Indigenous Authors - Recommended reading for adults

Updated April 8, 2024
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Winnipeg Public Library
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1

VenCo
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Empire of Wild, a wickedly subversive, deliciously imaginative, deeply feminist novel of contemporary witches on the rise--a book that only the supremely gifted storyteller Cherie Dimaline could write. Lucky St. James, orphaned daughter of a...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and CD formats.

Canadian author.

2

Bad Cree: A Novel
Johns, Jessica
Other
2024 CBC CANADA READS SELECTION AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST A CBC BOOKS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ALEX AWARD WINNER AURORA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL SHORTLIST RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE FOR LITERARY FICTION SHORTLIST<...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

3

Buffalo is the new Buffalo : stories
Vowel, Chelsea
Paper Book
'Education is the new buffalo' is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. Chelsea Vowel asks, 'Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways,...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

4

The sentence : a novel
Erdrich, Louise
Paper Book
"Dazzling. . . . A hard-won love letter to readers and to booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain and fear, injustice and illness. One good way is to press a beloved book into another's hands. Read The Sentence and then do just that."--USA Today, Four Stars ...

Also available in CD, eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

5

Probably Ruby
Bird-Wilson, Lisa
Paper Book
For readers of Tommy Orange's There There and Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, Probably Ruby is an audacious, brave and beautiful book about an adopted woman's search for her Indigenous identity. Relinquished as an infant, Ruby is placed in a foster home...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

6

Cinq petits indiens : roman
Good, Michelle
Paper Book

Canada, fin des annees 1960. Des milliers de jeunes autochtones, liberes des pensionnats, essaient de survivre dans le quartier d'East Vancouver, entre prostitution, drogue et petits boulots.. Il y a Maisie, qui semble si forte ; la discrete Lucy, epanouie dans la maternite ; Clara, la rebelle, engagee dans l'American Indian Movement ; Kenny, qui ne sait plus comment s'arreter de fuir, et, enfin, Howie, condamne pour avoir rosse son ancien tortionnaire.. D'une plume puissante, Michelle Good raconte les destins entremeles de ces survivants.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteure canadienne.

7

Five little Indians
Good, Michelle
Paper Book
WINNER: Canada Reads 2022 WINNER: Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction WINNER: Amazon First Novel Award WINNER: Kobo Emerging Author Prize  Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist: Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize Finalist: BC & Yukon...

Also available in Book Club Kit, eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

8

The theory of crows : a novel
Robertson, David
Paper Book
A poignant and evocative novel about the bonds of family and the gifts offered by the land When a troubled father and his estranged teenage daughter head out onto the land in search of the family trapline, they find their way back to themselves, and to each other Deep in the night,...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

9

A Minor Chorus: A Novel
Belcourt, Billy-Ray
Paper Book
*WINNER OF THE 2023 BC AND YUKON ETHEL WILSON PRIZE* *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE* NATIONAL BESTSELLER An urgent first novel about breaching the prisons we live inside from one of Canada's most daring literary talents. ...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

10

Chasseur au harpon : un long rčit de Markoosie : roman
Markoosie
Paper Book

Paru il y a cinquante ans, Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut (Chasseur au harpon) est considere comme le premier roman en inuktitut jamais publie. Cette aventure trepidante, marquee de bout en bout par la violence et la mort, nous plonge dans la realite d'une communaute encore preservee de l'intrusion de la modernite.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteur canadien.

11

A Grandmother Begins the Story
Porter, Michelle
Paper Book
National Bestseller Winner of the 2024 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award Finalist for the 2023 Writers' Trust Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

12

Indian Horse
Wagamese, Richard.
Paper Book
Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he's a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he's sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he'll find it only through telling his...

Also available in Book Club Kit, eBook and DAISY formats.

Canadian author.

13

Cheval Indian
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book

Aussi dispoinible en format numerique.

Auteur canadien.

14

Real ones : a novel
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 GILLER PRIZE* From the author of the nationally bestselling Strangers saga comes a heartrending story of two Michif sisters who must face their past trauma when their mother is called out for false claims to Indigenous identity. June...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook format.

Manitoban author.

15

Love after the end : an anthology of Two-spirit & Indigiqueer speculative fiction
Whitehead, Joshua (Writer)
Paper Book
This exciting and groundbreaking fiction anthology showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous) writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity...
Also available in eBook format.

16

Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories
Peters, Amanda
Paper Book
National Bestseller An intimate and personal debut collection of short fiction from the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers. The stories in Waiting for the Long Night Moon explore the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place--from contact with...

Canadian author.

17

Moon of the turning leaves : a novel
Rice, Waubgeshig
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Twelve years after the lights go out . . . An epic journey to a forgotten homeland The hotly anticipated sequel to the bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow. In the years since a mysterious cataclysm...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

18

Amour aux temps d'après (L')
Whitehead, Joshua.
Paper Book

Sous la direction de Joshua Whitehead, etoile montante de la litterature indigiqueer, L'amour aux temps d’apres est un projet collectif unique en son genre, au confluent de la science-fiction, de la culture queer et de la tradition autochtone. Neuf auteur·es des Premieres Nations y imaginent des personnages LGBTQ2S+ dans un monde post-apocalyptique, mais sous l'angle de l'utopie, de l'espoir et de la solidarite.

19

Whistle at Night and They Will Come: Indigenous Horror Stories Volume 2
Soop, Alex
Paper Book
In this followup to his hugely popular Midnight Storm Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories, Blackfoot storyteller Alex Soop plunges us again into enthralling tales that mix reality with dark terror. Within its stories, Whisper at Night and They Will Come reveals ancient theories of the...

20

My Indian summer : a novel
Kakwinokanasum, Joseph
Paper Book
Winner of the PMC Indigenous Literature Award 2023 Three kohkums, a man named Crow, two best friends, and a drug dealer . . . twelve-year-old Hunter may be getting out of Red Rock sooner than he hoped. For Hunter Frank, the summer of '79 begins with his mother returning home only to...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

21

Kukum
Jean, Michel
Paper Book
Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award in the Translation Category Longlist, 2025 Dublin Literary Award A Quebec bestseller based on the life of Michel Jean's great-grandmother that delivers an empathetic portrait of drastic change in an Innu community. Kukum recounts the...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

22

Kukum
Jean, Michel
Paper Book

Auteure canadienne.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

23

Out of the Shadows
Henderson, Gordon
Paper Book
Set during the dramatic Red River Resistance of 1869-1870 and the birth of Manitoba. The novel is told through the perspective of a young Irish-Canadian journalist, Conor O?Dea. Under mysterious circumstances, after working for the assassinated politician D?Arcy McGee, O?Dea is sent West, and to Sir...

Canadian author.

24

L'amant du Lac
Pésémapéo Bordeleau, Virginia
Paper Book

Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau nous offre une histoire d'amour torride, sauvage et puissante entre Wabougouni, une Algonquine et Gabriel, un metis. Violence, colere et extase rythment cette relation tumultueuse avec pour toile de fond la nature evoutante du lac Abitibi.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteure canadienne.

25

The Lover, the Lake
Pesemapeo Bordeleau, Virginia
Paper Book
A spellbinding novel celebrating Indigenous sensuality; the first erotic novel written by an Indigenous woman in French. Shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. When it was first published in Quebec, The Lover, The Lake was heralded as the first...

Canadian author.

26

Cold : a novel
Taylor, Drew Hayden
Paper Book
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER . Longlisted for the Leacock Medal of Humour . One of Kobo CA's Top Horror Ebooks and Top Horror Audiobook of 2024 A tragic plane crash that leaves two women stranded and fighting for their lives kicks off this sweeping and hilarious novel from award...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

27

Qimmik
Jean, Michel
Paper Book

Entre la taiga et la toundra, un jeune couple inuit du Nunavik se decouvre et apprend a s'aimer. Accompagnes de leurs chiens, les qimmiit, Saullu et Ulaajuk parcourent un continent encore sauvage, tous libres et solidaires. Quelques decennies plus tard, une avocate est depechee sur la Cote-Nord pour defendre un meurtrier inuk dont les victimes sont d'anciens policiers de la Securite du Quebec. Sa quete de justice l'emmenera au-dela de ce qu'elle avait imagine.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteur canadien.

28

Hold Your Tongue
Tétreault, Matthew
Paper Book
Upon learning his great-uncle Alfred has suffered a stroke, Richard sets out for Ste. Anne, in southeastern Manitoba, to find his father and tell him the news. Waylaid by memories of his stalled romance, tales of run-ins with local Mennonites, his job working a honey wagon, and struck by visions...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

29

A two-spirit journey : the autobiography of a lesbian Ojibwa-Cree elder
Chacaby, Ma-Nee
Paper Book
Winner of Canada Reads 2025 From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community, Ma-Nee Chacaby's extraordinary story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social and economic legacies of colonialism. As a child, Chacaby learned...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

30

52 Ways to Reconcile : How to Walk with Indigenous People on the Path to Healing
Robertson, David Alexander.
Paper Book
52 Ways to Reconcile is an accessible, friendly guide for non-Indigenous people eager to learn, or Indigenous people eager to do more in our collective effort towards reconciliation, as people, and as a country. As much as non-Indigenous people want to walk the path of reconciliation, they often...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Manitoban author.

31

From the rez to the runway : forging my path in fashion : a memoir
Allaire, Christian
Paper Book
Growing up on the Nipissing First Nation reserve in Northern Ontario, Christian Allaire wanted to work in the fashion industry, a future that seemed like a remote, and unlikely, dream He was first introduced to style and design through his culture's traditional Ojibwe powwow regalia-...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

32

Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre
Sinclair, Niigaan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Winner of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of 2024 by Audible, Spotify, and Winnipeg Free Press * One of CBC's Best Canadian Nonfiction of 2024 From ground zero of this country's most...

Canadian author.

33

Women of the fur trade
Koncan, Frances
Paper Book
In eighteen hundred and something something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for twenty-first century slang sit in a fort sharing their views on life, love, and the hot nerd Louis Riel. Marie-Angelique, a...

Also available in eBook format.

Manitoban author.

34

From the ashes : my story of being Métis, homeless, and finding my way
Thistle, Jesse
Paper Book
*#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER *Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction *Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards *Winner, High Plains Book Awards *Finalist, CBC Canada Reads *A Globe and Mail Book of the Year *An Indigo Book of the...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

35

Half-Bads in White Regalia: A Memoir
Caetano, Cody
Paper Book
*WINNER OF THE 2023 INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARD FOR PUBLISHED PROSE IN ENGLISH* *FINALIST FOR THE 2023 EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION* *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR* *LONGLISTED FOR CANADA READS 2023* *LONGLISTED...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.


36

Running down a Dream: A Memoir
Palmater, Candy
Paper Book
A powerful, often funny, always inspiring memoir from a beloved comedian, professional orator, actor, entertainer, gone all too soon. Candy Palmater loved to connect with people. She lived for the stage, her effervescent presence on television and radio ignited and inspired audiences,...

Canadian author.

37

Namwayut : we are all one : a pathway to reconciliation
Joseph, Robert
Paper Book
BC and Yukon Book Prizes, Winner of the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award, 2023 We all share a common humanity. No matter how long or difficult the path ahead, we are all one. Reconciliation belongs to everyone. In this profound book, Chief Robert...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

38

The reason you walk
Kinew, Wab
Ebook
A moving story of father-son reconciliation told by a charismatic aboriginal star When his father was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Winnipeg broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew decided to spend a year reconnecting with the accomplished but distant aboriginal man who'd...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook format.

Manitoban author.

39

A short history of the blockade : giant beavers, diplomacy, and regeneration in Nishnaabewin
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake
Paper Book
In A Short History of the Blockade, award-winning writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson uses Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg stories, storytelling aesthetics, and practices to explore the generative nature of Indigenous blockades through our relative, the beaver--or in Nishnaabemowin, Amik. Moving through...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

40

The 500 years of Indigenous resistance comic book
Hill, Gord
Paper Book
A powerful and historically accurate graphic portrayal of indigenous resistance to the European colonisation of the Americas, beginning with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus and ending with the Six Nations land reclamation in Ontario in 2006. Gord Hill spent two years unearthing...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

41

Permanent astonishment : a memoir
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER   Capricious, big-hearted, joyful: an epic memoir from one of Canada's most acclaimed Indigenous writers and performers Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic,...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

42

Come home, Indio : a memoir
Terry, Jim (Artist)
Paper Book
"a tour de force of comics" --Ed Park, The New York Times One of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2020, as chosen by the American Library Association One of the Best Books of 2020, as chosen by Publishers Weekly "Fortunately for readers of...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

43

My Privilege, My Responsibility: A Memoir
North, Sheila
Paper Book
Finalist, Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction Finalist, Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book In September 2015, Sheila North was declared the Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), the first woman elected to the position. Known as a "bridge builder"...

Also available in eBook format.

Manitoban author.

44

Indian in the cabinet : speaking truth to power
Wilson-Raybould, Jody
Paper Book
THE #1 BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICY A compelling political memoir of leadership and speaking truth to power by one of the most inspiring women of her generation Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. Inspired by the...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

45

Halfbreed
Campbell, Maria
Paper Book
A new, fully restored edition of the essential Canadian classic. An unflinchingly honest memoir of her experience as a Métis woman in Canada, Maria Campbell's Halfbreed depicts the realities that she endured and, above all, overcame. Maria was born in Northern Saskatchewan...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

46

Halfbreed : récit
Campbell, Maria
Paper Book

Elevee sur une reserve routiere de la Couronne dans le nord de la Saskatchewan, Maria Campbell est une enfant sensible et determinee qui, malgre la precarite ambiante, s'emerveille devant le quotidien anime de sa communaute. Apres le deces de sa mere, elle se marie a un Blanc afin d'offrir une vie meilleure a ses freres et soeurs, mais echoue plutot dans les bas-fonds de Vancouver, ou elle connait la prostitution, la dependance et la depression. Inspiree par sa Cheechum, elle s'engage alors sur la voie de la guerison.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteure canadienne.

47

The North-West is our mother : the story of Louis Riel's people, the Métis Nation
Teillet, Jean
Paper Book
There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada's Indigenous peoples--the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans Their story begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century in the Canadian North-West. Within twenty years...

Also available in eBook format.

Canadian author.

48

All our relations : finding the path forward
Talaga, Tanya
Paper Book
Winner, 2024 Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize, for the whole of her work Finalist, 2018 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding Finalist, 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Tanya Talaga, the bestselling author of Seven Fallen...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

49

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
King, Thomas
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, The Inconvenient Indian distills the insights gleaned from Thomas King's critical and personal meditation on what it means to be "Indian" in North America, weaving the curiously circular tale of the...

Also available in Book Club, eBook, eAudiobook and DAISY formats.

Canadian author.

50

L'Indien Malcommode: Un Portrait Inattendu des Autochtones D'Amérique du Nord
King, Thomas
Paper Book

L'Indien malcommode est a la fois un ouvrage d'histoire et une subversion de l'histoire officielle. En somme, c'est le resultat de la reflexion personnelle et critique que Thomas King a menee depuis un demi-siecle sur ce que cela signifie d'etre Indien aujourd'hui en Amerique du Nord. Ce livre n'est pas tant une condamnation du comportement des uns ou des autres qu'une analyse supremement intelligente des liens complexes qu'entretiennent les Blancs et les Indiens.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteur canadien.

51

North End love songs
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
Katherena Vermette's award-winning poetry collection North End Love Songs is an ode to the place she grew up, where the beauty of the natural world is overlaid with the rough reality of crime and racism. When a young girl's brother goes missing, she learns what prejudice and discrimination...

Also available in Book Club Kit format.

Manitoban author.

52

North End love songs
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
Katherena Vermette's award-winning poetry collection North End Love Songs is an ode to the place she grew up, where the beauty of the natural world is overlaid with the rough reality of crime and racism. When a young girl's brother goes missing, she learns what prejudice and discrimination...

Katherena Vermette, poete metisse du Manitoba, nous offre un chant rythme qui nous envoute peu a peu et nous entraine au coeur de l'univers complexe qui le nourrit : l'extremite nord de Winnipeg, le « Northend » comme l'appellent ses habitants pour la plupart Amerindiens ou Metis. Chaque poeme est un tableau que brossent par petites touches sa langue depouillee, vraie, ses images fortes puisant a meme ce paysage urbain, rude et pourtant inspirant.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Auteure manitobaine.

53

Manitowapow : Aboriginal writings from the land of water
Cariou, Warren
Paper Book
In the middle of the continent, where waterways and rivers gather in immense lakes, many different peoples have met, lived, and thrived. Travel back through the millennia and forward to the present day to gain a dynamic picture of a territory interconnected through words, ideas, and experiences.<...

Also available as a Book Club Kit.


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