Monique Gray Smith In Conversation with Katłįà Lafferty
Channel: West Vancouver Memorial Library
Date: 19/04/2022

Recorded on April 2, 2022.
Join award-winning author Monique Gray Smith and our Climate Writer in Residence Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty for an exciting discussion of Monique’s wildly anticipated Young Adult adaptation of the book Braiding Sweetgrass.

Monique Gray Smith is a proud mom of teenage twins and an award-winning, best-selling author. Her first published novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience won the 2014 Canadian Burt Award for First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Literature. Since then, Monique has had 7 books come out that cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics, and emotions. Woven into all of Monique’s writing, speaking engagements, and online courses is the teaching that Love is Medicine. Monique’s novel, Tilly and the Crazy Eights was longlisted for Canada Reads 2021. She is currently writing the Young Adult Adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, with a November 2022 release date. Also coming out in Fall 2022 is a picture book, I Hope with Orca Book Publishers. She is an appointed member of the Board of Directors of Royal Roads University and the Minister’s Advisory Council for Indigenous Women for the Government of BC and an elected Board member for the Victoria Native Friendship Centre. In 2019, Monique received the Victoria Leadership Award for Reconciliation. Monique is Cree, Lakota, and Scottish and has been sober and involved in her healing journey for over 30 years. She is well known for her storytelling, spirit of generosity, and focus on resilience.

Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty is a northern Dene novelist from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Her memoir Northern Wildflower published in 2018 was the top-selling book in the Northwest Territories upon release and is used as a teaching tool in Indigenous literary studies across Turtle Island. Her recently released novel Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Ti-Yat’a was placed on the Scotiabank Giller Prize Craving Canlit list and was nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award. Having grown up in Somba K’e (Yellowknife), Katłįà currently splits her time between her northern homeland and the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples in Esquimalt, British Columbia, where she is in her third year of the Juris Doctor in Common Law and Indigenous Legal Orders with the University of Victoria. Katłįà is currently serving as our inaugural Climate Writer in Residence. Be sure to follow Katłįà’s weekly blogs here!

Climate change is causing lasting and devastating problems for our world right now. As a hub for information and community-building, the Library is a critical part of the response to this emergency. Climate Future is a community-driven initiative that invites the community to come together to deepen knowledge and take action around the climate crisis.

This is event is generously sponsored by the West Vancouver Memorial Library Foundation.

For more information about our upcoming programs, visit westvanlibrary.ca.