Michelle Good is a Cree writer, poet, and lawyer from Canada, most noted for her debut novel Five Little Indians.[1] She is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.[2] Good has an MFA and a law degree from the University of British Columbia and, as a lawyer, advocated for residential-school survivors.[3][4]
Michelle Good | |
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Occupation | Author, poet, lawyer |
Nationality | Cree, Canadian |
Alma mater | University of British Columbia |
Genre | Fiction, poetry |
Notable works | Five Little Indians, Defying Gravity |
Website | |
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Good is a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation.[5][6] She was impacted by the 60s scoop and spent time in the foster care system.[7] Her great-grandmother participated in the 1885 uprising at Frog Lake and her uncle was Big Bear.[5] Good graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative writing in 2014.[6] The first draft of her debut novel, Five Little Indians, was her graduate thesis project.[6] She began to practice law in her 40's, sharing the histories of residential schools in courtrooms. [8]
Five Little Indians is a story about five British Columbia residential-school survivors.[9] Although the novel itself is fiction, some of the episodes were based on real experiences of her mother and grandmother, who were both survivors of Canada's residential school system.[1] Published in 2020, the novel was longlisted for the Giller Prize[10] and shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.[11] Now listed it as one of the top 10 novels of 2020.[12]
In 2021 the book won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2020 Governor General's Awards,[13] the Amazon.ca First Novel Award,[14] and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.[15] In 2021, the book was optioned to be adapted as a limited television series.[16]
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