Simpson first winner of emerging writer award

Writer,
scholar, storyteller and activist for Indigenous Peoples Leanne Simpson is the
recipient of the inaugural RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Simpson was
nominated for the award by Thomas King whose book, The Inconvenient Indian: A
Curious Account of Native People in North America, won the 2014 RBC Taylor
Prize. The RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award, which consists of a $10,000 cash
prize and the opportunity to be mentored by the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize winner,
was established to promote emerging talent in non-fiction. Simpson, a member of
the Alderville First Nation, has worked for the past 15 years with Indigenous
communities and organizations in Canada and internationally on environmental,
governance and political issues. Her third book, Dancing On Our Turtle's Back
(AK Press), stresses the importance of illuminating Indigenous intellectual
traditions in order to transfer that relationship to the Canadian state.
Simpson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, and is an instructor in
Indigenous Studies, Athabasca and Trent universities.