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The Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle, now going into its fifth year, is a six-month mentorship and workshop program for emerging First Nations, Inuit and Métis writers in Canada looking to elevate their stories.
There have been 19 bodies of work from 13 authors published from alumni of this program to date, including Gin Sexsmith’s Audible Original In the Hands of Men and most recently Raymond Sewell’s inclusion in Poetry is Dead II: Once You're Dead, You're Dead Forever.
Applications to this year’s program opens Feb. 20 for eight weeks and the deadline is early April (date to be confirmed). Application details can be found here.
Chosen emerging writers in the program will be paired up with Indigenous mentors who will coach and guide participants through the creative process and help them identify and pursue opportunities in line with their goals as writers.
Audible will provide additional support to the participants throughout the program, including guidance on how participants can promote their work. At the end of the program, depending on what stage each writer has progressed their creative work and how they choose to share their writing, participants may explore opportunities with Audible.
There’s no cost for writers to apply and selected emerging writers are eligible for a bursary to support their participation in the program.
More information including details on the program, eligibility, and more can be found here: https://www.audible.ca/ep/IWC
2025 Mentors:
Tanya Talaga: Tanya is an award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and author of national bestsellers Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward. Her Audible Original series, Seven Truths, features her personal story of fighting for Indigenous rights.
Richard Van Camp: A recipient of the Order of the Northwest Territories, Richard Van Camp is a proud Tłı̨ chǫ Dene from Fort Smith, NWT. He is the author of 28 books in 28 years.
January Rogers: January is a multi-award winning poet, media producer, performance and sound artist. She operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. January was a 2022 and 2023 mentor.
Josh Whitehead: Josh Whitehead (he / him) is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit writer and academic from Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017), Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp 2018), Making Love with the Land (Knopf 2022), and Indigiqueerness: a Conversation about Storytelling (Athabasca UP 2023) as well as the editor of Love after the End: an Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (Arsenal 2020).
Reneltta Arluk: Reneltta Arluk is a writer and actor of Inuvialuit and Chipewyan-Cree descent, originally from the Northwest Territories. Being raised in a nomadic environment gave her the skills and imagination to become the writer and storyteller she is.
Warren Cariou: Warren has created books, films, photography and scholarly research with a focus on the relationships between Indigenous stories and the land. Warren was a 2023 mentor.
Jordan Abel: Jordan Abel is a queer Nisgaʼa writer from Vancouver and an award-winning author. His notable works include The Place of Scraps (Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize winner), Injun (Griffin Poetry Prize winner), and NISHGA, which received the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award. Abel has been widely published and anthologized, with his work appearing in journals like Canadian Literature and The Fiddlehead. He holds a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University (2019) and is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in Indigenous Literatures, Research-Creation, and Creative Writing.