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Back to SearchJoin the Port Moody Public Library for book discussions and virtual author talks about three fantastic Indigenous novels.
For the second year in a row, BC’s public libraries are hosting a virtual author series, BC Libraries Present, to bring new insights and voices to library users in every corner of British Columbia.
For the second season of this series, the topic is Indigenous Fiction. Indigenous writers have been a crucial part of the literary landscape for a long time, with stories that bring important perspectives and capture the imaginations of diverse audiences. Indigenous fiction in particular is breaking ground with award-winning and bestselling novels that are shifting conversations and opening minds across the country.
The fall 2024 lineup, starting in September, will feature three phenomenal authors who have garnered top praise and huge readership across the country, providing an opportunity for readers across BC to be part of a live conversation of their essential new books.
Join us at the Library to watch these author talks in person and discuss the books.
You can also watch them from home on the BC Libraries Present Crowdcast channel: crowdcast.io/@bclibraries-present.
BC Libraries Present: Alicia Elliott
Thursday, September 19, 2024 • 6:00-8:00pm
Following the success of her groundbreaking memoir A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, Alicia Elliot’s new novel And Then She Fell has quickly become an award-winning national bestseller. It’s a story about Native life, motherhood, and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequences.
For the first event of this fall lineup, join Alicia Elliott in conversation with award-winning author Carleigh Baker.
Alicia Elliott (she/her) is a Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. She has written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt, and many others. She’s had numerous essays nominated for National Magazine Awards, winning gold in 2017 and an honorable mention in 2020. Her short fiction was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2018, Best Canadian Stories 2018, and The Journey Prize Stories 30. Alicia was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Her first book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was a national bestseller in Canada. It was also nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and won the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award. Her first novel, And Then She Fell, won the Indigenous Voices Award winner, the Amazon First Novel Award, and was named a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year in 2023.
Carleigh Baker (she/her) is an author and teacher of nêhiyaw âpihtawikosisân (Cree-Métis) and European descent. Born and raised on Stó:lō territory, she currently lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwəta (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings, won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Indigenous Voices Award for fiction. Her short stories and essays have been translated into several languages and anthologized in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her newest collection, Last Woman, was featured on the CBC Books 2024 summer reading list.
BC Libraries Present: katherena vermette
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 • 6:20-8:30pm
The issue of false claims to Indigenous identity has gotten headlines across the country in recent years, with famous writers, academics, and artists uncovered as “pretendians.”
Bestselling author katherena vermette’s new novel, real ones, tells the story of sisters who must face their past trauma when their mother is called out for false claims to Indigenous identity. It’s a novel that explores the impact that pretendianism has on Indigenous peoples, and pays homage to the long-fought, hard-won battles of Michif (Métis) people to regain ownership of their identity.
For the second event of this lineup, join katherena vermette in conversation with award-winning writer Michelle Cyca.
katherena vermette (she/her) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her first book, North End Love Songs, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her novels The Break, The Strangers and The Circle were all national bestsellers and won multiple literary awards. Her work for children and young adults includes the picture book The Girl and the Wolf and the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, and an honourary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba.
Michelle Cyca (she/her) is a journalist, essayist and literary critic. She is a senior editor with The Narwhal and a contributing writer to The Walrus. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief and co-publisher of SAD Mag. She lives on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in what is recently called Vancouver, and is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6, Saskatchewan.
BC Libraries Present: Jessica Johns
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 • 6:00-8:00pm
Library program details to come.
Jessica Johns’s debut novel, Bad Cree, is a gripping story about intergenerational trauma that follows a Cree millennial who has haunting dreams about her dead sister and Kokum. It’s a horror novel that grapples with the effects of grief, and is an ode to female relations and the strength found in kinship.
For the third event of this lineup, join Jessica Johns in conversation with award-winning writer Selina Boan.
Jessica Johns (she/her) is a queer nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation. Her debut novel, Bad Cree, was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, won the MacEwan Book of the Year award, and was a finalist for CBC Canada Reads 2024. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has been published in Cosmonauts Avenue, Glass Buffalo, CV2, SAD Magazine, Red Rising Magazine, Poetry is Dead, Bad Nudes, Grain, The Fiddlehead, Canadian Art, C Magazine, Brick, Reissue, Maisonneuve, The Globe and Mail, Best Canadian Essays 2019, among others.
Selina Boan (she/her) is a white settler–nehiyaw poet living on the traditional, unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ílwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. Her work has been published widely, including in The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2020. She has received several honours for her work, including Room’s 2018 Emerging Writer Award and the 2017 National Magazine Award for Poetry. She is currently a poetry editor for Rahila’s Ghost Press and a member of the Growing Room Collective.
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