A Victoria author has been named the winner of a national award celebrating literary works for young adults written by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors.
Monique Gray Smith accepted the $12,000 first prize for the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature at a gala in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Her book, Tilly, a Story of Hope and Resilience (Sono Nis Press), is loosely based on her own life. It tells the story of a young indigenous woman coming of age in Canada in the 1980s and covers themes of forced displacement, residential schools, tuberculosis hospitals and the Sixties Scoop.
Gray — who has Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry — runs Little Drum Consulting in Victoria. She is a consultant, writer and speaker.
Thomas King won second place and $8,000 for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Doubleday Canada). Third place and $5,000 was awarded to Bev Sellars for They Called Me Number One (Talonbooks).
A jury composed of Canadian writers and educators, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, selected the winner. Shelagh Rogers and Wab Kinew co-hosted the gala.
Each of the three winning titles will be distributed to a minimum of 2,500 First Nations, Métis and Inuit youth across Canada through libraries, schools, Friendship Centres and summer literacy camps.
The Burt Award is in its second year. It was established by CODE, a charitable organization dedicated to literacy and learning, in collaboration with the Literary Prizes Foundation.
In 2013, 7,500 copies of the first three winning titles were distributed to almost 900 locations in all provinces and territories
