Jun 30, 2022
In June, National Indigenous History Month, all Canadians are asked to commemorate the rich, diverse history of Indigenous people in Canada. In honor of this history, OPL is presenting readers with free digital access to Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, musician and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson throughout the month of June. There will be simultaneous access to the English (eBook and eAudio) on Overdrive and the French (eBook) on Cantook Station from June 1-30.
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies is a challenging, rewarding work of literary fiction about Indigenous life in the urban settler world, colonialism, climate change and connection. Innovative in form, Noopiming presents timely and vital topics in a way that defies the reader’s expectations of how to read a novel. Simpson sketches out a cast of characters with deft, spare strokes—her confidence and control of language is exemplified in the minimalism of her prose. Noopiming is otherworldly, serious and often funny; this is a book that will break your heart and make you think.
Noopiming was OPL’s nomination for the Dublin Literary Award and it was recently shortlisted for this library-nominated literary prize. We hope you will join us this month in reading, thinking about and discussing this special book.
We have some tools to help get the conversation started:
Leanne Betasamosake’s website.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has released an album inspired by this book. You can watch and listen to an immersive inter-disciplinary collaborative video, Solidification, that features Simpson reading from the book over music with accompanying visuals.
Here is a conversation with the author that allow readers to grasp her writing style and what she wants to convey with this beautiful book.
There is a book discussion guide available from her US publishers https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/images/other-images/simpson_disc_guide.pdf