# Michelle Good

Michelle Good is a Cree writer, poet, and lawyer from Canada, most noted for her debut novel Five Little Indians. She is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Good has an MFA and a law degree from the University of British Columbia and, as a lawyer, advocated for residential-school survivors.

## Early life and education

Good is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation. She was impacted by the 60s scoop and spent time in the foster care system. Her great-grandmother participated in the 1885 uprising at Frog Lake and her Great Grandmother's uncle was Big Bear. Good graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative writing in 2014. The first draft of her debut novel, Five Little Indians, was her graduate thesis project. She began to practice law in her 40's, sharing the histories of residential schools in courtrooms. Good received an Honorary Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from Simon Fraser University on October 7, 2022.

## Career

Five Little Indians is a story about five British Columbia residential-school survivors. Although the novel itself is fiction, some of the episodes were based on real experiences of her mother and grandmother, who were both survivors of Canada's residential school system. The book was set to be adapted as a 2021 limited television series by producer Martin Katz.
Truth Telling is the second book written by Good, it is a collection of essays on historical and modern experiences of indigenous in Canada. It covers wide variety of topics from life of indigenous people to modern social institution in Canada. Published on May 30, 2023, and finalist for the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

## Awards and Nominations
### Five Little Indians literary awards

| Year | Award | Award | Result |
| 2020 | Governor General's Awards | English-language fiction | Won |
| 2020 | HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize | — | Won |
| 2020 | Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Scotiabank Giller Prize | — | Longlisted |
| 2021 | Amazon.ca First Novel Award | — | Won |
| 2021 | Amnesty International Book Club | Reader's Choice | Selection |
| 2021 | BC and Yukon Book Prize | Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | BC and Yukon Book Prize | Jim Deva Prize | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | City of Vancouver Book Award | — | Won |
| 2021 | Forest of Reading Evergreen Award | — | Won |
| 2021 | Indigenous Voices Award | Published Prose in English: Fiction | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Kobo Emerging Writer Prize | Fiction | Won |
| 2022 | Canada Reads | Written Book | Won |

## Biblio

* Five Little Indians (2020)
* Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada (2023)

### Poetry

* Defying Gravity published in The Best Canadian Poetry 2016. Published on Oct 1, 2016 by Tightrope Books. Guest editor Helen Humphreys, editor Molly Peacock, and series editor Anita Lahy.
* The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry, A Tenth Anniversary Edition. Published on November 1, 2017 by Tightrope Books. Editors Anita Lahey and Molly Peacock.

### Essays

* A Tradition Of Violence published in Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters. Published in 2018 by University of Alberta Press. Editors Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell, and Christi Belcourt.
* Best Canadian Essay 2023. Published in December 13, 2022 by Bilblioasis. Editor Mireille Silcoff.

### Journal

* Gatherings Volume VII: The En'owkin Journal of First North American Peoples. Published in 1996 by Theytus Books. Editors Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Jeannette Armstrong