ReconciliAction Resources: Fiction & Poetry
Short Stories
Islands of Decolonial Love by Call Number: PR9299.3 .S5485.I.75 2013ISBN: 9781894037884Publication Date: 2013-11-01In her debut collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation.
A Gentle Habit by Publication Date: 2015Following this theme of extraordinary ordinariness, A Gentle Habit is a collection of six new short stories focusing on the addictions of a diverse group of characters attempting normalcy in an unnatural world.
One Good Story, That One by Publication Date: 1993-01-01King's fabulous collection of short fiction, focuses, like his novels, on contemporary First Peoples and their interactions with a sometimes hostile, often misguided, and always different white culture and society.
About Poetry and Fiction Resources
The resources on this page generally deal less explicitly with Reconciliation than those on previous pages. Instead, poetry and fiction resources have been selected that illustrate some of the social and cultural effects associated with multigenerational trauma, as well as the perspectives of Indigenous people engaging with systemic oppression by a dominant culture.
Poetry
Calling Down the Sky by Call Number: PR9299.3 .D4345C34 2015ISBN: 9781772310054Publication Date: 2015describes deep personal experiences and post generational effects of the Canadian Aboriginal Residential School confinements in the 1950's when thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were placed in these schools against their parents' wishes.
North End Love Songs by Call Number: PR9299.3 .V474N67 2012ISBN: 9781897289761Publication Date: 2012-03-20"In North End Love Songs, Katherena Vermette uses spare language and brief, telling sketches to illuminate the aviary of a prairie neighbourhood. Vermette's love songs are unconventional and imminent, an examination and a celebration of family and community in all weathers, the beautiful as well as the less clement conditions. This collection is a very moving tribute, to the girls and the women, the boys and the men, and the loving trouble that has forever transpired between us." -- Joanne Arnott
Witness, I Am by ISBN: 0889713235Publication Date: 2016-10-01Witness, I Am is divided into three gripping sections of new poetry from one of Canada's most recognized poets. The first part of the book, "Dangerous Sound," contains contemporary themed poems about identity and belonging, undone and rendered into modern sound poetry. "Muskrat Woman," the middle part of the book, is a breathtaking epic poem that considers the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women through the reimagining and retelling of a sacred Cree creation story. The final section of the book, "Ghost Dance," raids the autobiographical so often found in Scofield's poetry, weaving the personal and universal into a tapestry of sharp poetic luminosity. From "Killer," Scofield eerily slices the dreadful in with the exquisite: "I could, this day of proficient blooms, / take your fingers, / tie them down one by one. This one for the runaway, / this one for the joker, / this one for the sass-talker, / this one for the judge, / this one for the jury. / Oh, I could kill you."
Burning in this Midnight Dream by ISBN: 9781550506655Publication Date: 2016Burning in this Midnight Dream is the latest collection of poems by Louise Bernice Halfe. Many were written in response to the grim tide of emotions, memories, dreams and nightmares that arose in her as the Truth and Reconciliation process unfolded.
Fiction
Indian Horse by Call Number: PR9299.2 .W15.I.54 2012ISBN: 9781553654025Publication Date: 2012The novel is an unflinching portrayal of the harsh reality of life in 1960s Canada, where racism reigns and Saul's spirit is destroyed by the alienating effects of cultural displacement.
Birdie by Publication Date: 2015-05-26Monkey Beach meets Green Grass, Running Water meets The Beachcombers in this wise and funny novel by a debut Cree author Birdie is a darkly comic and moving first novel about the universal experience of recovering from wounds of the past, informed by the lore and knowledge of Cree traditions.
The Break by Publication Date: 2016A critically acclaimed novel set in Winnipeg’s gritty North End. A series of shifting narratives exposes a larger, more comprehensive story about the lives of an extended Indigenous family. A powerful intergenerational saga.
Anthologies
The Winter We Danced by Call Number: E92 .W58 2014ISBN: 9781894037518Publication Date: 2014-04-01The Winter We Danced is a vivid collection of writing, poetry, lyrics, art and images from the many diverse voices that make up the past, present, and future of the Idle No More movement.
Dreaming in Indian by Publication Date: 2014-07-24Whether addressing the effects of residential schools, calling out bullies through personal manifestos, or simply citing hopes for the future, Dreaming In Indian refuses to shy away from difficult topics. Insightful, thought-provoking, and beautifully honest,
Manitowapow by Publication Date: 2012-01-24This anthology of Aboriginal writings from Manitoba takes readers back through the millennia and forward to the present day.
Sky Woman by Publication Date: 2005-09-27When Sky Woman fell from the upper world through a hole in the sky, earth was born. Since then, as Indigenous women, we have been resourceful, resilient and remarkable in our will to keep falling and moving forward. We fall to better ground because of the shining example of the incandescent lives of those who have gone before us.
