Storykeepers Podcast - Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

09/04/21 • 36 min

Cree poet and broadcaster Rosanna Deerchild joins Jennifer and Waubgeshig this month to talk about Jonny Appleseed, the award-winning novel by Joshua Whitehead. Originally published in 2018, it quickly garnered praise and was long listed for the Giller Prize. In 2021, it won CBC's Canada Reads competition.
More on Jonny Appleseed:
https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/J/Jonny-Appleseed
More on Rosanna Deerchild:
https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/bio/rosanna-deerchild

Previous Episode

Burning in this Midnight Dream by Louise Bernice Halfe

This month renowned Mohawk/Tuscarora poet and artist Janet Rogers joins Jennifer and Waubgeshig to dive into Louise Bernice Halfe's award-winning poetry collection Burning in this Midnight Dream. Throughout the book, Halfe profoundly recounts her life before, during, and after residential school, and many of the poems were written in response to the Truth and Reconciliation process. The collection received numerous accolades, including the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award and the League of Canadian Poets’ Raymond Souster Award.
More on Burning in this Midnight Dream:
https://www.brickbooks.ca/books/burning-in-this-midnight-dream/
More on Janet Rogers:
Janet Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River. She was born in Vancouver British Columbia in 1963 and raised in southern Ontario. Janet traveled throughout 2017-2019 working within numerous residencies in Vancouver BC, Santa Fe NM and Edmonton AB. Janet is based on the Six Nations territory of the Grand River where she operates the Ojistoh Publishing label. Janet works in page poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music. She is a radio broadcaster, documentary producer and media and sound artist.

Her literary titles include; Splitting the Heart, Ekstasis Editions 2007, Red Erotic, Ojistah Publishing 2010, Unearthed, Leaf Press 2011 “Peace in Duress” Talonbooks 2014 and Totem Poles and Railroads ARP Books 2016, “As Long As the Sun Shines” (English edition), Bookland Press 2018 with a Mohawk language edition released in 2019. “Ego of a Nation” is Janet’s 7th poetry title which she independently produced on the Ojistoh Publishing label 2020.

Jackson Twobears and Janet collaborate as 2Ro Media. They combined their individual talents and skills along with National Screen Institute training to produce two short documentaries; NDNs on the Airwaves about Six Nations radio (APTN 2016), Moving Voice, a Telus STORYHIVE sponsored digital broadcast 2019 featuring the travels of literary trailblazer and Mohawk poetess E. Pauline Johnson, and The Spirit of Rage a short experimental video poem about anti-racism. Janet won the 45th Annual American Indian Film Festival 2020, BEST MUSIC VIDEO award for her video Ego of a Nation produced with Wes Day of Fresh Shift Productions.

Next Episode

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

This month Thunder Bay-based journalist Willow Fiddler appears on Storykeepers to talk about Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga. The book is a thorough examination of the deaths of seven Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay over the span of eleven years, and the human rights violations of Indigenous peoples in Canada that can lead to tragic outcomes. It has won numerous prestigious awards, including the RBC Taylor Prize and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
More on Seven Fallen Feathers:
https://houseofanansi.com/products/seven-fallen-feathers
Willow Fiddler's bio:
Willow Fiddler is a national news reporter for The Globe and Mail, covering northern Ontario and Manitoba. Prior to joining The Globe, she was a video journalist for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network National News reporting in Thunder Bay. She is a three-time finalist for the Canadian Association of Journalists awards and the recipient of the 2017 Emerging Indigenous Journalist award. Ms. Fiddler is passionate about stories and issues that impact Indigenous people and communities, particularly in the North.