The debut novel by Northwest Territories author Kat upà Lafferty in the running

Northwest Territories author Katłįà Lafferty was nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award for her first novel, Earth-Water-Sky / Ndè – Tı – Yat’a.

The six-part composite novel was inspired by the Dene author’s childhood and her travels to her grandmother’s birthplace in the north arm of Great Slave Lake.

“It’s kind of the age-old story of the battle between good and evil, and there are a lot of different characters competing against each other and they’re just tangled up through time and history,” he said. -she declared in a recent interview with Radio-Canada The pioneer.

The book was nominated in the fiction category published in English. Other nominees in the category include Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler’s Ghost lake, Jenn Ashton People like Frank, Michelle good Five little Indians and that of Michael Hutchinson The case of the missing aunt.

The recipient of the award will be announced at a virtual event on June 21 to coincide with National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The Indigenous Voices Award was created in 2017 to support the diversity of Indigenous literature across Canada.

Plans in place to turn the book into a graphic novel

“I didn’t really have an end in sight when I started writing the book and it kind of just fell into place as I wrote,” Lafferty said.

“There was no real plan. Each of the characters unfolded and kind of came to life on the page and I just followed that.”

“This is probably the best advice I can give to anyone looking to become a writer. Just put it on the page and don’t be intimidated by your mistakes.”

Lafferty said plans were in place to write separate novels for each character, turning the book into a series.

She also said Earth-Water-Sky / Ndè – Tı – Yat’a will be transformed into a graphic novel.

“I’m super excited about this, because I think it’s going to reach so many more readers,” she said.

“As Native people, we’re very visual people. And so even the Elders who want to read it can read it. And they’re going to see the language in those bubbles, which is really cool.”