Joan Crate was born in Yellowknife, North-west Territories, and was brought up with pride in her Indigenous heritage. She taught literature and creative writing at Red Deer College, Alberta, for over 20 years. Her first book of poetry, Pale as Real Ladies: Poems for Pauline Johnson, has become a classic. Her first novel, Breathing Water, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Award (Canada) and the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 1989. She is a recipient of the Bliss Carman Award for Poetry, and her last book of poetry, SubUrban Legends, was awarded Book of the Year by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. She lives with her family in Calgary.

Black Apple

Black Apple is a dramatic and lyrical coming-of-age novel about a young Blackfoot girl who grows up in the residential school system on the Canadian prairies. Sinopaki lives with her Blackfoot family in the bush, far from civilization, until she is delivered to St. Mark’s Residential School for Girls by government decree. There, she finds herself in an alien universe. Set during and after the Second World War, Black Apple is about an irrepressible Blackfoot girl whose spirit is tested by an endless series of torments under the sharp eye of Mother Grace. All too soon her dreams warn her of unspoken dangers.