Come meet the author Alicia Elliott in conversation with Carrianne Leung. Refreshments will be provided.

Gryphons Read is a tradition at the University of Guelph, started by the well-known and well-loved author and U of G faculty, Lawrence Hill. Each year, a book that explores diverse identities and lived experiences, and is authored by a Canadian writer, is selected to be shared and read by the campus community. Gryphons Read hosts the author on campus for a few days in late September where they meet with students, staff, faculty, and community members in various classes and public events.

Alicia Elliott’s debut novel And Then She Fell is our 2024 Gryphons Read pick. Described as “a mind-bending, gripping novel about Native life, motherhood and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequences.” And Then She Fell was named as a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year 2023 and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Alicia is also the winner of the 48th annual Amazon Canada First Novel Award for 2024.

Alicia is a Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario, and is already well known for her far-reaching voice and contributions as a contemporary Indigenous thinker. Her first book of essays, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was a national bestseller in Canada and was nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and won the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.

She has written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt, and many others. She’s had numerous essays nominated for National Magazine Awards, winning gold in 2017 and an honorable mention in 2020. Her short fiction was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2018, Best Canadian Stories 2018, and The Journey Prize Stories 30. Alicia was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award.

Please join us to welcome Alicia to the University of Guelph community.

One Book. One Campus. One Community.

Gryphons Read is made possible by generous funding from College of Arts, the Library, the Office of the Provost, and with support from the Experiential Learning Hub.

Questions about the Gryphons Read program can be directed to gryphonsread@uoguelph.ca and please visit our Gryphons Read website.