Waubgeshig Rice

Waubgeshig Isaac Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. Rice has been recognized for his work throughout Canada, including an appearance at Wordfest's 2018 Indigenous Voices Showcase in Calgary.

Career

Journalism Waubgeshig Rice began his journalism career when he spent a year in Germany on a student exchange program and wrote a series of articles about his experience for the First Nations newspaper Anishinabek News. He graduated from Ryerson University in 2002, and began working as a freelance journalist for media outlets such as The Weather Network and Wasauksing's community radio station CHRZ-FM before joining the CBC's local news bureau in Winnipeg in 2006 and transferring to Ottawa in 2010. In 2014, he received the Debwewin Citation for Excellence in First Nations Storytelling from the Union of Ontario Indians. Rice became the new host of Up North, CBC Radio One's local afternoon show on CBC Sudbury, in 2018.

Writing Rice published the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge in 2011, as well as the novel Legacy in 2014, with Theytus Books. and the audiobook was narrated by Billy Merasty and released in December 2018. The sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, was published in February 2024.

The New York Times named Rice, alongside Cherie Dimaline, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger, and Stephen Graham Jones, as "some of the Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror and fantasy."

Podcast In 2021 Rice launched the Storykeepers podcast with author Jennifer David, with assistance from an Ontario Arts Council grant. Rice and David discuss Indigenous literatures, "to bring conversations about Indigenous books to a wider audience in an audio book-club format."