This talk maps the evolution of this tradition through a framework of waves: from reflection and refraction to diffraction and, now, to a fourth wave of interference. This new wave of Indigenous literature is defined by its transcendence of material realism, in exchange for a more embodied, phenomenological truth. Through a lens that is both critical and personal, and informed by my dual role as a writer and literary agent, the talk examines how this shift challenges the market’s expectations of an “Indigenous Voice.”

CODY CAETANO is the author of Half-Bads in White Regalia (Canada: Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2022), winner of two Indigenous Voices Awards, shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and longlisted for the Toronto Book Award, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and Canada Reads. An off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation, his mother’s family is from the Manitoba Interlake and his father’s family emigrated to Canada from the Azores in the 1960s. He works as a literary agent at CookeMcDermid.