On Sept. 30, Eden Robinson took the stage at the Isabel Bader Theatre, launching her latest novel, The Sorceress of Sky Serpents. She opened by thanking the audience “for being here with me on Truth and Reconciliation Day.” Robinson, author of the Trickster trilogy and Monkey Beach, among others, hails from Kitamaat Village in British Columbia. She is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations.
The book launch, hosted by Another Story Bookshop, was in conversation with David Robertson, a fellow Indigenous and Canadian author who has written over 25 books. The two discussed the state of Indigenous literature, navigating Indigenous stories in genre fiction, and incorporating oral storytelling into their writing.
As a young writer, Robinson “could have never imagined” the space for Indigenous writers in current day publishing. While “there’s a lot left to be done,” she says, “where we are now, we’re in a very different place.” The Trickster trilogy, her most recent series, is described as “urban fantasy,” and Robinson dubbed writing the novels her “gateway drug” into genre fiction. She points out how Indigenous authors are moving into new genres, a key example of this being her own new novel, The Sorceress of Sky Serpents.
Robinson’s inspiration for this book came from stories her dad used to tell before he passed in 2017. Missing these stories, she “wanted them to have a home in a book. And I didn’t want them in the past, or in the future, so I created a second world.” This second world makes reference to Indigenous cultures in West B.C. “I don’t think you can fit an entire culture in a novel,” Robinson points out. “It’s a living thing, it’s constantly changing.”
During the Q&A portion of the launch, an audience member asked how genre fiction can help towards Truth & Reconciliation, to which Robinson responded that “you can tackle issues without being heavy.” Robinson went on to explain how she used her fantasy world to ask complicated questions about humanity. “Sometimes, when we think about history, we say ‘the simple times.’ There were no simple times.”
The book launch took place in a theatre filled with orange shirts, on a day of grief and remembrance. Dr. Doe O’Brien Teengs describes Truth and Reconciliation Day as “often about facing hard truths in this country.” O’Brien-Teengs is a Postdoctoral Fellow who currently teaches the class Gakinoomaagewin in Education at Lakehead University. As a Swampy Cree woman from Weenusk First Nation, she was eager to attend Robinson’s book launch.
O’Brien-Teengs thinks art “helps people process these feelings and transforms our grief and pain into something useful, and sometimes beautiful.” Seeing Robinson on Truth and Reconciliation Day, was a “transformative experience because her laughter balanced out the tears of the day.”
Robinson says “Indigenous writers are moving out of the box we’ve been put in,” jokingly adding, “we’re colonizing other genres.”
The Sorceress of Sky Serpents is available for purchase in store and online at Another Story Bookshop, as well as major Canadian retailers.
