Waubgeshig Rice

Waubgeshig Isaac Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. Rice has been recognized for his work throughout Canada, including an appearance at Wordfest's 2018 Indigenous Voices Showcase in Calgary.

Journalism
Waubgeshig Rice began his journalism career when he spent a year in Germany on a student exchange program, and wrote a series of articles about his experience for the First Nations newspaper Anishinabek News. He graduated from Ryerson University in 2002, and began working as a freelance journalist for media outlets such as The Weather Network and Wasauksing's community radio station CHRZ-FM before joining the CBC's local news bureau in Winnipeg in 2006 and transferring to Ottawa in 2010.

With the CBC, he was a contributor to the radio and television documentary series ReVision Quest and 8th Fire. In 2014, he received the Debwewin Citation for Excellence in First Nations Storytelling from the Union of Ontario Indians. He became the new host of Up North, CBC Radio One's local afternoon show on CBC Sudbury, in 2018, and has been heard on the national CBC Radio network as a guest host of Unreserved. He left the CBC in 2020 to concentrate on writing.

Writing
Rice published the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge in 2011, as well as the novel Legacy in 2014, with Theytus Books, Ltd. His second novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was published in October 2018 by ECW Press, and the audiobook was narrated by actor Billy Merasty and released in December 2018.

The New York Times named Rice, alongside Cherie Dimaline, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger and Stephen Graham Jones, as "some of the Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror and fantasy."

Podcast
In 2021 Rice launched the Storykeepers podcast with author Jennifer David, with assistance from an Ontario Arts Council grant. In the podcast Rice and David will be discussing Indigenous literatures, "to bring conversations about Indigenous books to a wider audience in an audio book-club format."

Books

 * Drum making : a guide for the Anishinaabe hand drum. Ed. Suzanne Methot. (2005). ISBN 9781896832548. Owen Sound, ON: Ningwakwe Learning Press.
 * Laughter is Good Medicine: Don Burnstick. (2009). ISBN 9781897541074. Owen Sound, ON: Ningwakwe Learning Press.
 * Midnight Sweatlodge. (2011). ISBN 1926886143. Short stories. Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, Ltd.
 * Legacy. (2014) ISBN 1926886348. Novel. Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, Ltd.
 * Moon of the Crusted Snow. (2018). ISBN 1770414002. Novel.
 * Moon of the Turning Leaves. (2023). ISBN 9780735281585. Novel. Random House Canada.

Short stories

 * "Limbs" in Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (September, 19th, 2023)

Chapters, forewords, and translations

 * Brian D. McInnes (2016). Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow ISBN 0887558240 Foreword by Waubgeshig Rice.
 * Ed. Warren Cariou, Katherena Vermette, Niigaan James Sinclair. (2017). Impact: Colonialism in Canada. Manitoba : Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre Inc. ISBN 9781927849293. "Undercover" (book chapter) by Waubgeshig Rice.
 * Le legs d'Eva: roman. tr. Gonny, Marie-Jo. (2017). ISBN 9782895976219. Ottawa, ON: Éditions David. Translation of Legacy (2014).
 * Wood engravings by Alan Stein. On Spirit Lake: Georgian Bay Stories. (2018). "Manido-gaming" (book chapter) by Waubgeshig Rice. Parry Sound, Ontario: The Church Street Press.
 * Ed. Karen Schauber. (2019). The Group of Seven reimagined : contemporary stories inspired by historic Canadian paintings. ISBN 9781772032888. Book chapter by Waubgeshig Rice.
 * La cérémonie de guérison clandestine. tr. (2019). ASIN : B07NPW68ST. Ottawa, ON: Éditions David. Translation of Midnight Sweatlodge (2011).
 * Neige des lunes brisées. tr. (2022). ASIN : 978-2-89712-865-4. Montréal, QC: Mémoires d'encrier. Translation of Moon of the Crusted Snow (2011).

Awards

 * Independent Publishers Book Award for Midnight Sweatlodge, 2012. Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, Ltd.
 * Northern 'lit' Award for Midnight Sweatlodge, 2012. Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, Ltd.
 * Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling, 2004.