Alicia Elliott and Brandi Bird among winners of 2024 Indigenous Voices Awards
CBC Books | Posted: June 21, 2024 5:34 PM | Last Updated: June 21
Mohawk writer Alicia Elliott and Treaty 1 territory-based writer Brandi Bird are among this year's winners of the Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs).
Since 2017, the IVAs have recognized emerging Indigenous writers across Canada for works in English, French and Indigenous languages. The awards have given a total of $206,000 to writers over their six-year history.
This year, the recipients received a total of $20,000 across all award categories.
Elliott takes home the award for published prose in English for her novel And Then She Fell.
And Then She Fell is a horror novel which follows a young woman named Alice struggling to navigate the early days of motherhood and live up to the unrealistic expectations of those around her.
Elliott is based in Brantford, Ont. Her writing has been published most recently in Room, Grain and The New Quarterly. She is also the author of the nonfiction book A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, a columnist for CBC Arts and CBC Books named her a writer to watch in 2019. She was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award.
"With horror and humour, tenderness and teachings, And Then She Fell grips you from page one and never lets go. Alice, a young Haudenosaunee mother, journeys through a kind of looking glass to create a mesmerising investigation of the messiness of motherhood, mental illness, the Disneyfication of honoured ancestors, micro and macro aggressions against Indigenous peoples, and the power of story. Alicia Elliott has written a smashing debut novel that heralds the arrival of a thrilling new voice in fiction," said the jury in a citation.
LISTEN | Alicia Elliott talks about her debut novel on The Sunday Magazine:
Métis author Carleigh Baker and Cree author, poet and academic Billy-Ray Belcourt represent the 2024 co-chairs for the published prose in English and published poetry in English awards; Francophone scholars Marie-Eve Bradette and Sarah Henzi were the co-chairs for the published prose in French and published poetry in French award categories.
The 2024 jurors were Frances Koncan, Emily Riddle, Shelagh Rogers, Smokii Sumac, Jordan Abel, Francis Langevin and Maya Cousineau Mollen.
Bird won the award for published poetry in English for her collection The All + Flesh.
The All + Flesh was shortlisted for two League of Canadian Poets prizes. It's a debut collection that explores both internal and external cultural landscapes and lineages from the perspective of a Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer.
"Brandi Bird creates the world out of the mud, like zhashk (muskrat) for their readers. This is a skillfully crafted collection, with so much care for form, their readers, and their community. A world of dizzying sickness and punch-to-the-gut heartache, Bird takes us in and leaves us wordless, breathless, the reader doubled over, curling into the poem," said the IVA jury in a citation.
Bird is an Indigiqueer writer from Treaty 1 territory who is currently studying at the University of British Columbia. Their poems have been featured in various publications such as Catapult and Room Magazine. The All + Flesh is their first book.
LISTEN | Books columnist Makda Mulatu reviews Brandi Bird's debut poetry collection:
The Story and Fiction in French Award was shared between two recipients: Georges Pisimopeo for Piisim Napeu and J.D. Kurtness for La vallée de l'étrang.
The list of the 2024 IVA winners is below.
- Prose in English: And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
- Poetry in English: The All + Flesh by Brandi Bird
- Story and Fiction in French (co-winners: Piisim Napeu by Georges Pisimopeo and La vallée de l'étrange by J.D. Kurtness
- Poetry and Drama in French (co-winners): Akuteu by Soleil Launière and Nipinapunan by Alexis Vollant
Last month, the IVAs announced recipients in categories of unpublished poetry and prose in English, with all eight finalists receiving awards of $500 each, plus editorial support and possible publication from Yarrow Magazine.
Previous winners include Cody Caetano, Emily Riddle, Brian Thomas Isaac, jaye simpson, Tanya Tagaq and Jesse Thistle.
The IVAs are a crowd-funded non-profit organization with additional support provided by the Pamela Dillon & Family Gift Fund, Penguin Random House Canada, the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), Scholastic Canada and Douglas & McIntyre.