Alicia Elliott facts for kids

Alicia Elliott is a talented writer and editor from the Tuscarora nation. She was born in 1987 or 1988. She is known for her powerful essays and her first novel.

Growing Up and School

Alicia Elliott was born in the United States. When she was 13, her family moved to the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario, Canada. A reserve is a special area of land set aside for Indigenous peoples.

Even though her home was near big cities, it did not have running water. Many homes on the reserve were like this. Alicia went to high school in Brantford, a city nearby. She finished high school in 2005.

Her Writing Career

Alicia Elliott started her paid writing career in 2015. She wrote an article for Briarpatch magazine. It was about elections for the Six Nations community.

In 2016, another writer, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, asked Alicia to write for The Malahat Review. Alicia wrote an essay called "A Mind Spread Out On The Ground." This essay won a National Magazine Award. Alicia says this award really helped her writing career take off.

The next year, in 2017, Alicia received the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. This award came with money and a chance to learn from an experienced writer, Tanya Talaga. In 2019, a collection of Alicia's essays was published. It was also called A Mind Spread Out on the Ground.

From 2017 to 2018, Alicia was a special fellow at the University of British Columbia. She was also the first mentor-in-residence for Room magazine. This means she helped guide other writers. From 2018 to 2020, she was an editor for The Fiddlehead magazine. She focused on creative nonfiction, which is true stories told in an interesting way.

Besides her essays, Alicia has written for many newspapers and magazines. These include The Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Maisonneuve, Today's Parent, and Reader's Digest.

In 2023, Alicia published her first novel, And Then She Fell. This book won the 2024 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Alicia Elliott has received several important awards for her writing:

• 2017: Gold prize at the National Magazine Awards for her essay "A Mind Spread Out on the Ground."
• 2018: RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award.
• 2018: Her short story "Unearth" was chosen to be in The Best American Short Stories 2018.
• 2018: Her story "Tracks" was chosen for Best Canadian Stories 2018.
• 2018: Her story "Tracks" was on the longlist for the Journey Prize.
• 2024: Amazon.ca First Novel Award for her novel And Then She Fell.

Her Books and Stories

Here are some of the works Alicia Elliott has written:

Novel

• And Then She Fell (2023)

Collections of Essays

• A Mind Spread Out on the Ground (2018)

Short Stories

• "Tracks," published in The New Quarterly, Winter 2017.
• "Unearth," published in Grain issue 44.3, Spring 2017.

Essays

• "A Mind Spread Out on the Ground," published in The Malahat Review, Winter 2016.
• "The Meaning of Elections for Six Nations," published in Briarpatch, 2016.
• "On Seeing and Being Seen: The Difference Between Writing With Empathy and Writing with Love," published in Room, 2018.