Richard Van Camp

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Richard Van Camp, Dogrib author, storyteller & children's book author: The Official Home Page

Richard Van Camp is a proud member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, NWT, Canada. A graduate of the En'owkin International School of Writing, the University of Victoria's Creative Writing BFA Program, and the Master's Degree in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, Richard currently teaches Creative Writing with an Aboriginal Focus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. He has worked as an online instructor with the Emily Carr Institute teaching Creative Writing and Storytelling as well as the Justice Institute of British Columbia with their Aboriginal Leadership Program.

He was recently awarded "Wordcraft Storyteller of the Year" in 2006-2007 for "the greatest storytelling in Canada and the US."

Richard's poems, short stories and novellas have been published in anthologies and journals since 1992. Three of his short stories from Angel Wing Splash Pattern, "Mermaids", "Sky Burial" and "The Night Charles Bukowski Died" have been narrated by Cree actor Ben Cardinal and broadcast nationally as radio dramas on CBC. You can listen to them in the middle of this page. Richard wrote for CBC's North of 60 television show for two months under their Writer Internship Program and was a script and cultural consultant with them for four seasons. He co wrote the short movie "Promise Me" with Kent Williams and Jason Alexander of Neohaus Filmworks. Richard had the honour of writing Kent Williams' solo exhibition Solus catalogue for ArtSpace.

His novel, The Lesser Blessed, will soon be a movie with First Generation Films. Director, Kelvin Redvers, has now completed the film adaptation of Richard Van Camp's short story firebear called them faith healers with Cross Current Productions and will be screening the film at various film festivals internationally.

Richard is the author of two children's books with the Cree artist, George Littlechild, A Man Called Raven and What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?, with Children's Book Press, a novel, The Lesser Blessed, two collections of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern with Kegedonce Press and The Moon of Letting Go with Enfield & Wizenty, and a baby book titled Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns with Orca Book Publishers, which was given to every newborn baby in British Columbia in 2008 as part of the Books for Babies initiative in BC. Richard was Writer in Residence at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC, for the Winter, 2007, semester. He was also Writer in Residence for CBC Radio's North by Northwest Program for 2006 and 2007. He has performed at both the Winnipeg International Authors' Festival as well as the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, the Vancouver Storytelling Festival, the Vancouver Comedy Festival, the Vancouver Children's Festival; he's performed at the Illinois Youth Festival in Champaigne, Illinois, the Aboriginal Voices Festival in Toronto, the Baltic International Canadian Studies Conference in Riga, Latvia, and the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies' 2003 Conference in Rovaniemi, Finland, as well as the two Honouring Words Literary Festivals across Canada (2002) and throughout Australia (2003).

Richard's new collection of short stories, The Moon of Letting Go, is now released through Enfield and Wizenty out of Winnipeg. As well, Richard's first comic book, Path of the Warrior, is now published with the Healthy Aboriginal Network. His second comic on sexual health, Kiss Me Deadly is due out in 2010. His novels, Blessing Wendy, and Godless but Loyal to Heaven will be published in 2011 with Orca Book Publishers and Douglas & McIntyre in 2012 respectively.

Awards

Richard was recently awarded "Wordcraft Storyteller of the Year" in 2006-2007 for "the greatest storytelling in Canada and the US" at the annual Returning the Gift conference held at Michigan State University by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.

Richard's short story, "Dypthia," was nominated by Prairie Fire for the Western Magazine Awards.

The German translation of his novel, The Lesser Blessed, (Die Ohne Segen Sind, translated by Ulrich Plenzdorf) won the Jugendliteraturpreis 2001 at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the juvenile category, the highest award for a translation awarded by the German government.

What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses? was placed on the 1999 - 2000 Canadian Children's Book Center "Our Choice" Recommended List.

Richard was awarded The Writer of the Year Award for Children's Literature in 1999 by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers for his children's book A Man Called Raven.

Richard received the Canadian Authors Association Air Canada Award in 1997, "honoring a young (under the age of thirty) Canadian writer deemed to show the most promise for the future in the field of literary creation."

Writing, Readings and Photography available online

Richard's MySpace site, which he checks about once a month.

Richard's Photobucket Site

Richard does have a Facebook site: Come check it out!

His e-mail address is rvancamp{at}shaw.ca


Richard's Book of Lists:


Review of Hinterland's Under the Waterline

The Knife is like the first night I ever discovered Ninjas!

Richard's reviews of Video Games

Audio (mp3) from radio plays and a few extra goodies!

The Night Charles Bukowski Died (narrated by Ben Cardinal) (11.10 min.)

Mermaids (narrated by Ben Cardinal) (26.45 min.)

Sky Burial (Part 1) (narrated by Ben Cardinal) (11.24 min.)

Sky Burial (Part 2)(narrated by Ben Cardinal) (9.06 min.)

the uranium leaking from port radium and ray rock mines is killing us (read by Richard) (3.08 min.) An interview with Metis scholar, June Scudeler, on how this story came to be is listed below.

Richard online with students across Vancouver Island speaking and drawing

Richard reading at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design

Novels and Short Story Collections by Richard Van Camp

The Moon of Letting Go (short stories: now in its second printing!), Enfield & Wizenty.

Angel Wing Splash Pattern (short stories), Kegedonce Press (now in its fourth printing!).

The Lesser Blessed, Douglas & McIntyre (now in its sixth printing!).

Angry Man Book Review of The Lesser Blessed

  • Review at ABCBookWorld.com
  • "[Van Camp] does not stumble over nostalgia or romanticism or careless diction. He loves words "his own, his Nation's, rock and roll's" and slips perfect ones into atrociously profane and perfect sentences"
    -- Lorna Jackson for The Malahat Review (Summer, 1997)
  • "The Lesser Blessed is a coming of age tale told in photo-booth snapshots and raunchy one-liners. It is poetry and prose and locker-room boasts and puking-your-guts-out shame. It's sex that transcends tragedy. It is loud and rude and high. It's a shaker."
    -- John Burns for the Georgia Straight (Nov. 28, 1996)
  • "Van Camp's novel introduces a new terrain and language that nonetheless has roots in the fiction of Momaday, of Leslie Marmon Silko and James Welch, while simultaneously exploring the same subject matter as the contemporary stories of Sherman Alexie, Adrian Louis, and Lorne Simon. The Lesser Blessed is also a harbinger of a sophisticated Arctic literature, and of a bold new direction for contemporary Native literature. By all accounts, it is a masterful achievement."
    -- Dr. Geary Hobson

Three academic essays written on the novel:

Fagan, Kristina. "Weesageechak Meets the Weetigo: Storytelling, Humour, and Trauma in the Fiction of Richard Van Camp, Tomson Highway, and Eden Robinson." Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en Littérature Canadienne 34.1 (2009): 204-226.

Haladay, Jane. "'I Liked It So Much I E-Mailed Him and Told Him': Teaching The Lesser Blessed at the University of California." Studies in American Indian Literatures 19.1 (2007): 66-90.

McKegney, Sam. "Beautiful Hunters with Strong Medicine': Indigenous Masculinity and Kinship in Richard Van Camp's The Lesser Blessed." Canadian Journal of Native Studies 29.1-2 ( 2009): 203-228.

Children's Books

A Man Called Raven, George Littlechild, Illustrator, Children's Book Press.

What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?, George Littlechild, Illustrator, Children's Book Press.

Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns with Orca Book Publishers.

You can print up both "A Man Called Raven" and "What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?" and "Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns" in Braille courtesy of Set BC for free at this site: [http://www.setbc.org/setbc/accessiblebooks/freebooksforyou.html ]

Anthologies and Magazines

Richard is working on his first full horror short story "Night Falls Fast", which will be published by the University of Alberta in 2010.

Richard's narrative essay "NDNs" is now published in the new Canadian Journal of Native Studies (Volume 29, 1&2) this October.

Richard's new short story "Love Walked In" is now published in both Exile: The Literary Quarterly, Volume 33, Number 2 and the The Exile Book of New Native Writing.

Richard's new short story "I Count Myself Among Them" is now out in the new Prairie Fire (Summer, 2009).

Richard's new poem "Where is all the pubic hair going, you ask?" is now published in the new Interim (Volume 27/Number 1&2/2009) published by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Richard's new short story "The Moon of Letting Go" will be published in the new Kegedonce Press authors anthology [title unknown just yet] due out in 2010.

Richard's new poem naming his fear of bedbugs is now published in the Urban NDN newspaper in the February, 2009, edition. It is called "An Open Letter to the Bedbug People!"

Richard's new essay, "On Fatherhood" is now published in the anthology: Nobody's Father: Life Without Kids published by TouchWood Editions, edited by Dr. Lynne Van Luven and Bruce Gillespie.

Richard's new love story, "A Darling Story", is now posted online courtesy of The Grunt Gallery's Medicine Project. You can download it, print it up and read it here: You can read "A Darling Story" here:.

Richard's new erotica story, "Between Friends", as well as his list of top five favourite love scenes in Aboriginal Literature are now published in the new Spirit Magazine (Volume 4, Issue 4).

Richard's photo essay of four selected pieces from his toy collection is now published in the Metropolitan Magazine (April, 2008) here: [The Metropolitan Nerd Issue: http://www.themetropolitan.ca/back_issues/mp_6-4.pdf]

Richard's review of Vertigo's comic book series, "Scalped", is now published in the Metropolitan Magazine (March, 2008). You can read it here: [The Metroplitan Conspiracy Issue: http://www.themetropolitan.ca/back_issues/MP_6-3.pdf]

Richard's new short story, "The Power of Secrets", is now published in the UBC Alumni Magazine, Trek, in the Spring, 2008 edition.You can read "The Power of Secrets" here:

"Wolf Medicine: A Ceremony of You." Vancouver Review Magazine. 12 2007.

“I Am Scared of Piranhas.” Yellow Medicine Review. Vol. 2, 2007.

“Show Me Yours…” The Walrus. Vol. 4 No. 9, Nov 2007. You can read "Show Me Yours..." here:

“Here’s What I Think I Know.” Event. Vol. 35, 2006.

“Old Indian Trick.” Crumbs 3 - A Journal of Short Stories. Vol. 3, 2006.

“Dogrib Midnight Runners.” Up Here Magazine. Vol. 21, No. 5. July / August 2005.

Moccasin Thunder, Lori Marie Carlson (Editor), HarperCollins, contains the short story "The Last Snow of the Virgin Mary."

Richard had the honour of writing the introduction for Kent Williams' 2005 catalogue "Solus" with Artspace in Raleigh, NC: Solus

“10 Reasons I Still Believe in God.” Crumbs 1 - A Journal of Short Stories. Vol. 1, 2004.

“What to do when your Indian man doesn’t take his socks off during sex anymore.” Redwire Magazine Vol. 6, No. 2, 2003.

Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Editor), Kegedonce Press, contains the short story "Year of the Dog."

Prairie Fire: a Canadian Magazine of New Writing, Vol. 22 No. 3, 2001, Thomas King (Editor), contains the short story "Dypthia".

Crisp Blue Edges: Creative NonFiction by First Nations Authors, Theytus Press, 2000, contains the essay "25 Albums That Saved My Life".

Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing, Kateri Akiwenzie Damm & Josie Douglas (Editors), Kegedonce Press, 2000, contains the short story "Mermaids".

Kirkus, Fall 2000, contains the novella, "Snow White Nothing for Miles".

A Shade of Spring, 7th Generation Press, 1998, contains the short story, "Why Ravens Smile to Little Old Ladies as They Walk By", and poem, "My Life Has Become the Taste of Ashes".

An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English, Daniel David Moses & Terry Goldie (Editors), Oxford University Press, 2nd and 3rd Edition, 1998 and 2006.

Gatherings, Volume XII, Transformation, Florene Belmore & Eric Ostrowidsk (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the essay "Twenty Music Videos that Changed My World Forever" and song "I go Bazook!".

Gatherings, Volume XI, Flight Scape: a multi-directional collection of Indigenous creative works, Florene Belmore (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the short story "The Night Charles Bukowski Died"

Steal My Rage, Joel T. Maki (Editor), Douglas & McIntyre.

Gatherings, Volume VII, Standing Ground: Strength and Solidarity Amidst Dissolving Boundaries, Kateri Damm & Jeannette Armstrong (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the short story "the uranium leaking from port radium and ray rock mines is killing us".

Gatherings, Vol V, Celebrating the Circle: Recognizing Women and Children in Restoring the Balance, Beth Cuthand & William George (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the poem, "The Hope of Wolves"

Blue Dawn, Red Earth: New Native American Storytellers, Clifford E. Trafzer (Editor), Anchor Books contains the story "Sky Burial"

Whetstone, Fall 1994, the University of Lethbridge literary journal contains the three poems, "Husband", "Wife", and "I'll tell you something".

Gatherings, Vol IV, Regeneration: Expanding the Web to Claim Our Future, Don Fiddler (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the poem, "See this pen?".

Gatherings, Vol III, Mother Earth Perspectives: Preservation Through Words, Greg Young-Ing (Editor), Penticton: Theytus Books, contains the poem "Autumn's Silent Rage".

Descant, Summer 1993, the University of Toronto literary journal, contains the short story "Love Song."

Interviews with Richard Van Camp

Canadian Lit Interview: [Video interview: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.canlit.ca%2Finterviews.php%3Finterview%3D6&h=b9929ffba1a1c2419da93c0f402681d7]

{http://www.kegedonce.com/author_detail.php?AId=3 Interview with Metis Scholar, June Scudeler, about how "the uranium leaking from port radium and rayrock mines", published in Angel Wing Splash Pattern came to be]

Interview by Celu about Aboriginal Literature and Fantasy Writing

Interview by Lorraine Chan at UBC

AIROS July 2004 Book of the Month: The Lesser Blessed [RealAudio]

Interview by Judi Saltman, Canadian Children's Illustrated Books Project

Interview by Liz Mavor on how Angel Wing Splash Pattern came to be

Richard speaks about the renaissance of Aboriginal Literature

See Also

Richard on Aboriginal comics on Newspaper Rock

A Profile of Richard on the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts site

A short biography from the Internet Public Library's Native American Authors Project


This page is part of the Storytellers: Native American Authors Online project.

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