1 Kabloona Red
7 Elipsee
35 Kakoot
57 Annie Muktuk
65 Manisatuq
73 Qunutuittuq
79 Itsigivaa
81 Iniqtuiguti
85 Inurqituq
89 Tutsiapaa
93 Nakuusiaq
97 Qaninngilivuq
101 Samagiik
105 Husky
131 My Sisters and I
Norma Dunning is an Inuit writer, scholar, researcher, and grandmother who grew up experiencing a silenced form of Indigeneity in the southern areas of Canada. When she began to write about her own ancestors, her Inukness became evident. Her creative work keeps her most grounded in the Traditional Inuit Ways of Knowing and Being. She won the 2021 Governor General Award for Fiction for Tainna.
"Dunning’s stories, nuanced and deeply felt, reach deep into the
heart of what it means to be Inuit, into the sacred place where the
songs of the north are still sung, visions are still seen, and the
spirits still speak. From this place, it is possible to laugh at
those who come to destroy. From this place, dignity is maintained
and the connection to the turning of the seasons is unbroken.
Together with grief for what has been lost, there is power and
light in these stories." [Full review
at https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/annie-muktuk-and-other-stories/]
*Foreword Magazine*
"When I read the article, 'What inspired her was getting mad,'
about the story behind Norma Dunning’s debut collection, Annie
Mukluk and Other Stories, I was not surprised. Acts of justice and
revenge factor throughout the book, propelling the stories so
terrifically. Dunning wrote her stories in response to ethnographic
representations of Inuit people that neglected to show them as
actual people, and the result is a book that’s really
extraordinary. Because her people are so real, people who laugh,
and joke, and drink, and have sex (and they have a lot of sex)."
[Full post
at http://picklemethis.com/2017/08/02/annie-muktuk-and-other-stories-by-norma-dunning]
*Pickle Me This*
"Although [Dunning] deals with serious contemporary realities for
Inuit people, she manages to work in moments of humour that flesh
out her characters, making them fully realized and complex.”
*Where.ca*
# 10 on Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers list, September 24, 2017
# 6 on Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers list, October 01, 2017
# 10 on Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers list, October 22, 2017
"A successful short story takes us to unfamiliar places, and the 16
stories in this collection certainly fill that bill. It’s a journey
deep into Inuit life, with tales of Inuk of all shapes, genders and
ages. The title story is at turns funny, violent and cunning: Jimmy
tries to convince best friend Moses to stay away from the glorious
Annie Muktuk, an arnaluk (naughty woman, according to the glossary)
who will cause him grief. [Full article at
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2017/11/24/new-reads-for-short-story-lovers.html]
*Toronto Star*
"This whole collection is fantastic, but the story with the bad
trip is 'Husky', inspired by the life of trapper and HBC Factor
"Husky" Harris whose visit to Winnipeg with his three Inuit wives,
Tetuk, Alaq and Keenaq, is written about in history books. In the
story, naturally, the group and their children make an impression
at their hotel, and the racism of hotel staff leads to a fight that
lands Husky in the hospital. The violence doesn't end there and the
women are further victimized—but then they enact the most beautiful
justice." [Full article
at https://49thshelf.com/Blog/2017/08/14/The-13-Worst-Holidays-in-Canadian-Literature]
*49th Shelf*
"Inuk writer Norma Dunning’s debut collection passed under the
radar of the big awards despite being the year’s best short fiction
collection. The stories infuse Inuit myth with reality, explore the
effects of colonialism, and delve into settler-writer portrayals of
Inuit, all told with heart and humour that is infectious." Michael
Melgaard, on his No. 1 book of 2017, [Article at
http://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/np99-24-2-best-books-of-2017]
*National Post*
"I love Norma Dunning’s Annie Muktuk and Other Stories. The
similarities are striking between Māori and Inuit ways of
referencing ancestors, landscape, relationships, spirituality,
mythology, and the social cultural political issues we face as
tāngata whenua (Indigenous people). Her representations of trauma,
love and grief with clever narrative twists are fantastic, as are
the acts of revenge. She writes of sacred ancestral knowledge,
informed by ancient spirits." [Full article at
http://press.futurefire.net/2018/02/interview-with-iona-winter.html]
*Iona Winter*
“Fiction solves the problem of other minds, by cutting readers
directly in on the thought and being of other people. If it
has a moral purpose it is this: to give us empathetic
understanding of other people, many of them very different
from ourselves, in gender, and culture, and race…. I liked
this book very much, for its rich characterization, for its
liveliness in dialogue, and most of all for the window it presents
on another form of consciousness, one to which a unique world of
spiritual beings is very near.”
*Fiddlehead*
"Norma Dunning's debut short story collection is sensitive,
intelligent and intense. Right from the first story, 'Kabloona
Red,' in which an Inuit women knocks back cheap red wine whenever
her white husband is away, Dunning writes about authentic
experience. The narrators are first person or closely focused
third, so the Inuit characters' confusion and pain as they struggle
to maintain individual and cultural identifies are felt
directly.... Strong currents of anger and courage propel the Inuit
characters. They are survivors.... I loved this book."
*Alberta Views*
# 7 on Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers list, April 15, 2018
# 9 on Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers list, May 06, 2018
"Annie Muktuk and Other Stories expounds on Inuit women
empowerment. The collection comprises both happy and sad stories, a
mixture of present day and the past, and has a touch of humour."
[Full article
at http://www.windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/indigenous-artists-break-free-of-the-limits-of-the-small-box/]
*Windspeaker*
"As the author's bio explains, Dunning was raised in Southern
Canada, but 'When she began to write about her own ancestors, her
Inukness became evident.' It is indeed evident in these stories… It
is a thoroughly contemporary collection, however – the literary
equivalent of the Annie Pootoogook portrait that graces its
cover."
*Globe and Mail*
"Norma Dunning’s debut short story collection takes us out of our
mundane lives into one that is raucous, humorous and spiritual....
Dunning has written a powerful book, the short stories depicting
the way of her people, how they once lived and now live in the
presence of the white world. She regales her audience with tales
funny and sad, harrowing yet uplifting. But most of all she places
the stories on the page to show that she and her people matter....
They are full of Native humour, full of knowing. They are stories
full of survival..." February 27, 2019 [ Full review at
http://www.prairiefire.ca/annie-muktuk-and-other-stories-by-norma-dunning/#more-4178]
*Mary Barnes*
# 5 on Edmonton's Bestselling Books list; Fiction, December 01,
2019
# 7 on Edmonton's Bestselling Books list; Fiction, December 08,
2019
Ask a Question About this Product More... |