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Emily
Riddle

Emily Riddle is Nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation (Kipohtakaw) in Treaty 6. She lives in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). A public library worker, researcher, and writer, her work has been published in The Globe and Mail, Teen Vogue, Room Magazine, and PRISM International. In 2020, Emily was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. She was selected for the 2021 Writers’ Trust Mentorship by poet Joshua Whitehead. Her first chapbook is forthcoming in 2021 with Moon Jelly House.

Program History

Citation

“Emily Riddle is a widely read poet and thinker, positioning herself alongside fellow nêhiyâw storytellers like Billy-Ray Belcourt, Dallas Hunt, and Randy Lundy. I was immediately brought home into the roaming prairies, the vastness of our river systems, the breadth of kin we are in relations with upon opening of her manuscript. Riddle’s poetics are timely and relevant, literary and literal, political and embodied. She animates the land as a being too, allowing it to speak, and never forgoes its desires. She posits herself within the broadening poetic arena of Indigenous biotexts and I am so honoured to be walking hand-in-hand with her throughout this editorial process. I cannot imagine a more serendipitous pairing!”

— 2021 WT Poetry Mentor Joshua Whitehead