“Burning Sugar is a vigilant time marker and a vivid place maker. The bearings of colonial violence and of Black resistance are physically present on every page of this debut collection. These poems ask us not only to witness, but to implicitly and accountably feel.” —Amber Dawn, author of Sodom Road Exit and My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems

“Burning Sugar is a compelling collection of letters and intimate poetic conversations to and through place. Blain is a careful wordsmith. We are welcomed into an oral history that spirals, burns, narrates, and then—redefines family, diaspora, and queer identity. This book is indeed ‘freedom that tastes like lust.’” —Chelene Knight, author of Dear Current Occupant

"Cicely Belle Blain's Burning Sugar beautifully narrates a journey over more than lands and waters. Each poem pulls its teeth from the book's title, and offers the soft and deliberate sweetness of what could have been - before the burning." —Jillian Christmas, author of The Gospel of Breaking

Cicely Belle Blain is the CEO of a social justice-informed diversity and inclusion consulting company with more than 100 clients worldwide. They are the founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver and one of 150 Black women and non-binary people making change across Canada. Cicely Belle is an instructor in executive leadership at Simon Fraser University. Burning Sugar is their first book.