Michelle Good, Author
Truth Telling is a collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada. From resistance and reconciliation to the resurgence and reclamation of Indigenous power, Michelle Good explores the issues through a series of personal essays. With authority, intelligence and insight, Michelle Good delves into the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin social institutions in Canada and prevents meaningful and substantive reconciliation. Pre-order your copy today at Amazon.
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Mireille Silcoff (Editor)
Selected by editor Mireille Silcoff, the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Essays showcases the best Canadian nonfiction writing published in 2021. Features work by: Michelle Good
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.
Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.
With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.
"Tracing the lives of residential school survivors, Good's Five Little Indians is a triumph of braided narrative, and a document on strength and resilience."
- CARLEIGH BAKER, author of Bad Endings
"Wounding and powerful, Five Little Indians is epic story weaving. Haunting and profound, this book is another reminder that residential schools will always be the sorrow in Canada's bones. Michelle Good is a force and a lighthouse and I cannot wait to see what she does next."
- RICHARD VAN CAMP, Tłı̨chǫ Dene, author of The Lesser Blessed and Moccasin Square Gardens
"Michelle Good's Five Little Indians is an elegant and poignant portrayal of truth, love and endurance. Filled with triumph, survival and healing, Good's writing takes your hand and leads you gently to the kitchen table. There, Good pours you a cup of tea and shares the most powerful beauty and resilience that lives in the stories of all Indigenous People. This book will live with you"
- KAREN McBRIDE, author of Crow Winter
"In this stunning debut novel, Michelle Good opens a compassionate, devastating window into the human cost of colonization. Through rich, interwoven stories, Michelle shows the suffering, trauma and injustice Canada inflicted on tens of thousands of children, their families, communities and Nations, and honours the strength, beauty and courage of those who never should have had to endure it. Five Little Indians is a staggeringly powerful book - a vital read."
- JESSICA McDIARMID, author of Highway of Tears: A True Store of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Helen Humphreys (Guest Editor), Molly Peacock, Anita Lahey (Series Editors)
Guest edited by Helen Humphreys, this ninth edition of Canada’s vibrant yearly anthology features the fifty finest Canadian poems published during 2015. The Best Canadian Poetry series, which thrives under the stewardship of acclaimed series editor, Molly Peacock, and assistant series editor, Anita Lahey, ushers readers into the heart of the diverse Canadian poetry scene. A must-read for anyone with a stake or interest in contemporary Canadian literature.
Anita Lahey (Editor), Molly Peacock (Editor)
The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English takes the pulse of the last decade of Canadian poetry with ninety superb poems that have excelled—twice—at the test of “the best.” With poems chosen from the first nine volumes of this landmark series, this special tenth-anniversary edition highlights a vibrant variety of subjects from romance and family to ecology and the economy—not to mention blizzards and bears. Ranging from iconic poets Michael Ondaatje, Anne Carson, George Elliott Clarke, and P.K. Page to notable upstarts, the anthology includes an index for readers, notes from the poets, an illuminating analysis of Canadian poetics by series editor Molly Peacock, and provocative excerpts from past introductions by guest editors Stephanie Bolster, A.F. Moritz, Lorna Crozier, Priscila Uppal, Carmine Starnino, Sue Goyette, Sonnet L’Abbé, Jacob McArthur Mooney, and Helen Humphreys.
Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell & Christi Belcourt, Editors
In Keetsahnak / Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters, the tension between personal, political, and public action is brought home starkly. This important collective volume both witnesses the significance of the travelling exhibition Walking With Our Sisters and creates a model for antiviolence work from an Indigenous perspective. The contributors look at the roots of violence and how it diminishes life for all. They acknowledge the destruction wrought by colonial violence, and also look at controversial topics such as lateral violence, challenges in working with “tradition,” and problematic notions involved in “helping.” Through stories of resilience, resistance, and activism, the editors give voice to powerful personal testimony and allow for the creation of knowledge.
Contributors: Kim Anderson, Tracy Bear, Christi Belcourt, Robyn Bourgeois, Rita Bouvier, Maria Campbell, Maya Chacaby, Madeleine Dion Stout, Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group, Susan Gingell, Michelle Good, Laura Harjo, Sarah Hunt, Robert Innes, Beverley Jacobs, Tanya Kappo, Tara Kappo, Lyla Kinoshameg, Helen Knott, Erin Konsmo, Sandra Lamouche, Jo-Anne Lawless, Kelsey Leonard, Ann-Marie Livingston, Brenda MacDougall, Sylvia Maracle, Jenell Navarro, Darlene Okemaysim-Sicotte, Pahan Pte San Win, Ramona Reece, Kimberly Robertson, Leanne Simpson, Christine Sy, Alexandria Wilson.
Kim Anderson is a Metis writer and Associate Professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Maria Campbell is a Metis author, playwright, facilitator, and Elder who lives in Saskatoon. Christi Belcourt is a Michif (Metis) visual artist from Ontario, and a lead co-ordinator for the Walking With Our Sisters commemoration.
Edited by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm & Jeannette Armstrong Published by Theytus Books, 1996