Indigenous Authors - Recommended reading for adults

Updated May 28, 2025
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Winnipeg Public Library
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1

VenCo : a novel
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
"Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy."  ---Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and CD formats.

Canadian author.

2

Bad cree
Johns, Jessica.
Paper Book
In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman's dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home. "A mystery and a horror story about...

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
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 : a novel
Bird-Wilson, Lisa
Paper Book
An Indigenous woman adopted by white parents goes in search of her identity in this unforgettable debut novel about family, race, and history. Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award * "Engaging . . . Ruby never disappoints with her big heart and outrageous sense of...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

6

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...

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

A grandmother begins the story
Porter, Michelle
Paper Book
From award-winning Métis author Michelle Porter, a powerfully funning and moving story told not just by five generations of Métis women, but also by the land, the bison that surround them, and two utterly captivating dogs. Carter is a young mother on a quest to...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

9

Indian horse : a novel
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book
Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when...

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

Canadian author.

10

Indian horse : a novel
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book
Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when...

Aussi dispoinible en format numerique.

Auteur canadien.

11

Real ones : a novel
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
June and her sister, lyn, are NDNs - real ones. Lyn has her pottery artwork, her precocious kid, Willow, and the uncertain terrain of her midlife to keep her mind, heart and hands busy. June, a Metis Studies professor, yearns to uproot from Vancouver and move. With her loving partner, Sigh, June...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook format.

Manitoban author.

12

Love after the End
Whitehead, Joshua
Ebook
Also available in eBook format.

13

Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories Hardcover
Peters, Amanda.
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Berry Pickers In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place--from contact with the first European settlers, to the forced removal of...

Canadian author.

14

Moon of the Turning Leaves Hardcover
Rice, Waubgeshig.
Paper Book
"Waubgeshig Rice's stories are good medicine. Moon of the Turning Leaves is a restorative balm for my spirit." -- Angeline Boulley, New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter In this gripping stand-alone literary thriller set in the world of...

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook and Large Print formats.

Canadian author.

15

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...

16

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.

17

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.

18

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.

19

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.

20

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.

21

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.

22

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.

23

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.

24

Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up Cree in the Land of Snow and Sky
Highway, Tomson
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION * NOMINATED FOR THE EVERGREEN AWARD * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, AND CBC   Capricious, big-hearted, joyful: an epic memoir from one of Canada's most...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

25

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.

26

Indian in the cabinet : speaking truth to power
Wilson-Raybould, Jody
Paper Book
THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER A compelling political memoir of leadership and speaking truth to power by one of the most inspiring women of her generation--now in paperback Jody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. She was inspired by the example of her grandmother, who...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

27

Halfbreed
Campbell, Maria
Paper Book
"I write this for all of you, to tell you what it is like to be a Halfbreed woman in our country. I want to tell you about the joys and sorrows, the oppressing poverty, the frustration and the dreams. . . . I am not bitter. I have passed that stage. I only want to say: this is what it was like,...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats.

Canadian author.

28

Halfbreed
Campbell, Maria
Paper Book
"I write this for all of you, to tell you what it is like to be a Halfbreed woman in our country. I want to tell you about the joys and sorrows, the oppressing poverty, the frustration and the dreams. . . . I am not bitter. I have passed that stage. I only want to say: this is what it was like,...

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.

29

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.

30

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
King, Thomas
Paper Book
In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian-White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada-U.S. border, King...

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

Canadian author.

31

The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
King, Thomas
Paper Book
In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian-White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada-U.S. border, King...

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.

32

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.

33

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.

34

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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