NWT Arts

Bren Kolson was a Métis poet and author born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, of Tłı̨chǫ (Tso’Tine) and Polish descent. She began writing at a young age and had been crafting poetry since Grade Four. At just fourteen, she received the John Tetso Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, sponsored by Claire and David Molson of Montreal, for an eight-stanza, thirty-two-line poem. By the age of fifteen, several of her poems had been published in the local newspaper The News of the North.

In 1980, while working as a journalist with the Native Press, Bren was awarded the Louis St. Laurent Fellowship, a legal journalism scholarship granted annually to two practicing journalists in Canada by the Canadian Bar Association. Through this fellowship, she audited law courses at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Her writing continued to gain recognition, and in 1990, several of her poems were included in Writing the Circle: A Western Canadian Native Women’s Anthology.

Bren pursued higher education at the University of Saskatchewan, where she earned Double High Honours in English and Native Studies in 1992. During her time there, she also taught Native Literature. That same year, she was awarded the Hannon Travel Scholarship from the university’s English Department.

Her dedication to writing led to numerous opportunities and achievements. In 2005, she was selected as one of seven Canadian Indigenous writers, chosen from 150 applicants, to participate in the first Aboriginal Emerging Writers Residency in Banff, sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, the En’owkin Centre, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. That same year, she read a selection of her poetry at the League of Canadian Poets Spring Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. Between 2005 and 2006, she was also shortlisted as one of thirty writers, from over 1,000 applicants, in the short story category of the national CBC Literary Awards.

Bren remained an active and engaged literary figure. She read poetry and short stories at the NorthWords Writers Festival in Yellowknife in 2006 and 2008, where she was also invited to present a workshop on the history of Indigenous literature in Canada and the United States. In 2007, she participated in the Quesnel River Mother’s Journey Retreat in British Columbia alongside eleven Métis women, including renowned author Maria Campbell. That same year, she was selected to attend the CBC StageNorth Playwright’s Workshop in Yellowknife.

In December 2009, Bren published her first book, Myth of the Barrens, through Eschia Books and Lone Pine Publishers in Edmonton. The following year, in March 2010, she was awarded the inaugural NorthWords Writers Festival Prize for Excellence in Literary Writing for this work. Her writing continued to be featured in anthologies, contributing to the broader landscape of Indigenous literature in Canada.

Through her poetry, stories, and teaching, Bren Kolson made significant contributions to literature and to the sharing of Indigenous voices and experiences. Her legacy endures through her writing and the impact she had on readers, students, and the literary community.