w’daub awae | speaking true

Authors List

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Authors List

  • Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler is the author of Ghost Lake, which won the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award in Published English Fiction, and of Wrist, an Indigenous monster story written from the monster’s perspective (both from Kegedonce Press).

    He is co-editor of Bawaajigan—Stories of Power, a dream-themed anthology of Indigenous writers (Exile Editions). He is an artist and filmmaker who works in a variety of mediums, including audio and video, and drawing and painting. Nathan is the first-place winner of an Aboriginal Writing Challenge, and recipient of a Hnatyshyn Reveal award for literature. He has an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC), BFA in Integrated Media (OCAD), and BA in English Literature and Native Studies (Trent).

    His writing is published in various magazines, blogs, and anthologies. He is a two-spirit, Jewish, Anishinaabe, and member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. Originally from Ontario, he currently resides in Vancouver.

    University Teacher at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

  • Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Kateri is an Assistant Professor, teaching Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions in the English Department at the University of Toronto, Scarborough.

    She has taught creative writing and Indigenous literatures at the University of Manitoba, the Banff Centre’s Aboriginal Arts Program, and the En’owkin International School of Writing in partnership with the University of Victoria.

    Her publications encompass poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, graphic novels, and spoken word. Her teaching and creative work is firmly decolonial, a practice of cultural resurgence, affirmation and survivance.

    She is a recipient of a REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award for writing, her 2015 book of short stories, The Stone Collection, was a finalist for the Sarton Literary Book Awards, and her collaborative recording A Constellation of Bones was a nominee for a 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award.

    Kateri was the 2011–2012 Poet Laureate for Owen Sound and North Grey. She founded and coordinated the first Honouring Words: International Indigenous Authors Celebration Tour in 2003 and initiated and was a co-organizer for the first Indigenous Comics Symposium in 2021.

    She is the founder, publisher, and art director for Kegedonce Press. (Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, selected and edited by Dallas Hunt, will be released in August 2021. She is currently completing work on a new collection of poetry and a collection of humourous short stories.

  • Born and raised in Garden River First Nations, located outside of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Lesley is an Ojibway writer and spoken word performer. She has an M.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor.

    Lesley’s fiction, poetry, and plays have been published in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US and she has performed her spoken word pieces at various events. An advocate for Indigenous arts, Lesley has hosted several poetry cabarets featuring Ojibway hand drumming and highlighting the work of local Indigenous performers. Lesley is a part-time university instructor and trustee at the Garden River Reserve Community Trust. She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her family.

  • Kelsey Borgford is a Nbisiing Nishnaabekwe from the Marten clan. She is an emerging author, passionate about utilizing writing as a tool to revitalize cultural connections.

    After losing her Gokomis-baa in 2014, Kelsey sought out a means of connection with her grandmother and found that connection to her through the arts. Kelsey’s work aims to pass along cultural traditions and identity.

    Her work is predominantly centred in the practice of beading and writing. She has a children’s book, What’s in a Bead, forthcoming from Second Story Press. In all aspects of her creativity, Kelsey draws inspiration from her culture, her mother, her community, and relatives in the natural world.

  • Deborah L. Delaronde-Falk lives in central Manitoba on a cattle ranch along the western shores of Lake Winnipegosis. She honours her Metis heritage by writing and publishing under her maiden name.

    Deborah’s twelve published stories except for “Friendship Bay” and “The Rabbit’s Race” focus on Metis protagonists with story situations that she hopes will convey the way of life of the Metis people in both a historical and contemporary context. Louis Riel Day: The Fur Trade Project is Deborah’s twelfth book.

    Deborah retired as a children’s librarian having worked for twenty-six years at Duck Bay School in the community of Duck Bay, Manitoba. She earned her employer Frontier School Division’s “Outstanding Contribution Award” and the prestigious “Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Literacy” Award presented by The Honourable Peter M. Liba’, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba.

    Deborah is the first recipient of the ’Beatrice Mosionier Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award, 2015.

  • Cherie Dimaline is the author of The Marrow Thieves, which has been declared one of TIME magazine's Best YA Books of All Time. An international bestseller, it has won the Governor General’s Award and the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Young Readers, among numerous other accolades. Her new novel Empire of Wild (Random House) became an instant Canadian bestseller and was named Indigo's #1 Best Book of 2019.

    Cherie is a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Community in Ontario. She lives in her traditional territory on the Georgian Bay with her family where she is currently writing for television and adapting Empire of Wild for the stage. In 2016, Cherie published A Gentle Habit, a brilliant collection of short stories, with Kegedonce Press.

  • Leah Marie Dorion’s piece, Spirit Dancers, is featured on the cover and inside pages of Blue Marrow, 2020, by Louise Bernice Halfe. Leah is a Metis writer and artist currently living near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Her artwork celebrates the strength and resilience of Indigenous women and families.

    Leah is also a published children’s book author and illustrator. Several of her Metis cultural books are available through Gabriel Dumont Press in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Strong Nations Publishing in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Recently Oscardo, an online gift shop located in Toronto, Ontario, began distributing products and fashions featuring her unique style of art works.

  • Albert Dumont is Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. He is a Spiritual Advisor and since October 2016 he has been serving his community as one of 13 Elders on the Elders Advisory Committee of the Ministry of the Attorney General.

    In recognition for his work as an activist and volunteer on his ancestral lands (Ottawa and Region), Albert was presented with a Human Rights Award by the Public Service Alliance of Canada in 2010. In January 2017 he received the DreamKEEPERS Citation for Outstanding Leadership.

    Albert has dedicated his life to promoting Indigenous spirituality and healing and to protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, particularly those as they affect the young. From 2021 to 2023, Albert Dumont was the English-Language Poet Laureate for Ottawa.

  • Metis poet, writer, and professor Marilyn Dumont teaches for the faculties of Arts and Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Her four collections of poetry have won either provincial or national awards: A Really Good Brown Girl (1996); green girl dreams Mountains (2001); that tongued belonging (2007); The Pemmican Eaters (2015).

    She was awarded 2018 Lifetime Membership from the League of Canadian Poets for her contributions to poetry in Canada, and in 2019, awarded the University of Alberta Distinguished Alumni Award and the Alberta Lieutenant Governor’s Distinguished Artist Award.

  • Cole Forrest is an Ojibwe filmmaker and programmer from Nipissing First Nation. They have written and directed independent short films that have been screened at film festivals including imagineNATIVE, TQFF, and the Vancouver International Film Festival.

    Cole is a recipient of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship and of the James Bartleman Indigenous Youth Creative Writing Award. They were the 2019 recipient of the imagineNATIVE + LIFT Film Mentorship and a 2020 Artist in Residence as a part of the Sundance Native Filmmakers Lab.

    Cole has supported programming at festivals including TIFF, imagineNATIVE, and Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film. They are a graduate of the Video Design and Production program at George Brown College. Cole is currently writing their first feature film. They are grateful to represent their community in all artistic pursuits.

  • Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation) is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture and Chair of the First Nations Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, unceded Musqueam territory. He is most known for his book Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (2018, Wilfrid Laurier Press).

    His previous publications include a study of Cherokee literature, Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History, along with the Way of Thorn and Thunder series from Kegedonce Press (omnibus edition from the University of New Mexico Press). His most recent publications are Badger, part of the Animal Series from Reaktion Books (UK), and the co-edited Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature.

  • Scott B. Henderson (he/him) is a freelance illustrator. He is the author/illustrator of the sci-fi/fantasy comic The Chronicles of Era. His works include 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga, and The Reckoner Rises (written by David A. Robertson), the Eisner Award nominated A Blanket of Butterflies (written by Richard Van Camp), and A Girl Called Echo (written by Katherena Vermette).

    Scott is a graduate of the University of Manitoba’s School of Fine Art, and lives in Winnipeg, MB.

    Scott is the illustrator of the graphic short story “Mermaids” in Angel Wing Splash Pattern.

  • Sharon King is an educator, performer and producer. She is Potawatomi from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound. Most recently, Sharon has worked at a community level as an educator in Wasauksing. She is best known for her Juno nomination in 1999 (Aboriginal Women’s Voices, Hearts of the Nation).

    She has produced community arts programs and her travels have helped with a strong connection to artists, filmmakers, and producers in Canada. Her strong hold on Indigenous culture and singing has maintained her efforts in her keeping tradition present with her family and community.

  • D.A. Lockhart is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Devil in the Woods (Brick Books 2019) and Tukhone: Where the River Narrows and the Shores Bend (Black Moss Press 2020). His work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2019, TriQuarterly, ARC Poetry Magazine, Grain, Belt, and the Malahat Review among many.

    He is a Turtle Clan member of Eelünaapéewi Lahkéewiit (Lenape), a registered member of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and currently resides at the south shore of Waawiiyaatanong (Windsor,ON-Detroit, MI) and Pelee Island.

  • Emma Metallic is from the Mi’gmaq community, Listuguj, Quebec, located in the seventh district Gespe’gewa’gi, Mi’gma’gi. Emma holds a BA in contemporary studies and Law, Justice, & Society with a minor in Indigenous Studies from the University of King’s College. Emma is passionate about writing stories that reflect her community’s knowledge, needs, and desires. While a learner of the Mi’gmaw language, Emma strives to use the language as much as she can in her day-to-day life. Nipugtug (pronounced, “nee-book-dook”) is her debut book.

  • Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith is a Saulteaux woman from Peguis First Nation. She is an editor, writer and journalist who graduated from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Aboriginal Studies in June 2011 and went on to receive her Master’s in Education in Social Justice in June 2017.

    In 2021, she published a collection of personal essays, These are the Stories: Memories of a 60s Scoop Survivor with Kegedonce Press. She is also the editor of Silence to Strength, a collection of essays by Sixties Scoop survivors (Kegedonce Press, October 2022).

    Her first non-fiction story “Choosing the Path to Healing” appeared in the 2006 anthology Growing Up Girl: An Anthology of Voices from Marginalized Spaces. She has written for the Native Canadian, Anishinabek News, Windspeaker, FNH Magazine, New Tribe Magazine, Muskrat Magazine and the Piker Press.

    She has also co-edited the anthology Bawaajigan with fellow Indigenous writer Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler.

  • Oliver Moss Warawa McDonald was born in North Vancouver, B.C. and has lived his entire life by the coast. He is a member of the Peguis Nation, and identifies as a 2-spirit person. Counting at Kits Beach (2024, Kegedonce Press) is his debut children’s book. Oliver currently lives in Vancouver on stolen Musqueam and Squamish territory, where he continues to create.

    He creates art under the name West Coast Cree Creations, the name of which represents a complicated identity. Oliver is a Cree person, yet was raised on the coast. Seas and mountains are his home. He strives to learn about his ancestors back in Manitoba, and to connect with his elders. His art celebrates the balance between residing on the west coast, and his cultural roots of Cree heritage.

  • At the age of three, Aaron Paquette was terrified and enchanted by his Mother’s impersonation of Gollum while reading The Hobbit. It was then that he knew he wanted to tell stories. As an artist, his work has gone around the world. As a speaker he is in great demand for his powerful messages.

    Lightfinder was his first novel. Aaron currently serves on the Edmonton City council and lives in Edmonton with his wife and children.

  • Coltrane Seesequasis is a young fantasy writer of Indigenous heritage who grew up in Gatineau, Quebec. He first began his writing journey on long bus rides to school where he would alleviate the boredom by daydreaming of fantastical worlds, noble heroes, and unwavering villains.

    Eventually, he put those ideas to paper and started writing stories of his own with the hopes that they would one day morph into something more than just a passion. His debut novel, Secrets of Stone, is the first book of a planned series that follows a young wolf called Silversong, in a fantasy world similar to our own.

    Inspired by a love of nature as well as myths and folklore that challenge the limits of creativity, Coltrane joins a new generation of writers, adding his voice to the immersive genre of fantasy.

  • Neal Shannacappo is a Nakawe graphic novelist and poet from Rolling River First Nation in Manitoba. He’s Eagle clan and currently living, working and playing in Ottawa. You can find his stories in the Indigenous anthologies called Sovereign Traces—Not (Just) (An)other, Vol. 1 and Sovereign Traces—Relational Constellation, Vol. 2.

    The graphic novel Mashkawide’e (Has a strong heart) was published by Senator Kim Pate and copies can be found by contacting her office. Neal published his own creation, The Krillian Key, in November 2020, and is working on If I Go Missing, which is being published by James Lorimer & Company Ltd., and Niikaniganaw (All My Relations) commissioned by a group of healthcare researchers.

  • Smokii Sumac is a proud member of the Ktunaxa nation. He is a PhD Candidate in Indigenous Studies at Trent University, where his research centres on “coming home” stories from a Ktunaxa adoptee and two-spirit perspective.

    Smokii’s work has been published in Write Magazine, and under his former name (he is a man of many names) in Canadian Literature, Aanikoobijigan//Waawaashkeshi and on coffee sleeves as one of the winners of Peterborough’s e-city lit’s arts week contest in 2014. In 2020 he was shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for emerging LGBTQ writers.

    He is on the faculty at the College of the Rockies and currently resides in Kimberley, British Columbia.

    [Author photo: Sweetmoon Photography]

  • Richard Van Camp is a proud Tłįchϙ Dene from Fort Smith, NWT. He is an internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author of 24 books in just about every genre. His novel, The Lesser Blessed, is now a feature film with First Generation Films and his graphic novel A Blanket of Butterflies with Scott Henderson was nominated for an Eisner Award. His classic collection of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern, has been published in a new, 20th Anniversary edition by Kegedonce Press. You can visit Richard on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at www.richardvancamp.com.

    You can listen to “Mermaids” narrated by Ben Cardinal (one of the short stories from Angel Wing Splash Pattern) online via Richard’s SoundCloud profile. Listen to “the uranium leaking from port radium and rayrock mines is killing us” narrated by Richard on YouTube. Read a great interview with Richard about Kegedonce Press and Angel Wing Splash Pattern online.

    [Author photo: William Au]

  • Photograph of author/illustrator Kayla Williams

    Kayla Williams is a mixed-heritage artist born in Goose Bay, Labrador, who has a strong connection to her Inuk roots. She cherishes her family's ties to Makkovik and Rigolet in Nunatsiavut, along with her Scottish and French ancestry. Growing up, she spent her summers in Cartwright with her grandmother, deeply immersing herself in the rich culture and community of Labrador. A self-taught artist since childhood, Kayla runs her own business, Big Land Design, where she channels her passion for art into various creative outlets. She illustrates and writes children's books, aiming to ensure that Labrador Indigenous children see themselves represented in literature. Additionally, she paints public murals throughout her community, contributing to its vibrant cultural landscape. As a devoted mother to her two children, Lilian and Samuel, Kayla is committed to inspiring them and other young dreamers to embrace their heritage and pursue their aspirations.