In Search of April Raintree

Born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Beatrice Mosionier is a Métis writer best known for her novel In Search of April Raintree, first published in 1983. A school edition, April Raintree, followed in 1984.

The youngest of four children, Beatrice was three years old when the Children's Aid Society of Winnipeg took her from her family. Losing both of her sisters to suicide--Vivian in 1964 and Katherine in 1980--compelled Beatrice to use her experiences growing up in foster homes to write In Search of April Raintree. Since then, it has become a beloved classic, read by generations of Canadians.

Most recently, she wrote the foreword for Overcome, Stories of Women Who Grew Up in the Child Welfare System, by Anne Mahon. She has written several other books, including a play and a short film, and she is the former publisher of Pemmican Publications. She now lives in Enderby, British Columbia.

Cheryl Suzack is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Alberta and a member of the Batchewana First Nations of Ojibways. She is currently working on a dissertation entitled, "Strategies for Cross-Cultural Exchange: Native North American Women's Writing and the Politics of Location.

Janice Acoose is of Métis/Saulteaux inheritance from the Sakimay-Saulteaux First Nations and the Marvil Métis community in Saskatchewan. She is the author of Iskwewak Kah' Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak: Neither Indian Princesses Nor Easy Squaws (Women's Press, 1995). In addition to her work as a scriptwriter and co-producer for Katip Ayim Media Productions and CBC Radio, she has published articles on Maria Campbell, Indian residential schools, and contemporary First Nations women's issues. Her articles have appeared in Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of Literature (ed. Jeannette Armstrong, Theytus, 1993), Gatherings (1994), and Residential Schools: The Stolen Years (ed. Linda Jaine, Extension Division Press, 1993). Currently, she is an associate professor of English at Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, and a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Saskatchewan.

Michael Creal is professor emeritus of humanities at York University. In addition to publications on Voltaire, the French Revolution, and modern optimism, he has served as chair of humanities from 1967 to 1974 and as Master of Vanier College from 1974 to 1982. He has edited and written an introduction to In the Eye of the Catholic Storm: The Church Since Vatican II (HarperCollins, 1992), and contributed to the collection Moral Expertise: Studies in Practical and Professional Ethics (ed. Don MacNiven, Routledge, 1990). His current teaching interests have made extensive use of fiction in the areas of social ethics and contemporary moral issues.

Peter Cumming is a children's author and playwright who lived for six years in Inuit communities in the eastern Arctic. His children's books include A Horse Called Farmer (Ragweed Press), Mogul and Me (Ragweed Press), and Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay (Annick Press). His plays include Ti-Jean and Snowdreams, both published through the Playwrights Union of Canada. In 1994, he was awarded the George Wicken Prize in Canadian Literature for his essay, "'The Prick and Its Vagaries' Men, Reading, Kroetsch" (Essays on Canadian Writing, 1995). His teaching interests include profeminist masculinities in contemporary Canadian fiction, First Nations literatures, and pedagogical issues arising from new technologies. Currently, he teaches children's and young adult literature at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Guelph.