A Special Year…

2023 has begun! This is a very special year for Kegedonce Press: It’s our 30th anniversary! The press began back in 1993 with the publication of My Heart is a Stray Bullet by founder and managing editor Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm.

Kateri founded Kegedonce Press as a publishing house that would feel welcoming to Indigenous authors, especially those publishing for the first time. As a dedicated Indigenous press, part of our mission is to preserve Indigenous voices as they are, even when it means going against some of the unspoken expectations of the publishing industry—we see this as an act of decolonizing. And we see Indigenous literatures for what they are: not a single category, but world literatures encompassing all categories and genres.

In the past 30 years, we have published works by some of the most widely known contemporary Indigenous writers in Canada, including Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Joanne Arnott, Cherie Dimaline, Marilyn Dumont, Louise Bernice Halfe, D.A. Lockhart, Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch, Aaron Paquette, Sharron Proulx-Turner, Gregory Scofield, and Richard Van Camp, among many others.

In August of 2022, the United Nations declared the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022 to 2032). The U.N. recognizes that it is now more important than ever to raise awareness and act to preserve Indigenous languages to save them from extinction.

Kegedonce Press has published several bilingual books in Anishinaabemowin and English, as well as many others that are language-inclusive; that is, they include words and phrases in Indigenous languages, including Anishinabemowin, Cree, Lenape and others.

We have several events planned for 2023, including monthly features and sales of our bilingual and language-inclusive titles. Each month we will also spotlight one of our amazing authors and the titles they published with us.

And, who knows, there may be a few other fun happenings over the course of the year. You’re invited to join the celebration! Check in with us on Facebook and Instagram, and enjoy our author reading videos on YouTube.

Mno shki bboon! (Happy new year!)

More News

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Author Spotlight for August: NShannacappo.

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Author Spotlight for June: Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch

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Author Spotlight for April: D.A. Lockhart

For April, National Poetry Month, we shine the spotlight on D.A. Lockhart, author of multiple poetry collections and the award winning short story collection Breaking Right: Stories. His work has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, Indiana Author’s Awards,...

Author Spotlight for March: Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer

For International Women’s History Month we feature Sky Dancer, Louise B. Halfe. Her celebrated poetry collections Bear Bones and Feathers, Burning in this Midnight Dream, Blue Marrow, and The Crooked Good have earned many awards and accolades. Sky Dancer served as the...

Author Spotlight for February: Smokii Sumac

This month, we shine the spotlight on Smokii Sumac, author of you are enough: love poems for the end of the world. We caught up with Smokii recently and learned about some amazing new projects he is currently working on. Kegedonce Press: What has changed for you, with...

Welcome new Kegedonce Press author Marjorie Beaucage

A warm Kegedonce Press welcome to acclaimed filmmaker, artist, activist and poet Marjorie Beaucage, whose book leave some for the birds: movements for justice will be released in spring, 2023. Marjorie Beaucage is a Two-Spirit Métis Auntie, filmmaker, art-ivist and...

Author Spotlight for January, Basil Johnston

As part of the celebration of our 30th Anniversary, every month in 2023 we will be shining the spotlight on one of our amazing authors! We begin the year with Basil Johnston, esteemed Anishinaabe writer, storyteller, language teacher and scholar. Kegedonce Press has...