The Chronicles of Kitchike Taking a Hard Fall

In his first collection of stories, The Chronicles of Kitchike: Taking a Hard Fall, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui takes us on a journey into the heart of a very colourful Indigenous community where traditions, dreams, deprivation, and, yes, corruption exist side by side. With image-laden language, he plunges us into the daily life of ordinary men and women facing political, economic, and mythical forces beyond their control. With wry humour and a touch of the fantastic, the author depicts the sometimes tense relationships in Southern Quebec’s communities, allowing a snapshot of our multicultural society to be seen between the lines The Chronicles of Kitchike transports us to a unique universe, to a world that is not only comical but also gentle and replete with legend, home to a panoply of characters we’re not likely to soon forget!

Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui is a writer, poet, performer, and visual arts curator. A member of the Wendat people, he has been focused on promoting Indigenous arts and cultures for the past fifteen years. He is the co-founder and director of Kwahiatonk!, the only Canadian Francophone NPO entirely dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Indigenous literature. In his writings, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui alternates between the desire to share the wisdom and values of his ancestors, the need to express his individuality, and the need to fight against the colonial grip. Kathryn Gabinet-Kroo is a translator who works for clients in the public and private sector. Her translations of four novels by Quebec authors have been published by Exile Editions, including her translation of Marc Séguin’s Hollywood, one of five finalists for the Governor General’s Award for French literature in 2013. She is an active member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.