Publications
Fiction
Crow Winter (HarperAvenue, 2019)
Nanabush. A name that has a certain weight on the tongue—a taste. Like lit sage in a windowless room or aluminum foil on a metal filling.
Trickster. Storyteller. Shape-shifter. An ancient troublemaker with the power to do great things, only he doesn’t want to put in the work.
Since coming home to Spirit Bear Point First Nation, Hazel Ellis has been dreaming of an old crow. He tells her he’s here to help her, save her. From what, exactly? Sure, her dad’s been dead for almost two years and she hasn’t quite reconciled that grief, but is that worth the time of an Algonquin demigod?
Soon Hazel learns that there’s more at play than just her own sadness and doubt. The quarry that’s been lying unsullied for over a century on her father’s property is stirring the old magic that crosses the boundaries between this world and the next. With the aid of Nanabush, Hazel must unravel a web of deceit that, if left untouched, could destroy her family and her home on both sides of the Medicine Wheel.
“Full of spirit, love, mystery and good medicine, Crow Winter tells the story of Hazel and one very tricky little crow. Karen McBride’s debut novel ambitiously and successfully balances all these things creating a world and story that will stay with you after you have turned that last page.”
“An honest and poignant portrayal of land claims, kinship, land, family, settler colonialism, and loss steeped in rich Anishnaabeg oratories that offer us skill sets into how to mend our mourning...McBride enters the scene in the wake of Eden Robinson’s Trickster trilogy and Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie so gracefully it’s as if she’s been here all along.”
“Black Silk Suit” in Zegaajimo (2024), Edited by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
From the Kegedonce Press website:
Zegaajimo, Ojibwe for to tell a scary story, brings together eleven thrilling and chilling horror tales, many drawing on Traditional Stories, from some of the deadliest Indigenous writers across Turtle Island and the territories now known as Canada. It is edited by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm.
Non-Fiction
“Pimashkogosi: Catching Language” in Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language, Edited by Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza, and Ayelet Tsabari
From the Book*hug Press website:
In this collection of deeply personal essays, twenty-six writers explore their connection with language, accents, and vocabularies, and contend with the ways these can be used as both bridge and weapon. Some explore the way power and privilege affect language learning, especially the shame and exclusion often felt by non-native English speakers in a white, settler, colonial nation. Some confront the pain of losing a mother tongue or an ancestral language along with the loss of community and highlight the empowerment that comes with reclamation. Others celebrate the joys of learning a new language and the power of connection. All underscore how language can offer both transformation and collective healing.
Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language is a vital anthology that opens a compelling dialogue about language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us.