RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE FIFTH ANNUAL INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARDS Winners include Brian Thomas Isaac, Selina Boan, Édouard Itual Germain, and Aimée Craft
A selection of Indigenous Voices Awards finalists over the past five years to be published in 2023
by McClelland & Stewart / Penguin Random House Canada
June 21, 2022: Recipients of the fifth annual Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) were announced today, National Indigenous Peoples Day, honouring works by emerging writers working across genres, in English, French, and Indigenous languages.
“To all of those who have supported emerging Indigenous writers in the initial crowdfunding campaign and over the past five years, you can be assured that these awards have encouraged and helped usher in a new and dynamic generation of Indigenous writers. We’re especially excited to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Indigenous Voices Awards and to announce an anthology of selected work by finalists to be published in June 2023 by Penguin Random House Canada, edited by Jordan Abel, Carleigh Baker, and Madeleine Reddon.”
— Dr. Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) and settler scholar Dr. Sophie McCall, Co-Chairs, Indigenous Voices Awards
This year the IVAs also partnered with the Blue Metropolis Festival to award the 2022 Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize ($5,000) to the acclaimed Haisla/Heiltsuk author, Eden Robinson. Since inception of the prize, the IVAs has awarded $143,000 to emerging Indigenous writers. Past IVAs recipients include Billy-Ray Belcourt, Tanya Tagaq, Jesse Thistle, and jaye simpson. Previous IVAs finalists in unpublished categories who went on to publish work include Francine Cunningham, Marie-Andrée Gill, Elaine McArthur, Smokii Sumac, Francine Merasty, and, most recently, Cody Caetano.
Visit IndigenousVoicesAwards.org for more information.
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Recipient of $5,000 for Published Prose in English
Brian Thomas Isaac (Syilx Nation) for All the Quiet Places (TouchWood Editions)
“All the Quiet Places is a haunting coming-of-age story. The power of Isaac’s vision of young Eddie Toma growing up on an Okanagan reserve in the 1950s is the novel’s unflinching gaze, meticulous detailing, and fierce attachment to family, land, and love.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated was Sheryl Doherty (Saddle Lake Cree Nation) for Finding Izzy (Wood Dragon Books).
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Recipient of $5,000 for Published Poetry in English
Selina Boan (white settler/nehiyaw) for Undoing Hours (Nightwood)
“A remarkable debut that thinks through ideas of home and belonging and language. These are pieces that linger on memory and image.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: Tenille K. Campbell (English River First Nation) for nedí nezų (Good Medicine) (Arsenal Pulp Press); Dallas Hunt (Wapsewsipi, Swan River First Nation) for Creeland (Nightwood); and Diana Hope Tegenkamp (Métis) for Girl running (Thistledown Press).
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Recipient of $5,000 for Published Work in French
Édouard Itual Germain (Pekuakamiulnuatsh), Ni kistisin / Je me souviens (Éditions Hannenorak)
“Ce recueil posthume est aussi la seule œuvre publiée d'Édouard Itual Germain. Nous avons été séduits par cette poésie pudique empreinte de douceur, de tendresse et d'espoir. Ce survivant du pensionnat de Fort Georges réussit un tour de force en produisant une œuvre sans lourdeur qui laisse toute la place à la guérison. Ses vers caressent comme le vent dans les arbres, le murmure de l'eau ou le crépitement du feu de camp. Pour reprendre ses mots, il « offre un tison aux survivants ».”
(Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: Andrée Levesque Sioui (Wendat) for Chant(s) (Éditions Hannenorak); and Daniel Sioui (Wendat), Indien stoïque (Éditions Hannenorak).
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Recipient of $5,000 for Published Graphic Novels, Comics, and Illustrated Books
Aimée Craft (Anishinaabe/Métis), Treaty Words: For As Long As the Rivers Flow (Annick Press)
“This short book by Aimée Craft, beautifully illustrated by Luke Swinson, tells the story of an Anishinaabe family’s relationship to the land that moves both slow and fast, cracking and popping like the ice in spring.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: Lisa Boivin (Deninu Kųę́ First Nation), We Dream Medicine Dreams (Portage & Main Press/HighWater Press); and Teoni Spathelfer (Heiltsuk) with Natassia Davies (Coast Salish, illustrator) for White Raven (Heritage House).
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Recipient of $5,000 for Published Work in an Indigenous Language
Brittany Luby (Anishinaabe), with Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley (Anishinaabe, illustrator) and Alvin Ted Corbiere (Anishinaabe, translator) and Alan Corbiere (Anishinaabe, translator), for Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh / This Is How I Know (House of Anansi Press)
“Every page is full of eye-catching action mixed with an undeniable nostalgia for a long ago visit with someone who was a dear relative.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: Jodie Callaghan (Mi’gmaq), with Georgia Lesley (illustrator) and Joe Wilmot (Mi’gmaq, translator) for Ga’s / The Train (Second Story Press); and Sharon King (Potawatomi, Wasauksing First Nation) for Amik (Kegedonce Press).
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Recipient of $2,000 for Unpublished Prose in English
Leslie Butt (Innu), “Tanked”
“This brilliantly observed story is a haunting portrait of a teenage girl longing for someone to pull her ‘from the water of myself that I had been drowning in.’ The author captures the narrator’s combination of brashness and vulnerability with deftness and emotional complexity, and the large cast of characters is entirely convincing. With its pitch-perfect dialogue and evocative details, “Tanked” marks the arrival of an impressive talent.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: David Agecoutay (Saulteaux) for “It’s For the Best”; Jenn Ashton (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) for “Hail Mary, Mother of Pearl”; and Bianca Martin (Mi'gmaq) for “Paqt’sm / I Was Born with the Spirit of the Wolf”.
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Recipient of $2,000 for Unpublished Poetry in English
Meghan Eaker (Woodland Cree First Nation) “mistahi maskikiy”
“This work is medicine. In english and nehiyawewin, the poet spells out how to be and how to recognize the world beyond empire and media. These poems are maps, guides, constellations of healing and power and truth.” (Jurors’ citation)
Also nominated in this category: Brandi Bird (Cree, Saulteaux, Métis) for “A Dawn”; Jacqueline Gibbon (Métis) for “tante ohci kiya / Displaced Métis Iskwew”; Samantha Martin-Bird (Peguis First Nation) for “Poems for White Men”.
The 2022 IVAs jurors are acclaimed and award-winning writers and scholars: Jordan Abel, Joanne Arnott, Carleigh Baker, Warren Cariou, J.D. Kurtness, Francis Langevin, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Eden Robinson, June Scudeler, Richard Van Camp, and Eldon Yellowhorn. The 2022 IVAs are administered by co-chairs Dr. Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) and settler scholar Dr. Sophie McCall of Simon Fraser University. The IVAs logo is designed by Lou-ann Neel (Kwakwaka’wakw).
All IVAs finalists are invited to participate in mentorship initiatives, designed to cultivate relationships among emerging and established Indigenous writers and to provide both career and creative support. The IVAs acknowledge Penguin Random House Canada for generously supporting mentorship initiatives.
The Indigenous Voices Awards receives generous support from Pamela Dillon, Penguin Random House Canada, CELA, and Scholastic Canada. In addition, the IVAs chairs gratefully acknowledge support from Douglas & McIntyre for its donation of a portion of its sales of Richard Wagamese’s What Comes From Spirit and the countless supporters who have donated to the IVAs crowd-sourced fund over the past five years. Further donations are always welcome and deeply appreciated: please visit IndigenousVoicesAwards.org for more information.
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Read Indigenous! Check out the published works of IVAs nominees and recipients: indigenousvoicesawards.org/read-indigenous
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Katie Saunoris, publicist, katiesaunoris@gmail.com