In Memoriam - Richard Wagamese

Richard Wagamese
October 14, 1955 - March 10, 2017

Richard Wagamese was a celebrated Canadian novelist and former journalist who was Ojibwe of the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario.

His 2012 novel Indian Horse won the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit, and in 2015 he was the recipient of the Matt Cohen Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada for his lifetime of work.

Wagamese also wrote for the TV show North of 60. Prior to becoming a novelist he was a journalist with the Calgary Herald, with his articles often appearing in the Vancouver Sun and other Southam publications of that era.

Wagamese spent part of his childhood in foster homes and was later adopted by a family that separated him from his Native heritage. Much of his writing in later years addressed the pain of separation within First Nations families, though in person he was cheerful and gracious.

B.C. Books Prizes has announced that Wagamese is on the shortlist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award for Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations.
 - Excerpted from the Georgia Straight. Read full story...

I believe that storytelling in and of itself is a truly redemptive thing, and it allows us to create the one story that is told forever about our time here.
~ Richard Wagamese