Blue Hand Books | Blue Indians Collective

 Watching Star Wars led Jesse Wente on a journey in search of Indigenous identity, truth and joy 'The reason I want Indigenous joy to be seen is because we're more than our tragedies...we're fully human' CBC Radio ·  September 17 Jesse Wente is a First Nations Canadian arts journalist and chairperson of the Canada Council for the Arts. (Red Works 2021) 20:49 Jesse Wente on Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance Jesse Wente is an Anishinaabe writer, broadcaster and arts leader. He's best known for the more than two decades he's spent as a columnist for CBC Radio's   Metro Morning . He has also worked at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2018, he was named the first executive director of the Indigenous Screen Office and in January of 2020, he was appointed chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. When he was just three years old, Wente fell in love with the 1977 epic space-opera film  Star Wars . He remembers it fondly be

  All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac All the Quiet Places is a novel by Brian Thomas Isaac. (Touchwood Editions) In All the Quiet Places , it's 1956 and young Eddie Toma lives on the far edge of the Okanagan Indian Reserve with his mother and little brother. In the summer, he tags along with his mother, his nephew and her friends to farm in Washington state. After tragedy strikes, Eddie comes home grief-stricken, confused and lonely. As he grows up, his life is governed by the decisions of the adults around him. And every time things start to look up, circumstances beyond his control crash down around him — and the effects of guilt, grief and despair keep piling up, threatening everything Eddie has ever known or loved. When you can read it: Oct. 12, 2021 Brian Thomas Isaac was born on the Okanagan Indian Reserve, in south central B.C. He's worked in oil fields, as a bricklayer, and he had a short career riding bulls in local rodeos. As a lover of s

  The Strangers by Katherena Vermette The Strangers is a novel by Katherena Vermette. (Vanda Fleury, Hamish Hamilton) In The Strangers , readers are brought into the dynamic world of the Stranger family, the shared pain of their past and the light that shines from the horizon. After spending time in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Being separated from her mother, Elsie, and her sister, Phoenix, is painful, but she's hoping for a new chapter in life. The three women diverge, reconnect, and fight to survive in a system that expects them to fail. When you can read it: Sept. 28, 2021 Read an excerpt and see the cover of Katherena Vermette's upcoming novel The Strangers Katherena Vermette is a Red River Métis writer from Winnipeg. Her debut poetry collection, North End Love Songs , won the 2013 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. Her first novel, The Break , won the Amazon First Novel Award, Margaret Laurence Award for F

  Manikanetish by Naomi Fontaine Manikanetish is a book by Naomi Fontaine. (Kizzy E. Steve, House of Anansi Press) In  Manikanetish , a young Innu woman, Yammie, returns to her home in the Uashat nation on Quebec's North Shore after 15 years of exile. She plans to teach language and drama at the community's school, but finds a community stalked by despair. When she accepts a position directing the school play, she sees an opportunity for her students to take charge of themselves.  When you can read it: Sept. 28, 2021 Naomi Fontaine is a member of the Innu Nation of Uashat. Her debut novel, Kuessipan , was made into a film that was featured at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. The French language edition of Manikanetish was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Awards and Radio Canada's Combat des livres 2019 .

The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour by Dawn Dumont The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour is a novel by Dawn Dumont. (Thistledown Press, Freehand Books) The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour  is about the trials and tribulations of a touring dance group. Right before a 15-day tour through Europe, all the performers in The Prairie Chicken dance troupe come down with the flu. So, John Greyeyes, a retired cowboy who hasn't danced in 15 years, is thrust into leading a hastily assembled group of replacement dancers. As the gaggle of amateur dancers make its way from one stop to another, nothing goes as planned and the tour becomes a string of madcap adventures.  When you can read it: Sept. 27, 2021 Dawn Dumont writes about the ups and downs of the modern Indigenous experience Dawn Dumont is a Plains Cree writer, comedian and actor who lives in Saskatoon. She is the author of Rose's Run , Glass Beads , and Nobody Cries at Bingo , which was shortlisted for the 2012 Alberta Readers Ch

  Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson Probably Ruby is a novel by Lisa Bird-Wilson. (CBC Books, Doubleday Canada) In Probably Ruby , Ruby is placed in a foster home shortly after birth. She is finally adopted by Alice and Mel, a less-than-desirable couple who can't afford to complain too much about Ruby's Indigenous roots. After her new parents' marriage falls apart, Ruby ends up in vulnerable and compromising situations — self-destructing on alcohol, drugs and bad relationships — that lead her to search for her Indigenous identity in the unlikeliest of places. When you can read it: Aug. 24, 2021 Lisa Bird-Wilson on the role of art in reconciliation Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Métis and nêhiyaw writer whose book Just Pretending won four Saskatchewan Book Awards. She's also the author of the poetry collection The Red Files .

  Tommy Orange hints about upcoming sequel to 'There There' By Chris Kopacz The much-anticipated sequel to author Tommy Orange’s acclaimed first novel, “There There,” will take readers to places they may not have gone before... A link to history His sequel to “There There” will pick up the lives of the original characters in the aftermath of the powwow but will also deal heavily with the early history of Indian boarding schools. It will begin differently than his first novel. “It definitely doesn’t have a non-fiction tone,” he said. “For instance, I'm speaking from the character of Pratt.” Orange said one of the characters he follows from the boarding schools will turn out to be related to Opal Viola, a character from “There

If Venus could do it, so can you. Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity Updated 6/27/21 You’ve set up your author’s website (you have, haven’t you?), and you’ve begun a blog. You are happily blogging away, secure in the belief that every time you hit “Publish” your thoughts are winging their way through the blogosphere, reaching millions of people who are hungry for your knowledge, wit and/or wisdom. The millions are not hungry. If anything, they are overfed. According to NM (that’s Nielson/McKinsey) Incite — a company formed to “discover industry-specific consumer insights and build relevant, differentiated and emotionally engaging brands … with the vision that real-time, authentic consumer expression in social media transforms how marketers build strong brands, create passionate and engaged brand communities, and ultimately achieve superior sales outcomes” (so many buzz words, so little content! I am sure you could write a better sentence than

 Details here . ROBIN WALL KIMMERER Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of  Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants , which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book,  Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses , was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology.  EVENT AND BOOK This special  TICKETED  virtual event is presented in partnership with For Love of Water (FLOW), a nonprofit dedicat

Award winning journalist and multi-genre Indigenous author Trace L. Hentz offers critical concise and insightful examination of current events, historical and headline news, and delves into the esoteric in her powerful new creative non-fiction “WHAT JUST HAPPENED,” the second in a series “It’s a Miracle We’ve Survived This Far.” As she explores in the book how the system isn’t broken, it was built this way, she expands on what is missing from today’s media coverage. “Our attention span is getting shorter so full-length books don’t translate and work for most people, so this book is 200 pages with intense yet brief analysis from some of the best minds, living or dead.”  Hentz expands her interviews with the late Santee Sioux poet prophet musician John Trudell in the fourth section.   Formatted in a similar fashion to her book MENTAL MIDGETS | Musqonocihte, WHAT JUST HAPPENED? has new prose, poetry and her photography. How readers experience a book can be brutal intense uplifting or

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: Self-Published Book Gets Movie Deal ... Without an... : This is an eye-opening article about a writer who could not get his book published and ended up with a movie deal.   Not a single agent was interested ... Want To See Your Book Become A Movie? It’ll Take Perseverance And Patience. By D. Eric Maikranz -April 6, 2021:  Book Baby Blog From Hollywood to Nepal, this story of how a self-published novel became a major motion picture started with an author’s crazy idea of turning readers into agents. Crazy… until it worked! My debut novel, The Reincarnationist Papers , is being re-released in print, eBook, and audiobook by Blackstone Publishing this year, the same year that the movie Infinite , a Paramount Pictures adaptation of my novel starring Mark Wahlberg and Dylan O’Brien, will hit theaters globally. This has been a dream come true for me, but only a few people know what it took to get here. It’s been a long journey of ups and downs