The event will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a YouTube stream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbds4h0bGRA
Nyla has an affinity to fire. A neglected teen in a small northern town—trying to escape a mother battling her own terrors—she is kicked out and struggles through life on the streets. Desperate for love, Nyla accidentally sets fire to her ex’s building and is then incarcerated for arson. Through community-led diversion, Nyla finds herself on a reserve as their firekeeper. But when climate change–induced wildfires threaten her new home, she knows intimately how to fight back.
The fourth book from acclaimed writer Katłįà brings a Northern Indigenous perspective to the destructive effects of ongoing colonialism. Displaying Katłįà’s enthralling storytelling style, Firekeeper is a coming-of-age tale that addresses intergenerational trauma by reclaiming culture, belonging and identity. Join Nyla on her healing journey through the fire to sacred waters.
Firekeeper is Katłįà’s fourth book with Fernwood. Katłįà is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation from Somba K’e (Yellowknife), Northwest Territories. She is an articling lawyer with Macush Law and is working on a constitutional charter rights court challenge for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people for right to adequate housing.
Mylène Yannick Gamache is a Franco-Métis Assistant Professor, cross-appointed in Indigenous Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Manitoba. Red River Métis by her mother line with Carrière relations in St. Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba, and Beauchemin relations in St. Vital and Îles-des-Chênes, Manitoba, she is a member of l’Union Nationale Métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba and an MMF citizen. Her work has been published in Australian Feminist Studies, The Oxford Literary Review, Feminist Review, and English Studies in Canada.
