The finalists for this year’s Indigenous Voices Awards have been announced.

The awards recognize emerging Indigenous writers. This year’s 27 finalists are nominated in nine categories for works in English, French, and Indigenous languages. The finalists were announced Saturday at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal.

Winners will be announced on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day. This year’s $39,000 in prize money will be divided among the winners.

The jurors for this year’s awards are Jordan Abel, Joanne Arnott, Carleigh Baker, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Michelle Coupal, Margery Fee, Marie-Andrée Gill, Francis Langevin, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Katherena Vermette, and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

The 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards are administered by co-chairs Deanna Reder, Sophie McCall, and Sarah Henzi of Simon Fraser University.

Published prose in English: fiction

• Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Ghost Lake (Kegedonce Press)
• Jenn Ashton, People Like Frank (Tidewater Press)
• Michelle Good, Five Little Indians (HarperCollins Canada)
• Michael Hutchinson, The Case of the Missing Auntie (Second Story Press)
• Katłįà, Land-Water-Sky / Ndè-Tı-Yat’a (Fernwood Publishing)

Published prose in English: creative nonfiction and life-writing

• Bevann Fox, Genocidal Love: A Life After Residential School (University of Regina Press)
• Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane, Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance (Orca Book Publishers)
• Michelle Porter, Approaching Fire (Breakwater Books)

Unpublished prose in English

• Deanna M. Jacobson, “Hockey and Hot Chocolate”
• Amanda Peters, “Waiting for the Long Night Moon”
• Troy Sebastian, “The Mission”

Published poetry in English

• Norma Dunning, Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity (Bookland Press)
• Shalan Joudry, Waking Ground (Gaspereau Press)
• Tyler Pennock, Bones (Brick Books)
• Jaye Simpson, It Was Never Going to Be Okay (Nightwood Editions)

Unpublished poetry in English

• Brandi Bird, “Ode to Diabetes”
• Erica Violet Lee, “A Manifesto for the Morning and Forever After”
• Shaya MacDonald, “She Said to Me”
• Samantha Martin-Bird, “the indian (adultery) act & other poems”

Published prose in French

• Émilie Monnet, Okinum (Éditions Les Herbes Rouges)
• Jocelyn Sioui, Mononk Jules (Éditions Hannenorak)

Published poetry in French

• Shayne Michael, Fif et sauvage (Éditions Perce-Neige)
• Félix Perkins, Boiteur des bois (Éditions Perce-Neige)

Published graphic novels, comics, and illustrated books in any language

• Lisa Boivin, I Will See You Again (HighWater Press)
• Brianna Jonnie, with Nahanni Shingoose, illustrated by Neal Shannacappo, If I Go Missing (James Lorimer)
• Tasha Spillett, illustrated by Natasha Donovan, From the Roots Up: Surviving the City Vol. 2 (HighWater Press)

Published work in an Indigenous language

• Zacharias Kunuk, illustrated by Megan Kyak-Monteith, The Shaman’s Apprentice: Inuktitut (Inhabit Media)