In House with Kegedonce Press

Anishinaabe writer Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm long recognized the need for a press that understood the realities of Indigenous people and could present them to all readers. In 1993 she launched Kegedonce Press, an Indigenous-owned and -operated publishing house that involves Indigenous people in all aspects of book production, including art, editing, printing, and tech. The name “Kegedonce” is an Anishinaabemowin word meaning “Orator.” Kateri herself is descended from a line of orators and Chiefs on her maternal grandmother’s side.

We are based on the traditional territory of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation (Neyaashiinigmiing). Publisher and managing editor Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is of the Chippewas of Nawash and publishing manager Renee K. Abram is of the Oneida Nation (Onyota’a:ka), Wolf clan.

Our first title was Kateri’s own my heart Is a stray bullet, in 1993. We currently have over 40 titles in print, including:

• The 2024 smash hit horror anthology Zegaajimo, which combines 11 of the strongest voices in contemporary Indigenous writing in one of the scariest books of the year  
  

• The 20^th anniversary edition of Angel Wing Splash Pattern, award-winning author Richard Van Camp’s first short story collection
  

• Powerful collections from such poets as Marilyn Dumont and former Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, such as re-issues of the latter’s Blue Marrow and The Crooked Good
  

• Books on topics of national concern, such as These Are the Stories, Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith’s memories of the 60s Scoop
  

• Many bilingual books in English and Indigenous languages, such as 2023’s Nipugtug (Mi’gmaw) and Basil Johnston’s landmark books on Anishinaabe culture (Anishinaabemowin)
  

• Gorgeous children’s books, such as that perennial favourite, Sharon King’s Amik, and last year’s Counting at Kits Beach by Oliver McDonald
  

• Wonderworks including Daniel Heath Justice’s The Way of Thorn and Thunder series, which was the first Indigenous-authored fantasy series, and Coltrane Seesequasis’s monumental A Wolf in the Sun tetralogy
  

• Books by Two-Spirit authors such as Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Smokii Sumac

Art direction is a priority at Kegedonce, and Kateri devotes a lot of attention to it, on the principle that everything about a book, from content to cover, should be beautiful. And it’s being recognized; in 2021 Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler’s Ghost Lake (2020) received honourable mention from the Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye award in book design. We are thrilled that artists such as Don Chrétien and Isaac Murdoch have provided some of our dazzling covers.

Our authors and books have been nominated for many awards, including the Indigenous Voices Award, the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, the Ânskohk Aboriginal Poetry Book of the Year, and the Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award.

We are one of very few Indigenous-owned and -operated presses in Canada and the only one in Ontario. We are a proud member of the Literary Press Group, the Ontario Book Publisher’s Organization, and the Association of Canadian Publishers. Kegedonce continues to create books that connect people far and wide to a rich diversity of Indigenous cultures.

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Thanks to Richard-Yves Sitoski for sharing the storied history behind Kegedonce Press, and to Patricia Campbell and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm for their insights.