Eden Robinson

One of Canada’s first female Native writers to gain international attention, making her an important role model.

 

Eden Robinson is a 36 year old Haisla woman who grew up near Kitamaat, BC. Her bestselling novel, Monkey Beach, was recognized and rewarded for it’s passion and extended details about growing up as native people. This novel won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, was a Giller Prize finalist and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

 

She is also the author of the short story, Traplines. This was awarded the Winifred Holtby Prize for the best first work of fiction in the Commonwealth and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of the Year.

 

Her most important literary influence is Stephan King, whose books she read compulsively between the ages of ten and fourteen. This is when she first started writing. She then went on to study at the University of Victoria and uncovered her talent for poetry and discovered that fiction writing wasn‘t her strongest suit.

 

She decided to enter the masters program at the University of British Columbia after having a short story published in its literary magazine PRISM international. This is whe her career started taking off and she went on to write Monkey Beach.