Nunavut, Canada writer wins Indigenous creative non-fiction award

Nunavut, Canada writer wins Indigenous creative non-fiction award

Nunavut, Canada writer and comedian Peter Igupttaq Autut has received the fifth annual Sally Manning Award for Indigenous Creative Non-Fiction, Up Here, a northern Canadian magazine announced on Friday.

Autut’s story Winter In Chesterfield Inlet recounts the author’s memories of travelling out on the land hunting and fishing.

Judges praised the story’s vividness and sensory richness.

“His descriptions are so real I can feel the cold right down to the ting in my ear,” said judge, storyteller and children’s book author Michael Kusugak in the news release announcing the award.

“This is Indigenous literature, and Peter Igupttaq Autut, I hope you are working on more chapters, more memories, more reflections about growing up,” added  judge and renowned Northwest Territories writer Richard Van Camp.

This year’s second-place award was given to Shelly Wiart for a story exploring her Métis identity called My Northern Healing.

The third-place award went to Carol Rose GoldenEagle’s story The Ugly Little Christmas Tree about a family Christmas tradition. 

Recognizing emerging writers

Sally Manning was a writer and teacher who spent much time in the North before passing away in 2014.

The award was established to recognize emerging First Nation, Inuit, and Metis writers who live, or have lived, in Canada’s northwestern Yukon territory; the neighbouring Northwest Territories (NWT); the eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut; Nunavik, the Inuit region of Arctic Quebec; or the Labrador region in Atlantic Canada. It is administered by the Yellowknife Community Foundation, a non-profit. 

The first-place award is $1,000, the second place award is for $500 and the third place award is for $250.

All three recognized stories then published in Up Here magazine, a publication based out of the city of Yellowknife, NWT, that covers all three of Canada’s northern territories: Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut. 

Autut’s story is currently available in Up Here magazine will be available on the website starting next week.

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

For further information: Quinn, Eilís. "Nunavut, Canada Writer Wins Indigenous Creative Non-fiction Award." Eye on the Arctic. July 31, 2020. https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2020/07/31/nunavut-canada-writer-wins-indigenous-creative-non-fiction-award/.