Michelle Good among Canadian winners of 2024 High Plains Book Awards

Canada Reads-winning authorMichelle Good is among the Canadian writers to take home a 2024 High Plains Book Award.

Established in 2006, the annual awards recognize regional authors and/or literary works that examine and reflect life on the High Plains in North America. The regions include the Canadian provinces Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and the American Statesof North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas.

The award program recognizes books in 13 categories, including nonfiction, fiction, poetry, children's books, photography and short stories.

The award winners each receive $500 and a commemorative plaque.

• The CBC Short Story Prize is currently open: submit your short fiction now

Good won the Indigenous writer category for her bookTruth Telling:Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada.

InTruth Telling,Goodexplores many issues that are currently affecting Indigenous people in Canadawhile incorporating her own experience and family's legacy in seven personal essays.

She contextualizes contemporary discussions about reconciliation, the emergence of Indigenous narratives and more through historical knowledge, essentially providing a resource to mobilize Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike into active change.

• Michelle Good invites conversation not confrontation on Indigenous issues in her new book Truth Telling

Good is a Cree writer and retired lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.Five Little Indians, her first book, won the2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fictionandthe 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

It alsowonCanada Reads2022, when it was championed by Ojibway fashion journalistChristian Allaire.

LISTEN | Michelle Good discusses her essay collectionTruth Telling:

The Next Chapter20:22Michelle Good on Truth Telling

Michelle Good on her essay collection Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada.

Calgary-based high school student Charlotte Bellows also won a prize: the First Book award. She is recognized for her memoirThe Definition of Beautifulthat follows her own coming-of-age story. Between the ages of 15 and 17,she recoveredfrom an eating disorder. The book explores this journey along with all the consequences it had brought into her life with the added difficulty of living througha global pandemic.

American Canadian writer and technology reporterVauhini Varawon the short storyprize for her collectionThis isSalvaged, whichoffers an intimate portrayal of grief and girlhood. Itexamines the lives of girls and women experiencing loss and alienation.

LISTEN | Vauhini Vara on exploring the lives of girls and women experiencing loss:

The Next Chapter12:18Vauhini Varas This Is Salvaged offers an intimate portrayal of grief and girlhood

In her debut story collection, the Saskatchewan-born author of bestselling novel The Immortal King Rao examines the lives of girls and women experiencing loss and alienation.

Here is the full list of Canadian winners:

First Book

• The Definition of Beautifulby Charlotte Bellows

Indigenous Writer

• Truth Tellingby Michelle Good

Short Stories

• This Is Salvagedby Vauhini Vara

Young Reader/Middle Grade

• Coyote Queenby Jessica Vitalis

Art & Photography

• Prairie Interlaceby Michele Hardy, Timothy Long, and Julia Krueger

Visit the High Plains Book Awards'websitefor the full list of winners.