Michelle Good facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michelle Good
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| Occupation | Author, poet, lawyer |
| Nationality | Cree, Canadian |
| Alma mater | University of British Columbia |
| Genre | Fiction, Poetry, Essay |
| Notable works | Five Little Indians, Defying Gravity, "Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada" |
| Notable awards | HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize, 2020 |
Michelle Good is a talented Cree writer, poet, and lawyer from Canada. She is best known for her first novel, Five Little Indians. Michelle is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She studied at the University of British Columbia, earning both a Master of Fine Arts degree and a law degree. As a lawyer, she worked to support people who survived the residential schools.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Michelle Good is part of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation. When she was young, she was affected by the Sixties Scoop. This was a time when many Indigenous children were taken from their families. They were then placed into foster care. Michelle spent some time in the foster care system herself.
She started practicing law when she was in her 40s. She used her legal work to share the stories of residential schools in court. In 2014, Michelle earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Her first novel, Five Little Indians, started as her project for this degree. In 2022, Simon Fraser University gave her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Her Books
Five Little Indians
Five Little Indians is a powerful story. It follows five young people who survived residential schools in British Columbia. Even though the novel is fiction, some parts are based on real experiences. Michelle's own mother and grandmother were survivors of Canada's residential school system. This book was planned to become a TV series in 2021.
Truth Telling
Truth Telling is Michelle Good's second book. It is a collection of essays. These essays explore the experiences of Indigenous people in Canada. They cover both historical and modern topics. The book was published in May 2023. It was also a finalist for the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.
Awards and Recognitions
Michelle Good's book Five Little Indians has won many awards. These awards show how important and well-loved her writing is.
| Year | Award | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Governor General's Awards | English-language fiction | Won | ' |
| HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize | — | Won | ||
| Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize | — | Shortlisted | ||
| Scotiabank Giller Prize | — | Longlisted | ||
| 2021 | Amazon.ca First Novel Award | — | Won | |
| Amnesty International Book Club | Reader's Choice | Selection | ||
| BC and Yukon Book Prize | Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize | Shortlisted | ||
| Jim Deva Prize | Shortlisted | |||
| City of Vancouver Book Award | — | Won | ||
| Forest of Reading Evergreen Award | — | Won | ||
| Indigenous Voices Award | Published Prose in English: Fiction | Shortlisted | ||
| Kobo Emerging Writer Prize | Fiction | Won | ||
| 2022 | Canada Reads | Written Book | Won | |
Other Writings
Besides her novels, Michelle Good has also written poetry and essays.
- Five Little Indians (2020)
- Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada (2023)
Poetry
- Defying Gravity was included in The Best Canadian Poetry 2016.
- She also had work in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry, A Tenth Anniversary Edition.
Essays
- Her essay A Tradition Of Violence was published in Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters.
- She also contributed to Best Canadian Essay 2023.
Journal
- In 1996, her work appeared in Gatherings Volume VII: The En'owkin Journal of First North American Peoples.
