, a study of survival and freedom. Jesse Thistle delivers a painfully lyrical book, a journey through the torrents of addiction and trauma, masterfully sliding in humour and moments of heart-expanding human connection. I found myself gasping out loud at parts, unable to put the book down. Jesse’s story shows us that there is nothing that cannot be transformed.”
    — AMANDA LINDHOUT Bestselling co-author of A House in the Sky
  • — TORONTO STAR
    “In spare and often brutal prose . . . Thistle weaves a narrative punctuated with joy and comedy and ultimately redemption.”
    — TORONTO STAR
  • — CLARA HUGHES, Olympian and author of Open Heart, Open Mind
    “So fortunate to have the opportunity to read From The Ashes. It launches in August and must be read by all. You’ll be drawn into the life journey of someone who’s struggled so deep yet has risen up to share with us what it means to be human. A deeply moving read.”
    — CLARA HUGHES, Olympian and author of Open Heart, Open Mind
  • — SHELAGH ROGERS, OC, host and a producer of CBC Radio's The Next Chapter, Honorary Witness, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
    “A memoir of resilience, spirit and dignity from a gifted storyteller. It is, at heart, also about the many shapes that love can inhabit. When you plan to read this book, clear your schedule. It will hold you in its grasp and won’t let you go, like a great novel. It’s all the more remarkable that this is not fiction. This book will stand out in my reading experience for a long time to come.”
    — SHELAGH ROGERS, OC, host and a producer of CBC Radio's The Next Chapter, Honorary Witness, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

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