Norma Dunning

Norma Dunning is an Inuk writer from Canada whose story collection Tainna: The Unseen Ones (2021) won the Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction. Tainna is a collection of linked stories about Inuit people navigating a world that has largely forgotten them, told with dark humour, compassion, and unflinching honesty about the ongoing effects of colonisation. Dunning grew up in the urban south of Canada, away from Inuit communities, and her writing often explores the displacement and cultural disconnection that comes with that experience. Her debut collection Annie Muktuk and Other Stories (2017) was also widely praised for its distinctive voice and unflinching portraiture of urban Inuit life. She holds a PhD from the University of Alberta, where her research focuses on Inuit identity and representation. Dunning is widely recognised as an important voice in contemporary Indigenous Canadian literature and a powerful advocate for Inuit storytelling traditions.