WINNIPEG, MB - September 25, 2012 - Manitobans have selected Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water edited by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Warren Cariou as this year's featured book for On The Same Page, a province-wide reading initiative. The book is published by HighWater Press, an imprint of Portage & Main Press.
On The Same Page, a project of The Winnipeg Foundation and Winnipeg Public Library, encourages all Manitobans to read, and talk about, the same book at the same time. The program includes book giveaways, author appearances and special events to take place early in 2013.
Published in 2011, Manitowapow is an anthology of Aboriginal writings from Manitoba that takes readers back through the millennia and forward to the present day, painting a dynamic picture of a territory interconnected through words, ideas, and experiences. It is a rich collection of stories, poetry, nonfiction, and speeches.
One of four titles shortlisted for the 2012-13 On The Same Page program, Manitowapow garnered the most selections through online and in-person voting between June and September.
From the publisher: "We are honoured to be part of this important initiative that promotes literacy across our province. Through Manitowapow, readers will experience the breadth and brilliance of our rich Aboriginal literary heritage."
From the editors: "Manitowapow was created to honour our past; the voices we collected will be heard far into the future."
"On The Same Page is Manitoba's biggest book club, and what better place for a book club than in a public library" says Rick Walker, Manager, Winnipeg Public Library. "With generous funding support from The Winnipeg Foundation, On The Same Page is helping to bring all Manitobans together to share, with this year's selection, in the province's rich Aboriginal heritage through a unique reading experience."
"On The Same Page encourages lifelong literacy, celebrates Manitoba arts and culture and helps build community through conversation and shared experience," says Rick Frost, CEO of The Winnipeg Foundation. "We're pleased to partner with Winnipeg Public Library on this important community initiative."
On The Same Page was launched in 2008 and has featured In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier, Reading by Lightning by Joan Thomas, Juliana and the Medicine Fish by Jake MacDonald and The Setting Lake Sun / Le soleil du lac qui se couche by J.R. Léveillé.
For more information, visit www.OnTheSamePage.ca
Editor Biographies:
Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair’s critical and creative work has been translated into several languages and can be found in periodicals such as Prairie Fire, Canadian Literature, The Goose, Urban NDN, Canadian Dimension, and The Winnipeg Free Press. In 2009, he co-edited (with Renate Eigenbrod) a double issue of The Canadian Journal of Native Studies (#29.1&2) focusing on “Responsible, Ethical, and Indigenous-Centred Literary Criticisms of Indigenous Literatures.” Other short stories and essays have appeared in Tales from Moccasin Avenue (Totem Pole, 2006), Across Cultures/Across Borders: Canadian Aboriginal and Native American Literatures (Broadview, 2009), Stories Through Theories/Theories Through Stories: North American Indian Writing, Storytelling, and Critique (Michigan State UP, 2010), and Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2010). Originally from St. Peter’s (Little Peguis) First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, he now lives in Winnipeg, where he is completing his PhD in Anishinaabeg literature (University of British Columbia) while raising his beautiful daughter.
Warren Cariou was born in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, into a family of mixed Métis and European heritage. He has written many articles about Canadian Aboriginal literature, especially on Métis culture and storytelling, and he has published two books: a collection of novellas, The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs (1999) and a memoir/cultural history, Lake of the Prairies: A Story of Belonging (2002). He has also co-directed and co-produced two films about Aboriginal people in western Canada’s oil sands region: Overburden and Land of Oil and Water. Cariou has won and been nominated for numerous awards. His most acclaimed work to date, Lake of the Prairies, won the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize for literary nonfiction in 2004. His films have screened at many national and international film festivals, including Hot Docs, ImagineNative, and the San Francisco American Indian Film Festival. Cariou has also served as editor for several books, including an anthology of Aboriginal literature, W’daub Awae: Speaking True (2010), and he is the fiction co-editor of Prairie Fire. Cariou is a Canada Research Chair in Narrative, Community and Indigenous Cultures at the University of Manitoba, where he also directs the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.