Blackfoot Stories - First Nations Language Readers Series

[Arok Wolvengrey]

Please allow me to announce an important publication:

Ákaitsinikssiistsi / Blackfoot Stories of Old

by Ikkináínihki Lena Heavy Shields Russell and Piitáákii Inge Genee 
with illustrations by Api’soomaahka William Singer III

This is both the first and the third volume in our First Nations Language Readers series, published through the University of Regina Press (formerly the Canadian Plains Research Center press).

It is the third, following volumes in Cree and Saulteaux, but it is also the first in the revamped and re-invigorated series under the U of R Press, whose mandate has been expanded from the original CPRC. While the series was originally meant to showcase the languages of the Canadian Plains (as do the first three volumes), the U or R Press wishes to expand this and publish stories from all of the First Nations of Canada (and possibly beyond). Each volume thus far has included, at the minimum, an introduction describing aspects of the language and the book itself, a bilingual text section including texts in the First Nations language and English on facing pages, and a glossary (the series was created as a tribute to and a carrying on of the work of Freda Ahenakew and her long-standing partnership with H.C. Wolfart). As series editor, I am particularly interested to begin the process of finding suitable manuscripts to include in this series. If you are have a set of short texts that you feel might fit this series, please contact me for more information (awolvengrey at fnuniv.ca). A fourth volume in the series, Woods Cree, will be out later this summer/early fall, and we hope to continue to build.

http://www.uofrpress.ca/publications/Blackfoot-StoriesMemoir-3-First-Nations-Language-Readers