Memoirs & Life Stories

Indigenous Authors in the Spotlight Series

Our fall 2021 spotlight shines on authors writing their own stories through prose, poetry or other forms of autobiographical expression(s), and on Elders telling their stories through oral history interviews. We feature authors and collaborators from numerous nations and communities: Inuit, Innu, Huron Wendat, Ojibwe, Nehiyawak Cree, Métis, Sto:lo, Nlaka'pamux, Nisga'a and more. Yet, our highlighted entries represent only a small sampling of works in this area of study. Browse our bibliographies to find many additional memoir selections, including a variety of very recent memoirs by young writers and a growing collection of residential school life stories.

Thank you to Sarah Monnier for curating and putting together this collection. Thank you to Manon Tremblay for her contributions to the content.

Additional resources

Our Zotero bibliographies, while by no means exhaustive, feature additional material relevant to memoirs and life stories. For additional Concordia Library resources on a variety of topics see our Indigenous educational resources for faculty and students or First Peoples Studies Subject Guide. If you come across more works and authors that you think are missing at Concordia Library, let us know via our Suggest a Purchase form.

About the series

Our Indigenous Authors in the Spotlight Series aims to support and promote Indigenous authors and artists by featuring some of the library's materials with Indigenous content, specifically focusing on works by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors and artists.

Previous editions

• Indigenous Feminisms (2020): authors engaging with, and challenging, a wide range of feminist perspectives. Featured works include single-authored monographs, edited books, journal articles and even a podcast.
  

• Science Fiction & Futurisms (Fall 2019): Authors exploring settler contact, colonialism, climate change, notions of progress and scifi tropes. They offer multiple visions of dystopias, utopias as well as contemporary realisms and futurisms.
  

• Indigenous Poetry (Winter 2019): Spotlight on contemporary works, including Griffin Poetry Prize winners, older favourites and more difficult choices, long form poems and anthologies; the poetry covers topics such as representation, revolution, racism, and love.
  

• Indigenous Research Methods (2018): Library materials exploring Indigenous research methodologies and Indigenous knowledges. Books that celebrate or examine non-Western ways of knowing such as plant- and land- based knowledges, storywork and ceremony. Written and edited by Indigenous authors from around the world.
  

• Indigenous Authors in the Spotlight (2017): A selection of literature, art, drama, poetry, non-fiction by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors and artists, including works by Indigenous faculty at Concordia, and a celebration of the work of the late Gail Guthrie Valaskakis.
  

• Celebrating Authors and Great Reads (2016): Some of the library’s print and online books of relevance to Indigenous studies and issues, including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, art, children's books, and even manga. Most selections are recent, published within the last 5-10 years and authored First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors and artists.

See also our shared Zotero bibliographies for all these collections.