Writers' Trust of Canada - 50 Years
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Maria Campbell

Maria Campbell is a Métis writer, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, teacher, community organizer, activist, and elder. Campbell’s memoir, Halfbreed, is a foundational work of Indigenous literature in Canada. Her latest book is Little Badger and the Fire Spirit, and she is working on a series of stand-alone stories, a collection of family stories, and Stories of the Road Allowance People, all collected and translated from the Cree language by her. Campbell has worked with Indigenous youth in community theatre, mentored Indigenous artists, co-established shelters for Indigenous women and children, and run a cultural centre at Gabriel’s Crossing. She is the winner of the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence, a fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, was appointed to the Stanley Knowles Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Brandon University, and has served as Cultural Advisor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law and the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching since 2017. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and holds eight honorary doctorates. She lives in Saskatoon.  

Writers & Books

Award History

Jury Citation

“One of Canada’s most beloved Indigenous authors, Maria Campbell changed the Canadian literary landscape with her first publication, Half Breed. Her searing expose of life as a mid-century Metis woman was a landmark modern memoir and one of the earliest and most widely read raw accounts by a Métis woman in Canada. Campbell went on to pen seven additional works plus numerous children’s books, plays, and films, openly tackling systemic racism, poverty, and colonial oppression. She is the recipient of prizes too many to enumerate for her groundbreaking work including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Indspire award, and multiple honorary doctorates. Campbell's work has been critical in breaking trail for Indigenous literature to find its place in the Canadian canon.”—2026 Matt Cohen Award: in Celebration of the Writing Life (Patsy Aldana, Kevin Chong, Sheree Fitch, Michelle Good, and Wayne Grady) 

Works Recognized by WT

Stories of the Road Allowance People

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