The winner is
Carol Rose Daniels for her debut novel Bearskin
Diary.
Taken from the arms of her
mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was one of over twenty thousand
Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and
1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First
Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and
tired of being different, at the age of five she tried to scrub the brown off
her skin. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she
considers herself lucky. From this tragic period in her personal life and in
Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges
strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties
Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the
discriminations that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers
and sometimes even from herself.
The $5,000 prize,
presented jointly by the First Nations Communities READ program and Periodical
Marketers of Canada , recognizes works of outstanding Indigenous literature.
The 2015 novel
has also been selected for the First Nation Communities READ program for
2017-2018.
CBC Books
has great suggestions for other books by Indigenous writers. See http://www.cbc.ca/books/2016/06/aboriginal-day-authors-to-watch.html
for recommendations of up-and-coming indigenous writers by established Canadian
writers and http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/05/60-books-by-indigenous-writers-to-read-as-recommended-by-you.html
for recommendations of indigenous books by readers. Thanks CBC Books!
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