Reimagining James Fenimore Cooper’s nineteenth-century text The Last of the Mohicans from the contemporary perspective of an urban Nisga’a person whose relationship to land and traditional knowledge was severed by colonial violence, Jordan Abel explores what it means to be Indigenous without access to familial territory and complicates popular understandings about Indigenous storytelling. Engaging the land through fiction and metaphor, the successive chapters of Empty Spaces move toward an eerie, looping, and atmospheric rendering of place that evolves despite the violent and reckless histories of North America. The result is a bold and profound new vision of history that decenters human perception and forgoes Westernized ways of seeing.
(From McClelland & Stewart)

Caroline is seven years old when her family flees Pinochet’s regime, leaving Chile for Montreal on Christmas Eve, 1986. She fears Santa won’t find them on the plane but wakes to find a new doll at her side, her mother preserving the holiday even amidst persecution and turmoil. This symbol of care is repeated throughout their relocation as her parents work tirelessly to provide the family with a new vision of the future.

Once in Canada, Caroline accompanies her parents as they clean banks at night. She experiences racist microaggressions at school, discovers Québécois popular culture, and explores her love of reading and writing in French. Slowly, the Andean peaks disappear from Caroline’s drawings and a fracture between her parents’ identity and her own begins to grow.
(From Book*hug Press)

On the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be. She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve, is nothing but supportive; and they’ve recently moved to a wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto. And yet, Alice feels like an imposter. She isn’t connecting with Dawn, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from her watchful white neighbours. Her growing self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.

At first, Alice is convinced her discomfort is of her own making, but then strange things start happening. She finds herself losing bits of time, hearing voices she can’t explain, and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbours’ passive-aggressive behaviour begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn’s survival. . . She just has to finish it before it’s too late.
(From Doubleday Canada)

Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate postcolonial realities. This innovative hybrid novel envisions a shared past between two Indigenous cultures, set on reimagined versions of Vancouver Island and Aotearoa New Zealand that sit side by side in the ocean.

Each chapter is a fable, an autobiographical memory, a poem. A monster guards cultural objects in a museum, a woman uncovers her own grave, another woman remembers her estranged father. On rainforest beaches and grassy dunes, sisters and cousins contend with the ghosts of the past—all the way back to when the first foreign ships arrived on their shores.

In a testament to the resilience of Indigenous women, the two sides of this family, Coast Salish and Māori, must work together in understanding and forgiveness to heal that which has been forced upon them by colonialism. Tauhou is an ardent search for answers, for ways to live with truth. It is a longing for home, to return to the land and sea.
(From House of Anansi Press)

In 1898, Pirbhai is only thirteen when he is taken from his village in India to labour for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, he commits a terrible act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for generations. Pirbhai’s children go on to thrive in Uganda during the waning days of colonial rule, but his granddaughters will come of age in a divided nation. After the entire family is forced to flee Idi Amin’s brutal military dictatorship, these three sisters will find themselves scattered around the world, each bearing losses and secrets as they try to find a place to call home, and their way back to one another. An enthralling saga of complicity and resistance, Janika Oza’s A History of Burning is a profoundly moving debut novel about the stories our families choose to share—and those that remain unspoken.
(From McClelland & Stewart)

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades.
(From HarperCollins Publishers Ltd)

Jordan Abel is a queer Nisga’a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of “The Place of Scraps” (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), “Un/inhabited,” and “Injun” (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize). NISHGA won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres award, and was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. Abel’s work has been published in numerous journals and magazines—including Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, and The Fiddlehead—and his work has been anthologized widely, including The Broadview Introduction to Literature. Abel completed a Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University in 2019, and is currently an associate professor in the english and film studies department at the University of Alberta, where he teaches Indigenous literatures, research-creation, and creative writing.

Caroline Dawson was born in Chile in 1979 and immigrated to Quebec with her family when she was seven. As the Andes Disappeared, originally published in French as Là où je me terre (2020), was a finalist for various prizes, including the Prix des libraires du Québec and Radio Canada’s Combat national des livres, and won the Prix littéraire des Collégiens and the Prix AIEQ. She is also the author of the poetry collection, “Ce qui est tu” (2023). Dawson taught sociology and co-organized the Montreal Youth Literature Festival.

Sadly, Caroline passed away on May 19, 2024, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Alicia Elliott is a Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. She has written for the Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt and many other publications. 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 (by Roxane Gay), 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.

Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, W̱SÁNEĆ) holds an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters. She won the 2020 Adam Foundation Prize and was runner-up in the 2021 Surrey Hotel-Newsroom writer’s residency award. She lives on the Kāpiti Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Janika Oza’s debut novel, A History of Burning, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. She is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award. She has received support from The Millay Colony, Tin House Summer and Winter Workshops, VONA/Voices of Our Nation, and the One Story Summer Writers’ Conference, and her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. A chapter of A History of Burning was longlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize and published in Prairie Schooner. She lives in Toronto.

Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was a critically acclaimed bestseller in Canada. Her work has appeared in The Antigonish Review, Grain, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Dalhousie Review, and Filling Station. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars Program. Peters has a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto, and she is a graduate of the master of fine arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amanda Peters lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, with her fur babies, Holly and Pook.

Noaah is a sixteen-year-old writer from Vancouver. He has enjoyed reading as long as he has been able to read, which developed into a love of writing poetry and short fiction, ignited by the 2020 short story collection “How to Pronounce Knife.” He has a soft spot for sock puppets and unsolved mysteries, and when possible, both at the same time.

What compelled you to write this story?
The basis for this story came from the idea of replacements, which inspire a lot of my writing. As the world gets faster, more and more things are replaced—even other people. I wanted to explore how it feels to lose something and have that gap be filled without fanfare; how things important to us can be lost quietly, and if we can ever really move on from that silence.

Abigail McGhie is a twelfth grade student from Ottawa, Ontario. She is currently attending the literary arts program at Canterbury High School, where they write about everything from surrealist lamp-wives to the Franklin expedition.

What compelled you to write this story?
This piece was born from an assignment about subtext. I have always been fascinated by the relationship between religion and those who practice it (to the tune of Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis), the contrast between the faithful and the skeptical. Where does their fervor come from? How do we believe so thoroughly without seeing? What happens when that belief wavers?

Avery Moschee is a seventeen-year-old writer from Newmarket, Ontario. She enjoys reading mystery novels, writing poetry, and is currently finishing her senior year of high school, with plans to study medical science in post-secondary after graduation.

What compelled you to write this story?
When approaching this story, I wanted to delve into how different people cope with feelings of grief, loss, and hopelessness, while also navigating complicated family dynamics.

Khaliya Rajan is an eleventh grade student at York House School in Vancouver, Canada. She is an accomplished writer who has had her work featured in various publications. She mainly enjoys using her creative outlet to write poetry and short stories. In her spare time, Khaliya enjoys volunteering at her local Ismaili Jamatkhana, where she was appointed the youth team lead in 2022. In this position, she uses her creative and organizational skills to help bring youth together for fun activities and social gatherings to ensure everyone feels included and accepted. She has participated in a group that ran and judged a writing contest at the Vancouver Public Library. Khaliya is an active member of her school community. She is a student ambassador and a journalist for York House School’s Blackwatch newspaper. In April 2024, she organized a Ramadan food drive, in which she collected over two hundred items that were then donated to the Muslim food bank.

What compelled you to write this story?
I wanted to share aspects of a personal story with flashbacks and then use my creativity to write the story engagingly to keep it fictional and entertaining. I also wanted to give the reader some insight, or comfort, when reading about someone experiencing flashbacks and struggling to overcome their fear.

Natalie Webber is a seventeen-year-old creative writer from Nova Scotia. She frequents theatre, often performing in several different types of plays or musicals, and is currently part of her school’s drama club. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is one of her first ever writing pieces, and it takes a small amount of inspiration from the book of the same name.

What compelled you to write this story?
In Math class, I began to think about the pressures that young women have to go through in order to be deemed as beautiful since our value as women is tied to our desirability. The idea hit me, and I just had to get it out.

Born with a distaste for reading, Payten’s literary journey transformed in elementary school when Archie comics became her gateway to a world of humor and engaging personas. It wasn’t until she encountered Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief that her true passion for reading ignited, leading her on an unexpected adventure through the captivating realm of Greek mythology.

Inspired by a wide array of book genres, Payten is not only a dedicated reader but is also growing into a young author. Her journey took a pivotal turn when she found a deep love of writing during her attendance at Youthwrite, a writing camp tailored for avid young authors.
When she is not reading, Payten’s heart finds joy in the graceful art of ballet and spending time with her family.

What compelled you to write this story?
It was the idea that nobody takes the time to listen to their voicemails, more or less make them now, and rather prefer texting. During the short story, each character finds comfort in talking about things instead of texting.

The other thought was to explore how people take different amounts of time to handle a problem or deal with grief.

Billy-Ray Belcourt (he/him) is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. His debut novel, A Minor Chorus, was longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award. His bestselling memoir, “A History of My Brief Body,” won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award. He won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection, “This Wound Is a World,” which was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Belcourt is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s school of creative writing.

francesca ekwuyasi is a learner, artist, and storyteller born in Lagos, Nigeria. She was awarded the Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers in 2022 for her debut novel Butter Honey Pig Bread (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020). Butter Honey Pig Bread was also shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Dublin Literary Award. Butter Honey Pig Bread was placed second on CBC’s Canada Reads, where it was selected as one of five contenders in 2021 for “the one book that all of Canada should read.”

francesca’s writing has appeared in The Malahat Review, Transition Magazine, Room Magazine, Brittle Paper, The Ex-Puritan, C Magazine, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Canadian Art, Chatelaine, and elsewhere. Her short story “Ọrun is Heaven” was longlisted for the 2019 Journey Prize. She co-authored Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023), a multi-genre collaborative book with Roger Mooking.

Kaie Kellough is a novelist, poet, and sound performer. His work emerges at a crossroads of social engagement and formal experiment. From western Canada, he lives in Montréal and has roots in Guyana, South America.

Magnetic Equator (poetry, McClelland and Stewart 2019) was awarded the 2020 Griffin Poetry prize. His collection of short stories, “Dominoes at the Crossroads” (Véhicule, 2020), was nominated for multiple national awards, and won the A.M. Klein Prize for fiction.

Kaie has written plays for television and librettos for large musical ensembles. His solo and group sound performances have toured internationally.

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books, and the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Trillium Book Award, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have won an O. Henry Prize and have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and Granta.

Photo by Steph Martyniuk.