katherena vermette

Jury Citation

“When psychotherapist Louis Busch, a Bear Clan member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, started writing Carry Your Heart, he was driven personally and professionally to bring the wisdom of Elders to the fields of psychological science. Editor katherena vermette saw something more: a chance to strengthen the relationship between Indigenous teachings and Western psychology by bringing Busch himself and his struggles to the story. In a kind of method editing, vermette took to heart the teachings of the Elders who Busch interviewed — embodying, for example, Simon Bird’s otōtīmowin — to gently invite Busch to share his gifts in his own voice. The result is that the Elders’ teachings, Busch’s story, and his profound understanding of psychological flexibility will stay with readers along the spectrum of suffering, flourishing, pain, and love that is this life.”—2026 Nancy Flight Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Editing (Rachel Giese, Craig Pyette, Rachel Taylor) 

Jury Citation

"Reminiscent of the hard-scrabble tales of the Métis in the Road Allowance days, Vermette offers up a beautiful, raw testament to those living on the margins. Brilliantly weaving the lives of the Strangers into stories within stories within stories, Vermette’s confident, understated prose walks the reader through the unforgiving reality of the descendants of those who stood with Riel and Dumont, grasping for survival in a world committed to a long-established campaign of dispossession. Cathartic and disturbing, The Strangers offers vital insight into the colonial brutality that still haunts the lives of the Métis." —2021 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Jury (Rebecca Fisseha, Michelle Good, and Steven Price)

Jury Citation

“Katherena Vermette’s poignant novel, set in Winnipeg’s North End, opens with a violent crime that becomes the backdrop for a story of great depth and compassion. This masterfully written narrative shifts among the intergenerational voices of the women of one extended Indigenous family. The Break is a powerful, persuasive novel about the strength and love that bind these women to each other and to the men in their lives. The traditions and wisdom of a community are honoured, as is the exquisite individual humanity of each character. Although this is a novel of social importance, it transcends politics, taking the reader on a journey to the heart of what it means for one person to care about another, survive trauma, and endure.” — 2016 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Jury (Lauren B. Davis, Trevor Ferguson, and Pasha Malla)