Hello! I’m a white and Métis writer and educator. My Métis family name is Calder and we come from the Red River region - specifically the communities of St. Andrews and St. Clements - on Treaty 1, later migrating to Treaty 3 (Fort Frances, ON) where the majority of my family has remained since the late 1800s. I was born in Fort Frances to mom Vicki Blanchard, nee Calder (mixed settler and Métis) and birth father Pat Cross (mixed settler ancestry), and raised from the age of two by my mom and dad, Curtis Blanchard (mixed Norwegian and Métis, family name Richard from Batoche and St. Louis, SK), mostly on Treaty 6 in Prince Albert, SK. I’m currently living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. 

I was the Indigenous Writer-in-Residence at KPU for the 2022/23 school year and now gratefully find myself teaching in the Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing departments. I serve as the Indigenous Advocate on the National Council for The Writers Union of Canada and sit on the Equity Advisory Council at BC Arts Council, among other community service work. 

I owe much of my success to my family who instilled in me values of care, open-mindedness, and curiosity; and to my community of Indigenous kin in the writing industry who uplift and gently challenge one another, and who make me laugh more than anyone!