Rosanna Deerchild (She/Her) is a Cree storyteller, journalist, broadcaster, and award-winning poet. She is from the northern community of O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation (formerly known as South Indian Lake) in Treaty 5 territory.
Her debut poetry collection, this is a small northern town, shared her reflections of growing up in a racially divided place. It won the 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Her second book, calling down the sky is a collaborative work with her mother who was forced to attend Indian Residential School. It was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award, the Manitoba Book Award, and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. Her poetry has appeared in Post-Prairie: An Anthology of New Poetry (Talonbooks, 2005), Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival (Sumach Press, 2003), and #NotYourPrincess (Annick Press, 2017), among other publications.
A veteran broadcaster, Rosanna has worked at APTN, CBC, Global and NCI-FM, where she hosted All My Relations. She also hosted The (204) and the Weekend Morning Show on CBC Radio One, and appeared on CBC Radio’s DNTO. She is the creator and host of CBC Books podcast This Place, based on the ground-breaking graphic novel anthology entitled This Place: 150 Years Retold. Currently, she is the host of CBC Radio’s popular show Unreserved, now in its ninth season.
The Secret to Good Tea, created in her time with Royal MTC’s Pimootayowin Creators Circle, is her first play.
Rosanna is a mother of two, and now lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
