Kegedonce Press is proud to announce that our founder, publisher, and art director, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, is the recipient of the 2025 Ivy Award, a prize bestowed upon an individual who has made a substantial contribution to Canadian publishing.
The award will be given by the International Visitors (IV) Programme and the International Festival of Authors (TIFA) during the 2025 Ivy Award and Conversation at Victoria University at the University of Toronto during TIFA on Wednesday, October 29 at 2:00pm. Kateri will be introduced by Kegedonce Press Publishing Manager Renée Abram.
“It’s both surprising and affirming,” says Kateri, “to receive recognition for the work that I, and others at Kegedonce Press, have been engaged in for decades to uplift, honour, and celebrate the beautiful literary works of Indigenous authors across Turtle Island.”
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm founded Kegedonce Press in 1993 because she saw a need for a fully Indigenous press, one that would promote Indigenous stories and involve Indigenous people in all aspects of book production. Since then, Kegedonce Press has released books by Basil Johnston, Marilyn Dumont, Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer, Richard Van Camp, Nathan Adler, Cherie Dimaline, D.A. Lockhart, and many others.
Kateri is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, Neyaashiinigmiing, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Kateri is an Assistant Professor, teaching Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions in the English Department at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Her publications encompass poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, libretti, graphic novels, and spoken word. Her teaching and creative work is firmly decolonial, a practice of cultural resurgence, affirmation and survivance.
