Rebecca Thomas
Rebecca Thomas is a Mi’kmaw poet and children’s author. A daughter of a residential school survivor, she writes to build empathy and understanding. Her book Swift Fox All Along was a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist. Her fourth book, Sem’s Map, was published by Nimbus earlier this fall. Thomas was a 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Star and has been selected as a 2026 Berton House writer-in-residence. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Writers & Books
Juror History
Program History
2021 - Rising Star
Rising Stars
Selected by
Sue Goyette
Citation
Rebecca Thomas writes with an eloquence that burns and illuminates at once. Righteously. Her work is as fierce in its reach as it is tender. A reader and listener will feel their own heart beating in the way hearts do when they’re being invited to open. Thomas extends this invitation from all directions; here humour is audacious and quick like a river and vulnerability is a source of strength, of dignity. This is writing the world needs for how sure-footed and open it is, how willing it is to meet this time on the planet with the clarity and acuity.