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| photo: Vanda Fleury | |
katherena vermette is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 2013, her first book, North End Love Songs, won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry. Her work for children and young adults includes the picture book The Girl and The Wolf and graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo. She also co-wrote and co-directed This River, winner of the 2017 Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary. Her third book of poetry, procession (House of Anansi, September 30, 2025), reaches into what it means to be (at once) a descendant and a future ancestor, exploring the connections we have with one another and ourselves, among friends, and within families and Nations.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or so:
Oh lord I leave this up to the experts... This is a poetry collection around the themes of being a good ancestor, being a good descendant. It's about living in that in-between, present moment and trying to do the best you can.
On your nightstand now:
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
Favorite book when you were a child:
Dr. Seuss rhyming books Hop on Pop; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (don't think that one is Dr. Seuss, though). [Editor's note: this title is by Al Perkins, but it is part of the Bright and Early Board Books series, which launched with Dr. Seuss's books.]
Your top five authors:
Emma Donoghue
Jeanette Winterson
Toni Morrison
Agustina Bazterrica
Lee Maracle
Book you've faked reading:
I will take this one to the grave.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Baterrica. So unnerving.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Something in the Walls, actually. Great cover. So far so good.
Book you hid from your parents:
Haha my parents weren't like that at all. My reading tastes have always been strange, and they've always been fully supportive (or blissfully unaware).
Book that changed your life:
In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton Mosionier.
Favorite line from a book:
The last paragraph of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Five books you'll never part with:
I have very old, very special tattered copies of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Dubliners by James Joyce, and I would never get rid of any of my poetry books because you never know when they will be re-printed. Anything I have had signed by dear friends, most especially those who are no longer here.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Beloved by Toni Morrison. I did read it again recently, but it wasn't the same as the first time.