Artist Kent Monkman is one of the finalists for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Awards for fiction.
The Canada Council for the Arts announced a list of the best 70 English-language and French-language finalists across seven categories on Tuesday.
Monkman and co-author Gisele Gordon have been nominated for their book, The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island (published by McClelland & Stewart/ Penguin Random House Canada.)
The winning books will be announced Nov. 13. Each winner will receive $25,000, and each publisher will receive a $3,000 grant. Each finalist will receive $1,000.
Part of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), Monkman lives and works in New York City and Toronto. He is renowned for exploring themes of colonization, sexuality and resilience in his painting, film and video and performance art, which has been shown around the world, including exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, Palais de Tokyo and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. His alter ego is Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
In addition to co-writing the book The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island, Monkman and Gordon have made various short films and video works, which have been screened at the Berlinale and the Toronto Film Festival. Monkman was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2023 and received the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2014.
Source: Canada Council for the Arts, CBC, Kent Monkman
Also see: Kent Monkman, James Hart Named to Order of Canada
Kent Monkman Painting Creates Controversy
The Met Acquires Two Paintings by Kent Monkman
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