Norma Dunning, a mother of children, says she likes to think of her books as her “girls,” even using the pronouns “she” and “she” to refer to her works.
One of his girls Tainna: the invisible ones, has given writer Inuk much to be proud of as the 2021 winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
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Dunning said she didn’t know the storybook had been submitted for the $ 25,000 prize until she opened her inbox last month to find out. Tainna had been named a finalist.
The Edmonton author, scholar and grandmother said the victory gives her a level of visibility that is often denied as an older Indian woman.
“For someone who has been a lifelong writer, it is validation of the work that I submit,” Dunning, 62, said by phone before the awards announcement Wednesday. “It is a beautiful reward at the end of it all.”
While she has been writing since young, Dunning said she hadn’t considered pursuing her passion on a professional level until her children began having children of their own.
“Everything I’ve done has been delayed,” he said. “I started to think… I should have others reading this. It’s not just for me anymore. “
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Dunning enrolled in college at age 50, focusing his scholarship on native studies and educational science, while honing his craft in creative writing courses.
As she rose through the academic ranks and eventually became an instructor at the University of Alberta, Dunning continued to balance research and fiction.
She wrote Tainna while working on her doctoral thesis in Victoria. The collection of stories, Posted by Douglas & McIntyre, focuses on the experiences of today’s Inuit living outside their homelands.
“I wrote a lot about the expectations of others when it comes to the Inuit,” Dunning said, noting that the stories touch on topics like racism and missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Dunning said he hopes the Governor General’s award will introduce new readers Tainna.
“I love it and therefore I want everyone to read it,” he said. “It’s a group of stories that really make us all think about our own perceptions of what the Inuit are or should be.”
The Governor General’s Literary Awards, which are administered by the Arts Council of Canada, awarded honors in seven categories in both English and French.
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Poet Sadiqa de Meijer of Kingston, Ontario, received the nonfiction award for alphabet / alphabet: a memory of a first language, published by Anstruther Books, which explores his transition from Dutch to English.
Tolu Oloruntoba of Surrey, BC, prevailed in the poetry category for The Board of Chance, also from Anstruther Books.
The Drama Award went to Hannah Moscovitch of Halifax for Sexual misconduct of the middle classes, published by Playwrights Canada Press.
In young adult literature, Toronto’s Philippa Dowding won the text award for Firefly, published by DCB, while Winnipeg writer David Robertson and Vancouver artist Julie Flett shared the Picture Book Award by In the trap, published by Tundra Books.
The winner of the French to English translation was Erin Moure from Montreal for This radiant life, published by Book * hug Press, based on the original work of Chantal Neveu, Radiant life.
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Each winner receives $ 25,000, while the publisher of each winning book receives $ 3,000 to support promotional activities. Finalists receive $ 1,000 each.
There are separate categories in French for Francophone writing.
Founded in 1936, the Governor General’s Literary Awards awards a total of approximately $ 450,000 annually.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca