“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. Sarah Murdoch, Toronto Star [Full article]
“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, National Post, on his No. 1 book of 2017
“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.” Susan Haley, 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.” Candace Fertile, Alberta Views
“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.”Shari Narine, Windspeaker [Full article]
INDIE Book of the Year Awards (Short Stories), United States
Winner
2018
Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story | Writers’ Guild of Alberta for “Elipsee”, Canada
Winner
2018
2017 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Canada
Winner
2018
