7 new books by Indigenous authors you need to add to your reading list

June is Indigenous Book Club Month and National Indigenous History Month in Canada. To mark this occasion, Métis writer Cherie Dimaline curated this list of seven new releases by Indigenous writers that are worth reading.

• Indigenous words for an Indigenized world by Cherie Dimaline

Dimaline is the author of the books Red Rooms, The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy, A Gentle Habit and The Marrow Thieves. In 2017, she won the Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text and Kirkus Prize for young readers' literature for The Marrow Thieves. In 2018, singer Jully Black defended The Marrow Thieves on Canada Reads.

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

Celebratory, sexy, harsh, honest, difficult, artful — Joshua Whitehead uses his masterful control of poetic narrative and empowerment to bring us a hero like none other. Jonny is not to be controlled, boxed-in or defined. But he is definitely to be loved. And we do.

• Why Joshua Whitehead explores being Indigiqueer and two-spirit in his debut novel

My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle

When a legend decides to lay it all out, to recount the most cutting questions and share the fullest answers, we should all listen. And when it's written this well, with this much wisdom and in such a distinct voice, it's impossible not to.

• Lee Maracle stormed CanLit stages to make sure her story was heard

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

This work is highly original, cutting, comforting, damaging, healing, gentle and brutal all at once. It takes a certain kind of skill married to a particular brand of guts to pull this off. Thank the writing gods, Mailhot has both in spades.

• Terese Marie Mailhot confronts Indigenous stereotypes in memoir

There There by Tommy Orange

The Institute for American Indian Arts MFA is on a roll. Terese Marie Mailhot and Tommy Orange both come out of this prestigious Santa Fe-based program. The characters and settings in There There are remarkable in their diversity, experience and voice. This stunning book signals the start of a new age in Indigenous fiction. 

• Tommy Orange on his debut novel There There

Why Indigenous Literature Matters by Daniel Heath Justice

Daniel Heath Justice remains one of the most important and community-positioned voices in the Indigenous Literatures spectrum. This long-awaited book is a love song to the works and movements of generations of writers, storytellers and knowledge holders. And the writing he captures it with is exquisite. 

• 'Our literatures matter because we do,' says Daniel Heath Justice

Elements of Indigenous Style by Gregory Younging

Years of advice, guidance and best practices come together in one not-to-be-missed volume. Everything from capitalization to protocols to community input, Elements of Indigenous Style does a lot of the heavylifting where structure and policy are concerned. And it begs of us to continue the conversation, having set up the right kind of meeting space to do so.

• Gregory Younging shares shares 5 common mistakes editors make

The Journey Forward by Richard Van Camp and Monique Gray Smith

When We Play Our Drums, They Sing! by Richard Van Camp and Lucy & Lola by Monique Gray Smith are two novellas about reconciliation, healing and a way forward in one beautifully packaged flip book. Van Camp and Gray Smith each take a side of the column and present different young Indigenous characters as they navigate a world made uneasy by colonialism and fracture.

• Monique Gray Smith wants everyone to read 'a variety of lived experiences and perspectives'

• Richard Van Camp calls comic books movies you can hold in your hands