A Perfect Likeness

Canadian author Richard Wagamese was one of the leading indigenous writers in North America. He began his writing career in 1979, first as a journalist and then as a radio and television broadcaster. In 1991, he became the first indigenous writer to win a National Newspaper Award for column writing. His debut novel, Keeper 'n Me, won the Alberta Writers Guild's Best Novel Award in 1994. His other books included A Quality of Light, Ragged Company, One Native Life, The Next Sure Thing, Indian Horse, Him Standing, and Medicine Walk. He also published an anthology of his newspaper columns entitled The Terrible Summer, a collection of poetry entitled Runaway Dreams, and a memoir entitled For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son. He won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction in 2007 for Dream Wheels and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature in 2011 for his memoir One Story, One Song. He was also the 2012 recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications and the 2013 recipient of the Canada Council on the Arts Molson Prize. He died on March 10, 2017 at the age of 61.

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