Voices
Voices is an ongoing series where we ask arts workers in Winnipeg to reflect on the impact of the arts in their lives.
In 2024 Voices features essays commissioned by guest editors. The fall series features essays edited by katherena vermette (she/her/hers), a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her Michif roots on her paternal side run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert and beyond. Her maternal side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1). In 2013, katherena's first book, North End Love Songs (Muses’ Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Since then, her work has garnered awards and critical accolades across genres. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi) and The Strangers and The Circle (Hamish Hamilton) were all national best sellers and won multiple literary awards. Her fourth novel, real ones (Hamish Hamilton) was released in September 2024. katherena's work for children and young adults includes the picture book, The Girl and The Wolf (Theytus) and graphic novel series, A Girl Called Echo (Highwater). She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, and an honourary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba. katherena lives with her kids – fur and human – in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.
The spring series was edited by Jennifer Still, an award-winning Winnipeg poet exploring intersections of language and aesthetics. Jennifer’s poems have been published in books and journals across Canada and her recent long poem, legs, is a limited-edition chapbook and award-winning short film collaboration with Winnipeg artists Christine Fellows and Chantel Mierau. Jennifer has mentored writers and facilitated workshops through The University of Winnipeg Carol Shields’ Writer-in-Residence Program, The Banff Centre of the Arts Wired Writing Studio, the Manitoba Writers Guild, and as a poetry editor for the literary journal CV2. Jennifer was the 2017 Writer in Residence at the Winnipeg Public Library and the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, University of Manitoba.
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‘Dining Room’
My first foray into the artistic world was at the tender age of two. I created a mural on the ‘dining room’ wall of our house. I say ‘dining room’ because in actuality it was a bedroom with a dining set crammed in it.
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From the editor, Jennifer Still
A short reflection on writing by Brandi Bird, Hannah Green, Rhayne Vermette, and Clarise Foster.
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Critical Incident Report
Critical Incident Report: Confidential
Known circumstances of death/serious injury:The client has an opportunity to go into Independent Living. Independent Living is a program that places foster children in their own apartments. It is care without care.
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LONELIEST GIRL YOU’LL NEVER MEET
So much of who I have become as a person and as a writer stems from a connection to community in Winnipeg. I was a lonely child and I have carried that adjective into adulthood.
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Dear Manners,
I am writing you today, live from Montréal, on a break from “school” (a film producer incubator). And by “break” I mean, skipping school to watch a movie this afternoon.
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Winnipeg’s Challenge To Me
I can honestly quote Dickens here and say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
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Transformations
I first saw Winnipeg as a soft light reflected on low clouds from our farm near Selkirk. I had closer glimpses when I was seven and our family began travelling through at holidays taking my older sister back and forth to her school in Portage la Prairie
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The Lights of my City
I carry an image in my memory of a place that is real but does not exist. This cave is, of course, within me. When I speak or write about it my hands go to my chest and stomach, so I think that’s where it lives.
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