Canadian Literature & Poetry
in English
Indigenous Literatures
Indigenous Stories & Literatures: Anthologies, History & Criticism
Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island
A range of Indigenous stories from across Turtle Island
(North America): short fiction, narratives, illustrated stories, and personal essays. This
collection explores core concepts in Indigenous literary expression, such as the relations
between land, language, and community.
From Oral to Written: A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in
Canada, 1980–2010
A study of Native literature published in Canada between 1980
and 2010, written in multiple Aboriginal languages, in French, and in English by the members
of the Haida Nation on Haida Gwaii to the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton
Island.
PR 9188.2
.I54 H54 2017
Stacks
Kisiskâciwan: Indigenous Voices from Where the River Flows
Swiftly
Rich oral narratives from Cree, Saulteaux, Nakoda, Dakota,
Dene, and Metis cultures, early writings from Cree missionaries, speeches and letters by
Treaty Chiefs, stories from elders, archival discoveries, and contemporary literary works in
all genres.
Historically and culturally comprehensive, voices include Big
Bear, Thunderchild, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Edward Ahenakew, Maria Campbell, Buffy
Sainte-Marie, Rita Bouvier, Harold Johnson, Gregory Scofield, Warren Cariou, Louise Halfe,
and many more.
Ákaitsinikssiisti: Blackfoot Stories of Old
Eight Blackfoot stories told by Lena Russell, a fluent
speaker of Blackfoot from the Kainai (Blood) reserve in southern Alberta.
PM 2344 .A2
R87 2014
Stacks
Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and
the Third Sex
An in-depth, paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of stories on
womb memories, birth, namesaking, and reincarnation.
Bawaajigan: Stories of Power
A collection of Gothic and horror short stories by
First-Nations authors.
Contributors are Richard Van Camp, Lee Maracle, Katie-Jo
Rabbit, Autumn Bernhardt, Brittany Johnson, Gord Grisenthwaite, Joanne Arnott, Délani
Valin, Cathy Smith, David Geary, Yugcetun Anderson, Gerald Silliker Pisim Maskwa,
Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith, Sara General, Wendy Bone, Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, and
Karen Lee White.
PN 6120.95
.D67 B5 2019
Stacks
Tekahionwake: E. Pauline Johnson’s Writings on Native
North America
A diverse range of Johnson’s writings on what was then
called “the Indian question” and on the question of her own complex Indigenous
identity.
Six thematic sections gather Johnson’s poetry, fiction,
and non-fiction, and a rich selection of historical appendices provide context for her
public life and her work as a feminist and activist for Indigenous people.
PR 9199.3
.J6 A6 2016
Stacks
Omushkego Oral History Project
A library of recordings of legends, mystery stories, and
oral history of the Omushkegowak or “Swampy Cree” people of the Hudson and
James Bay Lowlands of northern Manitoba and Ontario.
Why Indigenous Literatures Matter
Part survey of the field of indigenous literary studies, part
cultural history, and part literary polemic, this book asserts the vital significance of
literary expression to the political, creative, and intellectual efforts of Indigenous
Peoples today.
Introduction to Indigenous Literary Criticism in Canada
The essays in this volume explore issues that mark the study
of Indigenous literature: appropriation of voice, stereotyping, traditional knowledge,
language, land, spirituality, orality, colonialism, post-colonialism, gender, hybridity,
authenticity, resistance, and ethical scholarship.
PR 9194.5
.I5 I58 2015
Stacks
Literatures, Communities, and Learning: Conversations with
Indigenous Writers
A collection of conversations with Richard Van Camp, Lee
Maracle, Daniel Heath Justice, Marilyn Dumont, and others. They centre on the writers’
concerns, critiques, and craft, and how they navigate the challenge of storying their
communities in politically charged terrain.
The topics explored in the interviews include discourses of
Indigenization, reconciliation, appropriation, and representation, as well as Indigenous
publishing and literary studies.
Literary Land Claims: The “Indian Land Question”
from Pontiac’s War to Attawapiskat
Examines John Richardson’s novels about Pontiacs War
and the War of 1812 that document the breaking of British promises to Indigenous nations.
Activating the Heart Storytelling, Knowledge Sharing, and
Relationship
An exploration of storytelling as a tool for knowledge
production and sharing to build new connections between people and their histories,
environments, and cultural geographies.
The collection pays particular attention to the significance
of storytelling in Indigenous knowledge frameworks and extends into other ways of knowing in
works where scholars have embraced narrative and story as a part of their research
approach.
Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures
Organized into five subject areas: Position, the necessity of
considering where you come from and who you are; Imagining Beyond Images and Myths, a
history and critique of circulating images of Indigenousness; Debating Indigenous Literary
Approaches; Contemporary Concerns, a consideration of relevant issues; and finally Classroom
Considerations, pedagogical concerns particular to the field.
Each section is introduced by an essay that orients the
reader and provides ideological context.
Magic Weapons: Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community After
Residential School
A major survey of Indigenous writings on the residential
school system: Rita Joe (Mi’kmaq) and Anthony Apakark Thrasher (Inuit), Basil Johnston
(Ojibway), and Tomson Highway (Cree).
Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy
and Healing
Analyzes contemporary autobiography, fiction, and drama to
reveal how these texts respond to and critique public policy, and how literature functions
as medicine to help cure the suffering inflicted by the colonial legacy.
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative
PR 9199.3
.K44177 T77 2003
Stacks
(Ad)dressing Our Words: Aboriginal Perspectives on Aboriginal
Literatures
A critical anthology of essays by Aboriginal academics
provides an in-depth analysis of literature by Aboriginal authors.
The contributors study the works of their peers with an
insightful understanding of the significance of contemporary literature within Aboriginal
cultural paradigms.
PS 8089.5
.I6 A32 2001
Stacks
Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of
Literature
The first collection in Canada of literary analysis on Native
Literature written by First-Nations scholars. The book includes
reviews, poetry analysis, overviews of Native literatures. The contributors are Marilyn
Dumont and Kimberly Blaeser, among other writers.
PR 9188.2
.I5 L66 1993
Stacks
Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations
A collection of theoretical essays, articles, interviews,
fiction, personal essays, poems, and stories that provide a revisioning of trickster
criticism.
When the Other is Me: Native Resistance Discourse 1850–
1990
An interdisciplinary study of the Native literary response to
racist writing in the Canadian historical and literary record from 1850 to 1990.
The Homing Place: Indigenous and Settler Literary Legacies of
the Atlantic
Bryant explores how colonized and Indigenous environments
occupy the same given geographical coordinates even while existing in distinct
epistemological worlds through the analysis of a wide range of northeastern texts, including
Puritan captivity narratives, Wabanaki wampum belts, and contemporary Innu poetry.
Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism
An excellent critical introduction to the place of
postcolonial theory in Canadian literary criticism. Includes essays by George Grant,
Northrop Frye, Margaret Atwood, Dennis Lee, Robert Kroetsch, Linda Hutcheon, Diana Brydon,
Thomas King, Terry Goldie, Arun Mukherjee, Smaro Kamboureli, Stephen Slemon, and Roy Miki.
PR 9189.6
.U5 2004
Stacks
Cultural Grammars of Nation, Diaspora, and Indigeneity in
Canada
Considers how the terms of critical debate in literary and
cultural studies in Canada have shifted with respect to matters of race, nation, and
difference.
Tropes and Territories: Short Fiction, Postcolonial Readings,
Canadian Writing in Context
Analyzes the influence of postcolonial criticism on the
reading, writing, and status of short fiction: Métis narratives, Maori myth, and stories by
Thomas King, Alice Munro, Salman Rushdie, Alistair MacLeod, Mavis Gallant, and Emily Carr.
Listening to Old Woman Speak: Natives and Alter Natives in
Canadian Literature
Examines the historical context of the portrayal of Native
characters in Canadian literature, including the prose of Anna Jameson and Susanna Moodie
and the poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott.
Transatlantic Upper Canada: Portraits in Literature, Land, and
British-Indigenous Relations
Examines the writings of Haudenosaunee leaders John Norton
and John Brant and Anishinabeg authors Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Peter Jones, and George
Copway, as well as European figures John Beverley Robinson, John Strachan, Anna Brownell
Jameson, and Sir Francis Bond Head.
Hutchings argues that, despite their cultural differences,
many factors connected these writers, including shared literary interests, cross-Atlantic
journeys, metropolitan experiences, mutual acquaintance, and engagement in ongoing dialogue
over Indigenous territory and governance.
Luminous Ink: Writers on Writing in Canada
A collection of original pieces by some of Canada’s
best known writers. The essays ask, and attempt to answer, what it means
to be a writer in Canada, what the literature of today can tell us about Canada’s
social arrangements, its political and aesthetic shapes, and its preoccupations.
Contributors include Margaret Atwood, George Elliott Clarke,
Camilla Gibb, Rawi Hage, Lawrence Hill, Greg Hollingshead, Lee Maracle, Lisa Moore, Michael
Ondaatje, Marie-Helaine Poitras, Pascale Quiviger, Nino Ricci, Eden Robinson, Madeleine
Thien, Judith Thompson, M.G. Vassanji, Rita Wong, and others.
PR 9184.6
.L86 2018
Stacks
Here is Queer: Nationalisms, Sexualities and the Literatures of
Canada
Considers how the interconnected concepts of nationalism and
sexuality have helped shape the production and reception of Canadian and First-Nations
literatures.
PR 9185.5
.H6 D52 1999
Stacks
Northern Experience and the Myths of Canadian Culture
An investigation of the idea of the “North” as an
element of Canada’s national identity and the development of this theme in Canadian
culture and Canadian literature.
Echoing Silence: Essays on Arctic Narrative
In this 1995 symposium on Arctic narrative, storytellers,
politicians and academics assembled at the University of Ottawa to celebrate the Arctic’s folk customs, its landscape and its literary traditions.
The essays present northern legends, accounts of the Franklin
Expeditions, the oral narrative traditions and the interaction between the southern and
northern Canadian cultures.
Far off Metal River: Inuit Lands, Settler Stories, and the
Making of the Contemporary Arctic
Explores how Samuel Hearne’s account of the Bloody
Falls massacre has shaped the ongoing colonization and economic exploitation of the North.
The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature
A comprehensive, authoritative guide to many different
genres, topics, and aspects of Canadian literary history, including Indigenous literatures,
poetry, oral traditions, Métis literature, and Indigenous women’s writing.
The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature
A comprehensive introduction to major writers, genres and
topics in Canadian literature, including Indigenous writing.
The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature
A complete history of Canadian writing from its beginnings,
including Indigenous literatures and poetry.
Canadian Literature
Critical study of Canadian literature, placing
internationally successful Canadian authors in the context of their national literary
history.
While the focus of the book is on twentieth-century and
contemporary writing, it also charts the historical development of Canadian literature and
discusses important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors.
The chapters focus on four central topics in Canadian
culture: colonization, race, ethnicity; wildernesses, cities, regions; desire; and histories
and stories. Authors chosen for close analysis include Thomas King, Margaret Atwood,
Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, and Carol Shields.
PR 9189.6
.H36 2007
Stacks
Canadian Literature at the Crossroads of Language and Culture:
Selected Essays by Barbara Godard, 1987–2005
Godard is recognized as one of the most influential scholars
in the area of Canadian Studies. This anthology of her collected essays includes “The
Politics of Representation: Some Native Canadian Women Writers,” first published in
1990.
PR 9193.5
.G63 2008
Stacks
Native North American Literature: Biographical and Critical
Information on Native Writers and Orators from the United States and Canada from Historical
Times to the Present
Part I, “Native American Oral Literatures,”
examines different aspects of oral literatures, such as oratory, the trickster, dreams and
songs, and revitalization movements.
Part II, “The Historical Emergence of Native American
Writing,” is federal government policy, autobiography, women’s autobiography,
and humour.
Part III, “A Native American Renaissance: 1967 to the
Present,” studies critical responses to Native American literature, approaches to
teaching, the literature of Canada, fiction, theatre, and the depiction of Native characters
in Anglo-American literature.
Coverage of both historical and contemporary Canadian First
Nations writers and poets: Beth Brant, Maria Campbell, Peter Blue Cloud, Tomson Highway,
Basil H. Johnston, E. Pauline Johnson, Peter Jones, Lee Maracle, Thomas King, Markoosie,
Beatrice Culleton Monsier, Daniel David Moses.
PS 508 .I5
N38 1994
Reference
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
The Biography provides authoritative biographical
information about significant figures of Canada’s past who died between the years 1000
and 1930, or whose last known date of activity falls within these years.
There are detailed articles on Canada’s major
historical figures, and short articles on minor personages who have hitherto found no place
in reference works or general histories.
Indian-Inuit Authors: An Annotated Bibliography
Summary of the contributions of northern writers to 1972 who
produced texts in various topics, from literary to political: books, anthologies, articles,
conferences, reports, poetry and songs, studies, theses, and periodicals.
Z 1365 .O7
Reference
Ethnic and Native Canadian Literature: A Bibliography
An older book (published in 1990), but it remains an
excellent resource for locating poetry, fiction, and drama authored by foreign-born authors
residing in Canada.
Z 1376 .E87
M57 1990
Reference
Five-Part Invention: A History of Literary History in Canada
Composed of five parts: immigrant communities, English
Canada, French Canada, First-Nations communities, and Inuit communities.
Major Scholarly Journals
ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature
Scholarly criticism of literatures in English, with
particular focus on the influence of colonization on literature. Peer-reviewed.
The Canadian Journal of Native Studies
Articles, bibliographies, book reviews, and discussions
related to all cultural aspects of Indigenous Peoples, including literature. Peer-reviewed.
Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review
Includes articles, interviews and commentaries on Canadian
writing. Peer-reviewed.
Journal of Canadian Studies
Includes articles on a wide range of studies on Canada:
literature, arts, architecture, anthropology, community planning, culture, the economy,
education, history, Indigenous issues, politics and public affairs, and sociology.
Peer-reviewed.
reviewed & updated 11 November 2021 | compiled by Agatha Barc, MI