Biographie
Emily Riddle is nêhiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation (Kipohtakaw). A writer, editor, policy analyst, language learner and visual artist, she lives in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). She is the senior advisor of Indigenous relations at the Edmonton Public Library. Her writing has been published in The Globe and Mail, Teen Vogue, The Malahat Review and Room Magazine, among others. In 2021 she was awarded the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Award. Emily Riddle is a semi-dedicated Oilers fan and a dedicated Treaty Six descendant who believes deeply in the brilliance of the Prairies and their people. Her first book of poetry The Big Melt was published by Nightwood Editions in fall 2022.
Entrevue
Honestly, I did not really read poetry in high school. We studied poetry I did not see myself reflected in and poetry felt like something people used to do. The only exception to this was Gregory Scofield whose work I devoured.
I started writing poetry to heal from academic and policy writing. It was hard for me to see change in this spaces and poetry felt so free to imagine a world otherwise within. I started thinking of myself as a poet only quite recently, as someone who does many other formats of writing. I am definitely a poet but I am also a writer and sometimes I like lines between those two to be blurry.
That is truly up to the Indigenous poet, but for me I see poetry as speaking back to untruths and making space for freedom. That can be as particular or vague as we would like.
