Each year, the prizes and stipends fluctuate based on funds available. This year, they had their highest number of submissions to date and gave away $39,000! Jurors are selected by past executive members of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association, and most are Indigenous. You can check out the 2021 jurors list here, including Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A History of My Brief Body. Applicants to the awards are eligible if they self-identify as Indigenous and claim affiliation with an Indigenous community. This year, the gala was held virtually on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day. You can watch the full event below, including authors reading excerpts of their work.
Winners of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards
Published Prose in English: Fiction
Runners up:
People Like Frank by Jenn Ashton Five Little Indians by Michelle Good The Case of the Missing Auntie by Michael Hutchinson Land-Water-Sky / Ndè-Tı-Yat’a by Katłįà
Published Prose in English: Creative Nonfiction and Life-Writing
Runners up:
Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance by Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter
Published Graphic Novels, Comics, and Illustrated Books in Any Language
Runners up:
I Will See You Again by Lisa Boivin From the Roots Up: Surviving the City Vol. 2 by Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan
Published Poetry in English
Runners up:
Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity by Norma Dunning Waking Ground by shalan joudry Bones by Tyler Pennock
Published Prose in French
Winner: Okinum by Émilie Monnet Mononk Jules by Jocelyn Sioui
Published Poetry in French
Winner: Fif et Sauvage by Shayne Michael Boiteur des Bois by Félix Perkins
Published Work in an Indigenous Language
Winner: The Shaman’s Apprentice: Inuktitut by Zacharias Kunuk and Megan Kyak-Monteith
Unpublished Prose in English
Winner: “Waiting for the Long Night Moon” by Amanda Peters “Hockey and Hot Chocolate” by Deanna M. Jacobson “The Mission” by Troy Sebastian
Unpublished Poetry in English
Winner: “the indian (adultery) act & other poems” by Samantha Martin-Bird “Ode to Diabetes” by Brandi Bird “A Manifesto for the Morning and Forever After” by Erica Violet Lee “She Said to Me” by Shaya MacDonald
Looking for more? The IVAs also have a list of published work of IVAs winners and nominees 2018–2020 as well as a selection of published work by the 2021 IVAs Jurors. You can also donate to help keep the Indigenous Voices Awards going!
