Michelle Porter

Michelle Porter is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers. Many of her ancestors told stories using music and today she tells stories using the written word. She holds degrees in Journalism, Folklore, and, English, as well as a PhD in Geography. Her academic research and creative work focus on home, memory, and women’s changing relationships with the land. Porter’s books include the memoir, Scratching River; a creative non-fiction work, Approaching Fire (shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award); and a book of poetry, Inquiries (shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award). Her work has also been published in literary journals and magazines across the country. Porter teaches creative writing and Métis Literature at Memorial University. A member of the Manitoba Métis Federation, she lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

FESTIVAL BOOK

A Grandmother Begins the Story

Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the stories that will sing their family, and perhaps the land itself, into healing in this brilliantly original debut novel.

Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens truly means.

Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother.

Lucie wants the granddaughter she’s never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife

Geneviève is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without.

And Mamé, in the Afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to lose herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward.

This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of vividly realized, funny, wise, confused, struggling characters – including descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land – heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction.

GET THE BOOK

Shelf Like Books | Calgary Public Library | Audible

BE CURIOUSER

Michelle Porter: How a crooked Métis fiddle tune changed the way I think about stories – The Toronto Star
Métis women’s struggles span generations – Winnipeg Free Press
‘The land had to have a voice:’ Métis author Michelle Porter discusses her debut novel – CBC