“A War of Words”
This poem was inspired by a Haida tale, narrated by Kilxhawgins and mentioned by Robert Bringhurst in A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World. The story implies that some hunters stole an odd sound or word that they heard a young woman of a different group saying, which immediately fired up my brain with the notion of a war in which the treasure and trophies being taken by the victors were in fact words. Naturally, you can read that as being commentary on the language loss inflicted on Indigenous communities by European colonizers — but the poem itself is not specifically about any real-world group or historical event, just about the tragedy of losing your language piecemeal to enemies.
It marks my first poetry sale to Strange Horizons! And, like all their work, it is free to read online. Furthermore, I’m deeply honored to say that the poem is not only long-listed for the Rhysling Award (meaning it has been reprinted in the Rhysling anthology), but it won the Special Hugo Award for Best Poem at the 2025 Seattle Worldcon! I have also reprinted it in my collection The Atlas of Anywhere.
Praise
Strange Horizons has been firing on all cylinders lately, as with September’s ‘‘A War of Words’’ by Marie Brennan, a poem that imagines a war where the winners take more than wealth, more than land. They take language, leaving survivors without a way to contain their loss that isn’t filtered through the lens of their oppressors. It digs into conflict and a war that is less about battle and loss in the traditional sense and is much more about losing a sense of self, a community, or national identity. It’s a form of colonization, leaving the defeated with no option but to adapt to a world where they are lesser. It’s a fantastic read.
—Charles Payseur, Locus Magazine
