In episode 27, show host and I Love Libraries editor Phil Morehart speaks with two writers who capture unique aspects of the Indigenous American experience in their work: Kyle Edwards and Angeline Boulley.
Kyle Edwards is an award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and writer from the Lake Manitoba First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, and a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. He’s the managing editor at Native News Online, a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Kyle’s debut novel, “Small Ceremonies,” is a poignant coming-of-age story that follows a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg’s North End, a remote area at the border of Canada’s eastern woodlands and central prairies. It’s a story of friendship, hope, fear, and struggle in the waning days of high school when the future is uncertain, scary and hopeful; a story of growing up forgotten, urban, poor, and Indigenous; and a story about hockey.
Kyle joins the show to discuss “Small Ceremonies” and its influences, his work as a journalist, the importance of telling the stories of Indigenous peoples, and how he libraries.
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Her debut novel, “Firekeeper’s Daughter” (2021), is a New York Times bestseller and recipient of many international accolades, including the ALA Printz and Morris Awards, the YA Goodreads Choice Award, and the Walter Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. It was also named one of the top 100 young adult novels of all time by Time.
Angeline’s new novel, “Sisters in the Wind,” is a fascinating mystery about an Ojibwe teen who has been on the run since her father’s death and the dark secrets that arise when she finally stops to confront her past—one that’s found her a ward of the foster care system, unsure of her own identity, and literally fighting to survive against unknown actors.
Angeline joins the show to discuss “Sisters in the Wind,” her research process, writing Indigenous American stories, book bans, and how she libraries.
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Photos: Kyle Edwards by Pautrot-Juliane, Angeline Boulley by Marcella Hadden.
