Leanne Simpson
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a novelist, poet, musician and academic. She is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg and a member of Alderville First Nation. Leanne Simpson was named the inaugural RBC Charles Taylor Emerging writer in 2014 and that same year was also a nominee for the National Magazine Award. She first published fiction and poetry in the Walrus, Arc Poetry Magazine, Geist, and Kimiwan.
Her first book of short stories and poetry, Islands of Decolonial Love, was nominated for a ReLit Award in 2014. Besides a career in writing and teaching, Leanne Simpson is a musician and has signed with RPM, the first indigenous contemporary music label, and will release a new album f(l)ight this year. The music performances combine storytelling and song-writing in collaboration with musicians to create unique spoken songs and soundscapes.
Leanne holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and has lectured at universities across Canada. She is currently faculty at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh (NWT). The Native American Indigenous Studies Association awarded her the most thought provoking paper of 2014 for “Land As Pedagogy”.
Leanne’s books are regularly used in university courses across Canada including Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift Is in the Making, Lighting the Eighth Fire (editor), This Is An Honour Song (editor with Kiera Ladner) and The Winter We Danced: Voice from the Past, the Future and the Idle No More Movement (Kino-nda-niimi editorial collective). Her second book of short stories and poetry, This Accident of Being Lost, is being published by the House of Anansi Press in the spring of 2017.
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