shalan joudry

shalan joudry is a Mi’kmaw mother and narrative artist working in many mediums. She is a poet, playwright, podcast producer, storyteller and actor, as well as a cultural interpreter. Having worked as a professional oral storyteller for well over a decade, her first full-length play, Elapultiek, was commissioned and then produced by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre which toured in 2018 and 2019. shalan’s second book of poetry, Waking Ground (Gaspereau Press 2020) was short-listed for the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Indigenous Voices Award for Poetry in English. Her solo one-woman theatrical show, Koqm, debuted on the King’s Theatre Stage, Annapolis Royal, in 2021 then toured the province in 2022. shalan lives in her home territory of Kespukwitk (southwest Nova Scotia) with her family in their community of L’sitkuk (Bear River First Nation) where she is researching and working on reclaiming her L’nu language.

Photo by Dan Froese