Eden Robinson
CBC Books | | Posted: June 27, 2018 7:33 PM | Last Updated: July 22, 2020
Author of Son of a Trickster, defended by Kaniehtiio Horn
About Eden Robinson
B.C. writer Eden Robinson has published novels, poems and short stories. Robinson's work, infused with dark humour, portrays the everyday lives of Indigenous people in coastal B.C. Her Kitimat-set debut novel, Monkey Beach, was nominated for the 2000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
In 2017, Son of a Trickster, a coming of age novel, was a finalist for that year's Scotiabank Giller Prize. 2017 was the year Robinson also received the Writers' Trust Fellowship.
Her latest book is the novel Trickster Drift.
- 100 writers in Canada you need to know
- Eden Robinson on her musical afterlife and dream CanLit Trivial Pursuit Partner
- Why it took Eden Robinson eight years to write Son of a Trickster
Why Eden Robinson wrote Son of a Trickster
"The Trickster is also known as Wee'git. He's a transforming raven and he has a very specific role in our culture. We tell our children Wee'git stories to teach them about protocol, or nuyum. But he teaches people this protocol by breaking all the rules. He is the bad example, the example of what not to do. So his stories are always funny and he's a very lively character. As a writer, I assumed that he was going to be narrating my story, but I quickly discovered that it was a lot like having Sherlock Holmes telling the story. It was pretty braggy from his point of view. I needed a Watson.
We tell our children Wee'git stories to teach them about protocol, or nuyum. But he teaches people this protocol by breaking all the rules. - Eden Robinson
"It was a real search to figure out who this Watson would be. I knew that Wee'git would go to the all-Native basketball tournament. He has a crush on a girl who has a crush on someone else. Wee'git transforms himself into that crush and they have a kid. I tried telling it from basically every point of view, and it wasn't working. At the same time, I was also writing short stories about an urban dance group in East Vancouver. One of the characters I was writing about was coming down on the Greyhound late at night. That scene haunted me, and I realized that the kid coming down to Vancouver was Jared — who was the baby that resulted in the Trickster hookup at the basketball tournament. Once I found Jared's voice, everything started to move."
Books by Eden Robinson
Interviews with Eden Robinson
The Canada Reads 2020 contenders
- Alayna Fender defending Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
- Akil Augustine defending Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
- Amanda Brugel defending We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
- Kaniehtiio Horn defending Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
- George Canyon defending From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle