5 New Inuit-Authored Books for Your Summer Reading List

Summer is nearly upon us, and we have some exciting new books by Inuit authors to add to your reading list! Some of these picks are light-hearted children’s stories featuring beautiful illustrations that pull you into the worlds of arctic animals; others are intimate poetry collections that examine connection, shifting states of being, loss and learning, and contemporary Inuit life. These immerse stories and poems will keep you riveted all summer long.

It Bears RepeatingTanya Tagaq
Tundra Books

Singer and writer Tanya Tagaq, CM, is publishing her second book, and this time it’s a children’s picture book called It Bears Repeating. Her first book, the novel Split Tooth (2018), won the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award and was longlisted for several literary awards, including the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize. It Bears Repeating is a beautifully illustrated picture book that teaches children to count from one to ten in Inuktitut and English using polar bears.

Readers are taken on a journey through polar bear life as the bears stretch, slide, swim and eat. The illustrations by Inuk artist Cee Pootoogook, who is known for his sculpture and drawings of arctic wildlife, bring the story to life. Small pencil strokes on the first polar bear create texture that makes you feel like you can touch the soft fur and see each movement, while the polar bears on subsequent pages differ slightly in style, their fur smooth and cream coloured.Tagaq wrote the book with the hope that it would be read out loud and has plans to release an accompanying video to teach readers proper pronunciation. It Bears Repeating will be released on August 20.

Excerpted from It Bears Repeating by Tanya Tagaq. Copyright © 2024 Tanya Tagaq. Published by Tundra Books, a division of Penguin Random House Canada. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

I Am a RockAshley Qilavaq-Savard
Inhabit

Artist, filmmaker and writer Ashley Qilavaq-Savard’s first children’s book, I Am a Rock, was published in April. It follows a young Inuk boy named Pauloosie and the bedtime story his mother tells him about his pet rock, Miki Rock. Throughout Miki Rock’s journey, readers are taken through different seasons in the Arctic, learning about the animals and sounds of the environment. “I want to encourage children to practice empathy for the land and to understand the natural harvesting seasons,” said Qilavaq-Savard in an interview with the IAQ. “I loved the idea of teaching children that nature bears witness to us as well, that it also experiences seasons change and migration. I also was a big rock collector as a child.” The book is illustrated by Pelin Turgut in a vibrant and colourful style, adding to the book’s lyrical text and dreamlike feel. Qilavaq-Savard’s artistic practice centres decolonizing narratives, healing and love of the land and culture. She has previously published short stories in Nipiit magazine and Chirp magazine as well as a collection of poetry, Where the Sea Kuniks the Land (2023). Qilavaq-Savard is currently working on two more children’s books.

Cautionary TalesJanice Grey
Publication Studio

Earlier in May, Haitian Inuk writer Janice Grey, from Aupaluk, Nunavik, QC, published her debut collection of short stories, Cautionary Tales. This collection tells stories of contemporary Inuit lives, including about the complexity of family relationships and the excitement and intensity of supernatural beings and events. Grey’s work is inspired by the land and her upbringing in the North, highlighting the unique experience of contemporary Nunavimmiut. She brings each story to life with the details in environments and dialogue between characters. “The fun thing about Cautionary Tales is that it isn’t a single genre, and so I was able to play with all of the genres I personally enjoy,” Grey said in an interview with the IAQ. Grey has previously written for Inuit Art Quarterly and has also been involved in community co-operatives and politics in Nunavik. Currently, Grey is based in Montreal, QC, and is the editor of Tumivut magazine.

"Hotel Kulusuk"
For Kiah, Karen, Anne-Marie and Morley

Evani found herself in a small souvenir shop that was bursting with ivory, sealskin and soapstone treasures. The shopkeeper who had initially greeted her left her to her own devices as she browsed, but after some time asked if she needed help.

“Oh, no thank you! I’m just looking for now,” Evani said, but something in the showcase caught her eye. It was a small ivory pendant in the shape of a polar bear head. It was pulled onto a round black waxen cord. “How much for that?” she asked.

“Eighty kroner,” said the shopkeeper. “Would you like to see it?”

Evani held the necklace in her hand feeling the smooth veneer of the carved bear head. She looked closely at it and noticed the tiny, delicate details of the ears, and black pin print eyes. She rubbed it between her fingers and felt the smooth lacquered ivory. She was so engrossed in the moment that the vibration of her phone startled her.

“Hello Miss Evani, this is to inform you that flight 659 will depart earlier than scheduled due to weather. You must be back at the airport in half an hour,” said a woman with a crisp Danish accent.

“Thank you,” she mumbled awkwardly and hung up the phone. “I’ll take the necklace,” she said decidedly to the clerk, anxious to get to the airport on time. She quickly counted out 80kr in cash and handed it to the woman.

“May I wrap it for you?”

“Oh, no thank you! I have to get going!” Evani said, and thrust the necklace in her pocket and ran out the door. When she got to the airport, her flight was already boarding. She ran to the gate just as the last person was going through.

Once settled in her seat, she spent most of the short flight looking out the window at the jagged mountain peaks and glacial ice. As they were nearing Kulusuk, the weather began to change. The winds picked up and the once glorious view was replaced by dense blowing snow. The plane lurched and bumped through the turbulence. After what seemed like hours, the plane finally began the bumpy descent. They made a rough landing.

As they exited the plane, the passengers were forced to brace themselves against the strong winds in order to reach the terminal. Once inside, they were greeted with the unfortunate news that the planned connection to Reykjavik had been cancelled. Not many other people were on the flight. Most, including a young father with two small daughters, were Greenlandic. Evani was the only foreigner, though some others did appear to be Danes. She wondered where they would all stay tonight. Kulusuk was supposed to be a tiny settlement without even roads or vehicles.

Kinauvunga?Aedan Corey
Publication Studio

Kinauvunga? is the second collection of poetry by writer, visual artist and tattooist Aedan Corey. Published on May 4, it examines themes of loss and learning, the poignancy of everyday activities, grief and memory, queer Inuit experience and family connection. Corey’s poems are descriptive and rhythmic, accompanied by black-and-white and coloured illustrations by Corey themself. “I hope that readers are able to find themselves within the poems, even if it’s only in some small way,” said Corey. Originally from Iqaluktuuttiaq, NU, and currently based in Ottawa, ON, Corey focuses their work on topics of queerness, family and mental health. In 2020 they published their first poetry collection, the chapbook Inuujunga, and the short story “Anaanatiaq,” which appeared in Nipiit magazine.

"angirraqtuq (they go home)"

The dirt roads cough dust in your face,
grains of the dry desert earth in your eyes, in your lungs,
in your hair,
so that you carry it wherever you may go.
As you drive by, people nod their hellos.
At the grocery store with your parents
people stop to kunik your cheeks,
telling you the last time they saw you
“You were this big”
that you look like your mother now.

It’s the time of year that the sun and the sky are inseparable lovers.
They kiss you goodnight as you close the curtains to sleep,
kissing you good morning eight hours later.

The way out of town brings you past the airport
where you’ve watched many planes take off in your lifetime.
It brings you away from the town you grew up in
to the land you often miss,
to the cabin by the ocean, your grandfather’s boat on the shore.
Your father spent years on this cabin
building it up from the ground,
from plywood to now,
puzzles sitting on the table left unfinished,
another summer’s battle.

You kiss your family goodbye, as the sun had kissed you
for your time there.
They will be watching your plane take off
as they have watched many planes take off before.
You watch out the window as life gets small,
a life you won’t live for a while
until the next time
you go home.

Hold Steady My VisionEmily Laurent Henderson
Publication Studio

Hold Steady My Vision, also published on May 4, by curator and writer Emily Laurent Henderson is an intimate collection of poetry that examines changes in our bodies, relations between the inner and outer world and shifting states of being. The poems in Hold Steady My Vision are soft and lyrical, evoking both sadness and hope. Henderson, who is of Greenlandic Inuit and settler heritage, is currently Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Her writing and curatorial practices focus on Inuit and Indigenous self-determination in the arts. Henderson is a former editor at the Inuit Art Quarterly, and her writing has appeared in many Canadian publications, including C Magazine and Azure. Henderson will be leading the publication of the forthcoming essay collection Kinngait: Works from the Cape Dorset Drawings Archive, which will feature responses by Inuit artists, designers, curators and writers to the digitized Cape Dorset Drawing Archive.

"Anticipatory nostalgia"

The city carves itself out in craters,
glass shards rising from excavated scars,
and a movie montage of nostalgic facades,
layers of brick laced with neon signs,
we build ever higher,
the land holding memories
in the gum of sidewalks
and the smog veiling the towers.

God bless the mouths of subway stations
who have borne witness to a million
fumbling, first goodnight kisses,
and bless the soup of a heavy May fog,
choking your throat and your pores.
You lie low to the ground and breathe in
some relief from the early flush of young grasses.

There is always a siren with somewhere to be,
and always time to head west down Bloor.
Straight into the sunset with a tea in hand,
you count the birds and mind your business,
and think of all the ways it’s changed,
and the way it will keep changing, and changing,
until you only see the streets
through a gaze of what you used to know.

Excerpted from Hold Steady My Vision by Emily Laurent Henderson. Copyright © 2024 Emily Laurent Henderson. Published by Publication Studio Guelph. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

The poetry collections by Grey, Corey and Henderson were commissioned and are curated by writer and curator Taqralik Partridge as part of the Indigenous Otherwise program at Musagetes.