About Joseph

Joseph Kakwinokansum is a writer, creator, and storyteller. A member of the James Smith Cree Nation, Joseph grew up in the Peace Region of northern BC.

Joseph is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio and The Writer’s Studio Graduate Workshop. He was selected by Darrel J. McLeod as one of the Writers Trust of Canada’s Rising Stars of 2022. His short story Ray Says, was a finalist for CBC’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020 and his manuscript Woodland Creetures was awarded the 2014 Canada Council for the Arts Creation Grant for Aboriginal Peoples, Writers, and Storytellers.

His debut novel, My Indian Summer, loosely based on his own childhood was winner of the 2023-2024 First Nations Communities READ Award and shortlisted for the 2023 ReLit Award for fiction. His work has been published in the Humber Literary Journal, the anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and life of Writing, Emerge; The Writer’s Studio anthology, and Better Next Year: An Anthology of Christmas Epiphanies. Joseph was also selected as the 2024 Storyteller in Residence for Vancouver Public Library.