Best Indigenous Fiction
Title↕ | Author↕ | Nation/Heritage↕ | Year↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
There There | Tommy Orange | Cheyenne and Arapaho | 2018 | PEN/Hemingway Award, 12 urban Native characters converging at Oakland powwow |
Love Medicine | Louise Erdrich | Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band) | 1984 | National Book Critics Circle Award, interlocking Ojibwe family stories in North Dakota |
The Night Watchman | Louise Erdrich | Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band) | 2020 | Pulitzer Prize 2021, based on Erdrich's grandfather fighting tribal termination |
Ceremony | Leslie Marmon Silko | Laguna Pueblo | 1977 | Landmark of Native American Renaissance, WWII veteran healing through ceremony |
House Made of Dawn | N. Scott Momaday | Kiowa | 1968 | Pulitzer Prize 1969, first Native author to win fiction Pulitzer, launched Native Renaissance |
Indian Horse | Richard Wagamese | Ojibwe | 2012 | Residential school trauma and hockey, Canada Reads finalist, film adaptation |
Medicine Walk | Richard Wagamese | Ojibwe | 2014 | Father-son reconciliation on final horseback journey in British Columbia |
Five Little Indians | Michelle Good | Cree (Red Pheasant) | 2020 | Governor General's Award, five residential school survivors in Vancouver |
The Marrow Thieves | Cherie Dimaline | Metis (Georgian Bay) | 2017 | YA dystopia, Indigenous people hunted for their bone marrow, Kirkus Prize winner |
The Break | Katherena Vermette | Metis | 2016 | Four generations of Metis women in Winnipeg's North End |
Jonny Appleseed | Joshua Whitehead | Oji-Cree (Peguis First Nation) | 2018 | Two-Spirit Indigiqueer protagonist, Lambda Literary Award finalist |
The Round House | Louise Erdrich | Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band) | 2012 | National Book Award, jurisdictional crime on Ojibwe reservation |
Tracks | Louise Erdrich | Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band) | 1988 | Turtle Mountain family saga in early 20th century, land loss and resistance |
Green Grass, Running Water | Thomas King | Cherokee | 1993 | Comic novel blending Blackfoot mythology and contemporary life, Governor General's finalist |
Empire of Wild | Cherie Dimaline | Metis (Georgian Bay) | 2019 | Metis rogarou (werewolf) legend in modern Ontario, Kirkus Prize finalist |
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