Ten must-read books by Indigenous authors

Novels, poetry collections and more work by Indigenous writers to add to your reading list

By: Didhiti Kandel

(Emily/Pexels)

(Emily/Pexels)

Over the past couple of years of quarantine, many people have picked up reading again. There's nothing quite like sinking your teeth into a good book! If you’re one of those people, here’s not one but ten more books by Indigenous authors for you to add to your reading list.

1. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

Published in 2020, Five Little Indians is a story about five residential school survivors from British Columbia coming to terms with their history and eventually finding a way to overcome the thorns laid upon them in their journey. Michelle Good is a descendant of the Battle River Cree and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation. The novel is based on her mother's and grandmother's real-life experiences as survivors of Canada's residential school system.  

The novel has been highly praised by many critics since its publication. It was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in 2020. The debut book by Good also won the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award and also the Amazon Canada First Novel Award in 2021.

2. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliot

Award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott offers a daring and poignant reflection on “trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America” in her book, A Mind Spread Out On The Ground. The book explores critical issues regarding the treatment of Indigenous people in North America and provides an invaluable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. 

The compelling and evocative work by Elliot also relies on inner aspects of her own life and experiences with intergenerational trauma. Race, motherhood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, writing and representation are just a few of the subjects she tackles in her book. This is Elliot’s debut novel and it was shortlisted for the 2019 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

3. If I Go Missing by Brianna Jonnie

A few years ago, at the age of 14, Brianna Jonnie wrote a letter to the mayor of Winnipeg, Brian Bowman and then-police Chief Devon Clunis requesting changes to the way missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls’ cases are treated. The letter was nationally perceived and caught the attention of many people. If I Go Missing is a graphic novel that depicts a story based on a few excerpts of her letters. The young adult novel provides a glimpse into one of the many risks of being an Indigenous child in today’s world. Indigenous artist Neal Shannacappo provided the illustrations for the book. 

Published in 2019, the graphic novel won the 2021 Indigenous Voice Award for published graphic novels, comics and illustrated books in any language. Jonnie herself has been awarded the  City of Winnipeg Citizen Equity Committee’s Youth Role Model Award and the lieutenant-governor’s Vice-Regal Award among many others.

4. The Red Files by Lisa Bird-Wilson

The Red Files, published in 2016, is a debut poetry collection by Lisa Bird-Wilson which explores the impact and the horrifying legacy of the residential school system. Drawing on experiences of her own family and gathering other fragments of a past ripped apart by colonial brutality, this collection of poetry explores the wider political background that drove the processes which tore families and nations apart. The name of the collection comes from the federal government's organizational structure for residential school records, which is separated into "black files" and "red files."

“I can hold in the palm of my right hand
all that I have left: one story-gift from an uncle,
a father’s surname, treaty card, Cree accent echo, metal bits, grit—
and I will still have room to cock a fist.”
— Excerpt from The Red Files

5. The Strangers by Katherena Vermette

The Strangers by Métis writer, Katherena Vermette looks into how we are always linked to one another even when we are apart. The story is about the Stranger family’s strong relationship and the shared agony of their history. The book is a harrowing examination of intergenerational trauma, race, class and matrilineal ties that resist being severed against all odds. 

This book is a sequel to her first novel The Break, which has won many awards such as the 2017 Amazon First Novel Award, Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and McNally Robinson Book of the Year.

6. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Moon of the Crusted Snow is a post-apocalyptic novel where a small northern Anishinaabe village goes dark as winter approaches, leaving many people apathetic and confused. As the food supply runs out, panic sets in. An unexpected guest arrives, fleeing the disintegrating society to the south, as the band council and a small group of community members fight to keep order. Others quickly follow suit. The sequel to this thrilling story of survival is expected to be published in 2022.   

The book has won the OLA Forest Reading Evergreen Award in 2019 and it was also shortlisted for the 2019 John W.Campbell Memorial Award as well as the 2019-20 First Nation Communities READ Indigenous Literature Award.

7. The Girl Who Grew A Galaxy By Cherie Dimaline

Métis author Cherie Dimaline’s The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy braids together a narrative of hope, hardships and magical beauty. Planets begin to develop around the main character as she goes through a string of terrible childhood traumas. The planets symbolize a variety of daily emotions such as guilt, worry, anxiety and jealousy, among other things. The book ultimately weaves “contemporary Indigenous experiences with fantasy and magic.”

8. Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq

The internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer imagines “a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined” are blurred, yet love remains as the driving force in her novel Split Tooth. Tagaq glides seamlessly between fiction and biography and constructs a universe and a character that is compelling and unforgettable. 

The book won the 2018 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design and the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English. It was also shortlisted for Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and shortlisted for 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize as well as the 2019 Sunburst Award. 

9. Full-Metal Indigiqueer by Joshua Whitehead 

This poetry book by Joshua Whitehead centres on Zoa, “a hybridized Indigiqueer Trickster who combines the organic (the protozoan) and the technological (the binaric) to re-beautify and re-member queer Indigeneity.” The Trickster comes back to torment and recover in the apocalypse. Zoa “infects, invades and becomes a virus to canonical and popular works in order to re-centre Two-Spirit livelihoods,” as per oral tradition.  

The book was shortlisted in 2017 for Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry as well as for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry in 2018.

10. Not your Pocahontas by Lisa Charleyboy

Tsilhqot’in writer Lisa Charleyboy “dives into appropriations, pop culture and politics as she blends her story with her desire to change the climate around being an urban Native” with her debut book Not your Pocahontas. Developed out of a yearning to feed her passion and interact with Indigenous people from all across Turtle Island, Charleyboy talks to Indigenous adolescents with positive success stories in her book, breaking the stereotypes of 21st century.

Whether it be through a work of fiction, poetry or prose, all of these books establish a critical role in linking the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples and bringing attention to both present and past issues regarding the Indigenous community through literary expression. Happy reading!