Kyle Edwards

Kyle Edwards is an award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and writer from the Lake Manitoba First Nation in Manitoba, and a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. Based in Palo Alto, California, he’s the managing editor at Native News Online, a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard. Previously a reporter at Maclean’s in Toronto and ProPublica in New York City, his writing and reporting have appeared in BuzzFeed, CBC Indigenous, Toronto Star, Global News, Sportsnet, Winnipeg Free Press, This Magazine, Advocate Magazine, U of T Magazine, and the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada.

Edward's upcoming novel, "Small Ceremonies" is a poignant coming-of-age story following the friendships, hopes, fears, and struggles of a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg’s North End illuminating what it's like to grow up forgotten, urban, poor, and Indigenous. It is set in Winnipeg's north end, a remote neighborhood at the border of Canada's eastern woodlands and central prairies. It follows a community that both literally and figuratively straddles two worlds. As its richly drawn characters navigate the thrilling independence of adulthood and the loss of innocence that accompanies adolescence, one can't help but root for Tomahawk "Tommy" Shields and his community, even as he himself reckons with his place in it. Word on the street is that this is the Tigers' last season. For Tommy, an image-obsessed high school student from a northern Indian reserve, the potential loss of his hockey team serves as a stark reminder of the fact that he is completely uncertain about his future.

He can't help but feel that each of his peers has some skill or gift that he lacks, yet each of their perceived virtues hides darker truths too. Clinton is beloved by teachers, but his "good kid" disposition is a desperate attempt not to end up falling prey to the gang violence his older brother has become enmeshed in. Floyd has incredible talent on the ice, yet behind that talent lies deep insecurity about his multiracial background. And the adults that populate Tommy's life, his mother who struggles with schizophrenia; Pete, the wayward Zamboni driver; and elders Maggie and Olga, offer a mixture of well-intentioned but often misguided support and a depressing portent of what the future could hold.

"Small Ceremonies" will be available in April 2025.

A book signing will take place in the LLX Marketplace immediately after the session.