9 books that influenced 2024 Indspire Award recipient and Canada Reads author Eden Robinson
Robinson, who is from Haisla Nation and Heiltsuk Nation, is the 2024 Arts Laureate for the Indspire Awards
Over nearly 30 years, Eden Robinson has published five novels and a collection of short stories. Her work, infused with dark humour, gothic influences and traditional Haisla and Heiltsuk stories, portrays the everyday lives of Indigenous people in coastal B.C.
Her Kitimat-set debut novel, Monkey Beach, was nominated for the 2000 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Son of a Trickster, a coming of age novel, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2017 and was defended by Kaniehtiio Horn on Canada Reads 2020.
Now, Robinson adds a new line to her list of accolades as the 2024 Arts Laureate for the Indspire Awards. The Indspire Awards recognize outstanding achievements from Indigenous peoples across the country in a variety of fields. They will air on Friday, June 21 at 7 p.m. (4 p.m. PT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem.
"It's almost harder to get recognition from your own community," said Robinson in an interview with CBC Books. "So it's quite touching and wonderful to be recognized by the Indspire awards."
In her laureate profile, Robinson is commended for "changing the world through storytelling," a feat she attributes and dedicates to her ancestors.
"I come from a family of storytellers," she said. "They changed me before I could change anyone. So I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. They may not be recognized. But I hope to honour them through my art."
In 2020, to celebrate her novel Son of a Trickster being on Canada Reads, Robinson recommended nine books that inspired her and set her on the path of becoming a successful writer.
The Cat from Outer Space by Ted Key
The Cat from Outer Space is a tie-in book for the Disney movie with the same name. It tells the story of a UFO that make an emergency landing on Earth. Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7 the strange, cat-like alien that's on the ship, is taken into custody by the U.S. government and is nicknamed Jake by one of the lab's scientists Frank. They find themselves in many strange, funny and dangerous situations and build a sweet cross-species friendship.
"I don't remember how old I was, but I remember following my mom and dad around and reading parts of the book to them that I thought were hilarious," said Robinson. "I then did the same with my teachers — until they had enough!"
The Twilight of Briareus by Richard Cowper
"I was in love with 1970s science fiction books," said Robinson. "I was obsessed with this one. It was a story about a supernova that went off close to Earth. Some aliens soon arrive, saying that they are here to rescue humanity, but they have ulterior motives."
I was in love with 1970s science fiction books. I was obsessed with this one.- Eden Robinson
"I read this book around the time when British Columbia was doing some experimental things with their education system and were changing the way English was taught in high school. I was in Grade 8, but they put me into a Grade 10 English class due to the level I was reading at. All you had to do was read books and give a report to your teachers. I was reading about one or two books a night!"
"I had never been able to talk to people about books before. So I would follow my teacher around telling them, play-by-play, what I've read before. The Twilight of Briareus broke him! He said that I didn't have to read anymore for the class. He trusted that I had met the quota!"
Carrie by Stephen King
In Carrie, the titular character has telekinetic powers. An outcast from the rest of her high school classmates, one act of kindness offers her the chance to be normal, until a cruel prank sets her on the course of a revenge plot so destructive her small town might never recover.
"I went through a very long Stephen King phase," said Robinson. "The first book I read of his was Carrie. This book kicked off my love of horror. So after reading this book, I went through a long period of reading horror books and watching horror movies."
Books like this helped me through some really dark periods in my life.- Eden Robinson
"It was during my teen years when I couldn't quite grasp what depression was, but horror books were close to the mood I was experiencing. Books like this helped me through some really dark periods in my life."
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje
"I went to university assuming I'd be writing Stephen King-type books. I was on that path until I read this book. This was the first book that blew my mind just from the style," said Robinson.
The Collected Works of Billy The Kid is a book that weaves together poetry and prose to tell the story of the infamous outlaw Henry McCarty, also known as William H. Bonney or Billy the Kid, by drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels and imagination.
"I was reading it obsessively — and for the next three years wrote really bad copies of it!"
Not Vanishing by Chrystos
"I met Chrystos when she came to the University of Victoria on a tour in support of this book," said Robinson. "She was the first Indigenous author I'd ever met. I went to get my book signed and hung around afterwards. She was very generous with her time."
This book opened my eyes to the possibilities and the emotions that I can use in my writing.- Eden Robinson
"When I read her poetry collection, what I found was that she was processing a lot of the trauma and that my family was processing. I've always been told that my writing should be angry. But she was allowing herself to have all the emotions."
"This book opened my eyes to the possibilities and the emotions that I can use in my writing. I could be angry about stuff — that was okay — and I could still turn that into art."
Wetlands by Charlotte Roche
Wetlands is a novel that follows Helen Memel, an 18-year-old woman recovering from an operation in a hospital bed. While she passes the time, she contemplates her sexual past in great detail, in a shocking, often funny, manner.
"Roche is tackling subject matter that is visceral. She was approaching a novel in a way that I hadn't seen a novel approached before."
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
In Black Water, desperate for some adventure, Kelly Kelleher meets The Senator at a party and decides to go home with him despite a large age gap and how much he's been drinking. Driving irresponsibly on the roads of Grayling Island in Maine, he crashes into a guardrail leaving the car to sink into the water and Kelly to contemplate how sinister this man really is.
"Black Water had a structure that I have tried to emulate and just can't quite do it yet," said Robinson. "It has a wonderful spiral structure."
The Break by Katherena Vermette & There There by Tommy Orange
"The next writing project I'm going to tackle has multiple narrators," said Robinson in 2020. "So I am reading a lot of novels that have multiple narrators just to see what they're doing. All of my fiction has been from a first person or third person limited omniscient — and I've tackled a multiple narrator structure a couple of times now and it just didn't work."
The next writing project I'm going to tackle has multiple narrators. So I am reading a lot of novels that have multiple narrators just to see what they're doing.- Eden Robinson
"So I recently was reading The Break by Katherena Vermette and There There by Tommy Orange. They both have a tense sole event, but they spiral around them in different ways."
The Break offers a glimpse into the world of a Métis community in northern Winnipeg. Told from 10 points of view, the interweaving stories deal with the pain and truths Indigenous women endure.
In There There, Orange skillfully balances a cast of compelling characters as they all head to Oakland's first Powwow with a range of intentions in mind, from Jacquie Red Feather who hopes to reconnect with her family after achieving sobriety to teenage Orvil who has been learning Indigenous dances from YouTube and is ready to perform them publicly.
Eden Robinson's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
