“I pass the talking stick to you”:
Sharing, Reading, Teaching Residential School Stories
AUTHOR BIOS
Jordan Abel is a Nisga’a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize). Abel’s latest project NISHGA (finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction) is a deeply personal and autobiographical book that attempts to address the complications of contemporary Indigenous existence and the often invisible intergenerational impact of residential schools. Abel’s work has recently been anthologized in The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century (Hayward), The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry (Anstruther), Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope), Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene (Wesleyan), and The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (ARP). Abel’s work has been published in numerous journals and magazines—including Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, and Poetry Is Dead—and his visual poetry has been included in exhibitions at the Polygon Gallery, UNITT/PITT Gallery, and the Oslo Pilot Project Room in Oslo, Norway. Abel recently completed a PhD at Simon Fraser University, and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures and Creative Writing.
Nishga (Copyright © 2021, Jordan Abel (author) / McClelland & Stewart). Used with permission from the publisher.
Spílexm: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence (Copyright © 2021, Nicola Campbell (author) / HighWater Press). Used with permission from the publisher.
Nicola Campbell is Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx (Interior Salish) and Métis from the Nicola Valley, British Columbia. She lives in Stò:lō Témexw and is new faculty at UFV. Author of Shi-shi-etko, Shin-chi’s Canoe, Grandpa’s Girls and A Day with Yayah, her stories weave cultural and land-based teachings that focus on truth, love, respect, endurance and reciprocity.
Stand Like a Cedar, released February 2021 by HighWater Press. With Stó:lō artist, Carrielynn Victor’s breathtaking illustrations, Stand Like a Cedar inspires a celebration of Indigenous ways of being. Reaching back through the generations, it carries forward important teachings while also remembering sacred responsibilities and interconnectedness to the land.
Spílexm: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience and Resurgence is Campbell’s forthcoming memoir and should be in stores this week. Also published by HighWater Press, it will feature a combination of poetry and prose.
Nicola writes adult and children’s free-verse poetry, fiction and non-fiction prose. She is a finalist for numerous children’s literary awards, including the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her Ph.D. dissertation research through UBC Okanagan draws upon Indigenous scholarship with a focus on contemporary and traditional Indigenous literary and storytelling practices.
Bevann Fox is a member of Pasqua First Nation, originally from Piapot First Nation. In 2012 she received her Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Culture and in 2018 her Master in Business Administration, Leadership from the University of Regina. In 2014 she was honoured with the YWCA Women of Distinction Award—Arts, Culture and Heritage. She is the founder, producer, and co-host of Access TV's The Four. Her 2020 book, Genocidal Love, won an Indigenous Voices Award and a Saskatchewan Book Award.
Genocidal Love: A Life After Residential School (Copyright © 2020, Bevann Fox (author) / University of Regina Press). Used with permission from the publisher.
Photo credit: Lealynd Messer
Photo credit: Candice Camille
Five Little Indians (Copyright © 2020, Michelle Good (author) / HarperCollins Canada). Used with permission from the publisher.
Michelle Good is a Cree writer and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. After working for Indigenous organizations for twenty-five years, she obtained a law degree and advocated for residential school survivors for over fourteen years. Good earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia while still practising law and managing her own law firm. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada, and her poetry was included on two lists of the best Canadian poetry in 2016 and 2017. Five Little Indians, her first novel, won the HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award. It was also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Award. Michelle Good now lives and writes in the southern interior of British Columbia.
Honouring the Strength of Indian Women (Copyright © 2019, Vera Manuel (author) / University of Manitoba Press). Used with permission from the publisher.
Emalene Manuel (Kucinqac Paⱡki) loves making waves: most recently via discovering music that stirs, transitions and rocks warrior sensibilities. She spends her time learning, practicing and passing on action music which she calls FAST (Freedom, Action, Solidarity Tunes). She was inspired by her MEd research, which explored warrior epistemology that relates experiences and ideas lived through her family and community lineage as a Ktunaxa/Secwepmec woman. Her greatest influence was inspired and nurtured while working with her sister Vera Manuel (Kulilu Paⱡki) over 2 decades when they performed many of the pieces within the book, Honouring The Strength of Indian Women.
David A. Robertson (he, him, his) is the 2021 recipient of the Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. He is the author of numerous books for young readers, including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award, the McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People Award, and was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. His acclaimed YA series, The Reckoner, has won the McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People Award, the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction, and the Indigenous Writer of the Year Award at the High Plains Book Awards. The Barren Grounds, the first book in the middle-grade The Misewa Saga series, received a starred review from Kirkus, was a Kirkus, Quill & Quire, and CBC best middle-grade book of 2020, was a USBBY and Texas Lone Star selection, was shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award, and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. His memoir, Back Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, was a Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire book of the year in 2020, and won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction as well as the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards. His second picture book, On The Trapline, illustrated by Julie Flett, has received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly. Dave is also the writer and host of the podcast Kíwew, winner of the 2021 RTDNA Prairie Region Award for Best Podcast. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg.
When We Were Alone (Copyright © 2016, David Alexander Robertson (author), Julie Flett (illustrations) / HighWater Press). Used with permission from the publisher.
Joanne Arnott is a writer, editor, and arts activist originally from Manitoba at home on the west coast. She received the Gerald Lampert Award (LCP 1992) and the Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award for Literary Arts (2017). She published six poetry books, a collection of short nonfiction and a children’s illustrated. Recent publications include her third poetry chapbook, Pensive & beyond (Nomados Press 2019) and the co-edited volume, Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories and Poetry by Vera Manuel (U of Manitoba Press 2019). She is Poetry Mentor for The Writers Studio, SFU, and Poetry Editor for EVENT Magazine.