Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, Saugeen Ojibway Nation on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Born in Scarborough, Kateri was raised in Toronto and on her home territory on the Saugeen Peninsula. She attended York University and the University of Ottawa and has taught creative writing and Indigenous literatures at the University of Manitoba, the Banff Centre’s Aboriginal Arts Program, and the En’owkin International School of Writing in partnership with the University of Victoria. Her publications encompass poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, graphic novels, and spoken word. Her teaching and creative work is firmly decolonial, a practice of cultural resurgence, affirmation and survivance. Her 2015 book of short stories, The Stone Collection, was a finalist for the Sarton Literary Book Awards, and her collaborative recording A Constellation of Bones was a nominee for a 2008 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award. She has also served as Poet Laureate for Owen Sound and North Grey. Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is the founding editor (now managing editor) of Kegedonce Press, one of four established Indigenous-run publishing houses in Canada.
