DAVID A. ROBERTSON (he, him, his) is the 2021 recipient of the Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. He is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award, the McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People Award, and was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. His acclaimed YA series, The Reckoner, has won the McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People Award, the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction, and the Indigenous Writer of the Year Award at the High Plains Book Awards. The Barren Grounds, the first book in the middle-grade The Misewa Saga series, received a starred review from Kirkus, was a Kirkus and Quill & Quire best middle-grade book of 2020, was a USBBY and Texas Lone Star selection, was shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s Silver Birch Award, and is a finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award. His memoir, Back Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, was a Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire book of the year in 2020, and won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction as well as the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards. His second picture book, On The Trapline, illustrated by Julie Flett, has received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly. Dave is also the writer and host of the podcast Kíwew, winner of the 2021 RTDNA Praire Region Award for Best Podcast. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg.