This isn’t any ordinary class project—these students are working to honour and highlight Indigenous voices in literature, past, present and future.
Organized by the students of ENGL 466: Literary Prize Culture, the 2025 Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) event, “Resurgent Reckonings,” is set to take place on March 19 at the Kingston Marriot. The event celebrates Indigenous voices and features two of the 2024 IVA winners, Alicia Elliott for her novel And Then She Fell, and Brandi Bird for their poetry collection The All + Flesh.
Designed to spark discussion and facilitate education on Indigenous literary arts, the event will also feature Lisa Doxtator, cultural counsellor at Queen’s Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre, and Marshall Hill, a poet, critic and theorist, PhD ’24. The class is taught by Sam McKegney, department head of English Literature and Creative Writing.
After an opening, the event will feature talks from both authors, a panel discussion facilitated by a student with questions created by the class, an open Q&A with the audience, followed by a reception with refreshments, a raffle, books for sale, and book signings.
The event planning and organizing was led by four student co-chairs. Victoria Zeppieri, ArtSci ’25, and Cristina Soares, ArtSci ’25 are the marketing and communications co-chairs, with Alexa Guerrera, ArtSci ’25 and Kacey Doerfler, ArtSci ’25 as events co-chairs. The Journal spoke with Zeppieri and Guerrera to learn more about the inaugural event.
Created in 2017, the IVAs aim to support and promote Indigenous literary art written in lands claimed by Canada. Though the awards have existed for some time, 2025 marks the first year this celebratory event will occur at Queen’s. This year’s event focuses on two of the six 2024 winners, with Elliott’s book winning the award for published prose in English and Bird’s winning the award for published poetry in English.
For the co-chairs, it’s crucial these voices are uplifted in the Canadian literary conversation and supported through prizes like the IVAs.
“Before taking this class, I didn’t know about the IVAs. I didn’t know these books existed,” Zeppieri said in an interview with The Journal. “Uplifting indigenous voices and literature is extremely important, especially in Canada, where these authors are from, their families are from.”
Guerrera emphasized the power of literature in making these stories accessible and the insight speaking with the authors could bring. “It will be really interesting to hear the authors talk about the decisions that they made in these books, and why they think they chose those,” she shared.
The books being celebrated are vastly different, offering plenty of opportunity for discussion from authors, panelists, and attendees.
And Then She Fell follows a Mohawk woman who moves to Toronto, with unreliable narration that leads to a shocking climax, traversing themes of mental health, motherhood and everything in between. Bird’s poetry collection, All + Flesh contains a series of poems that focus on Indigenous identity and intersectionality, whose form is just as important as the words being presented.
Incorporating Indigenous perspectives into all aspects of the event was crucial for the team.
“When we were choosing the panelists, it was really important for us that they did provide an Indigenous perspective, because as a settler, I can only say so much about what I think the book is trying to say. I can’t come from that perspective. I can learn from that perspective, but I can’t actually speak on it,” Guerrera said.
“I think especially from like the poetry standpoint, at least, it’s really common for us to relate poems to our own lives. And I think having Indigenous authors come and discuss it, it really does set up that barrier,” Zeppieri said.
The event itself is one the class has worked on for the past semester, making for a unique classroom environment that involves hands-on learning.
“Our class has put in a lot of work into this event, and a lot of pride, and I think we all really want it to go well,” Guerrera said.
The co-chairs hope attendees find the event both engaging and educational.
“We’re really hoping they [attendees] take away the power of Indigenous literature, and everything you can learn from indigenous literature and the multifaceted aspects of it,” Guerrera shared.
Tags
Indigenous literature, Indigenous Voices Awards, IVAs, Literature, Resurgent Reckonings
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