Winnipeg author David A. Robertson, two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award and a member of Norway House Cree Nation, and Penguin Random House Canada’s Tundra Books are readying a children’s imprint dedicated to Indigenous narratives. Swift Water Books will debut in spring 2026, with plans to publish four to eight titles per year, ranging from picture books to YA fiction.
The imprint has been in the works for a few years. Around 2022, Robertson and author Cherie Dimaline, a member of the Metis Nation of Ontario, approached PRHC, with whom they both had publishing relationships. “We’d been talking about how so many of the trailblazing Indigenous writers opened doors for us,” Robertson says. “We believed we were in a position to do something similar: publish new and emerging talent because we felt their stories were vital.”
Meanwhile, says Tundra Book Group publisher Tara Walker, an Indigenous imprint was already on the company’s wish list. “We’d had an afternoon of Indigenous programming internally a few years back, focused on truth and reconciliation,” she says. “We started thinking: wouldn’t it be great if there was a dedicated imprint? But we felt that was something that had to be led by Indigenous colleagues.” A couple of months later, Robertson and Dimaline reached out.
As plans began to take shape, Dimaline left the project, citing an already busy schedule. Robertson forged ahead, expanding on why he wanted to create the imprint and stipulating some requirements for the books he envisions publishing. “Children are the most important people to write for,” he says. “If you really want to concern yourself with transformative change, you need to focus on kids.” Swift Water Books titles must be created by Indigenous authors and illustrators and bear the hallmarks of great Indigenous storytelling, he notes, and “every book we put out needs to have educational value.”
The name Swift Water pays tribute to Robertson’s late father: “My dad grew up on the land and he’s always loved the water,” he says. “It was where he found calm. He called the rivers near his home ‘swift water.’ ” Robertson notes that some of his favorite memories of his father are of times they spent near the water. “I asked him once why he did the work that he did. He told me that he chose the jobs he chose because they enabled him to help the most people, and that he wanted me to do the same. That’s what I want to do with this imprint—continue that legacy of helping people in any way that I can with whatever platform I’m able to make use of.”
Envisioning Identity
To bring the Swift Water Books name to visual life, Tundra Book Group art director Gigi Lau tapped Ojibwe-Anishinaabe designer Mariah Meawasige to create the logo. “My background is with identity design, and I work 99% of the time with Indigenous people and companies and projects that lead back to community,” Meawasige says. When Robertson shared his vision for the imprint, she recalls, “one of the more impactful stories that Dave had was with his dad—going back home and being on the river with him. I’m also from a community that centers around a river—Serpent River First Nation—so lots of my memories with my dad are on the river too.”
In realizing her logo imagery, “I wanted to latch on to this idea of legacy and the fluidity of rivers and how it’s a good metaphor for storytelling, for carrying stories, because it’s moving forward constantly,” Meawasige says. “The river is a living entity—it adjusts to what it needs to adjust to, and it can get bigger or smaller, but it keeps going regardless.”
The logo’s S shape mirrors the twists and turns of a river, she says, and its interior, which she likens to being “nestled within the river’s current,” signals that the imprint “is a safe, protected space for Indigenous stories. There’s always a concern that we’re taking things that are so sacred to us and putting them out into the world. I wanted to signify that Dave is creating a space that’s safe for growth, where the stories will be held and taken care of.”
David A. Robertson
“We’re very mindful of the representation that’s so empowering for young Indigenous readers to see
in literature.”
Mariah Meawasige
“The fluidity of rivers... is a good metaphor for storytelling.”
Current Speed
Swift Water’s inaugural list contains two releases: Here for a Good Time, a YA novel about a teen mom by Kim Spencer, a member of the Gitxaala Nation, whose middle grade debut Weird Rules to Follow garnered three Canadian Children’s Book Awards, and Canada, a picture book written by the late Ojibwe Canadian author Richard Wagamese and illustrated by Anishinaabe artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. Wagamese’s estate and agents approached Robertson about adapting some of Wagamese’s writings for children, and Canada is the first of those works. “I was able to adapt a beautiful poem that he wrote into a picture book manuscript—kind of write it with Richard,” Robertson says.
There are 20 Swift Water projects in various stages of development, including The Golden Birch, a supernatural fantasy novel by two-spirit Ojibwe and citizen of the Anishinaabeg Nation Yolanda Bonnell; The Legend of Red Pants, a hockey picture book by Wab Kinew, from the Onigaming First Nation; and the graphic novel Rez Roads by Mohawk and Tuscarora (Bear Clan) playwright Falen Johnson.
According to Tundra associate publisher Liz Kribs, a team of Tundra staffers will be involved in various ways in developing the Swift Water titles. “David’s role is to acquire—he makes the connections,” Kribs says. “He oversees all the big decisions and is involved at every step, and we also have editors and designers and all the rest of our publishing program to support the books throughout the process.”
Apart from tending to the new imprint, Robertson is keeping up with his own creative output and has several books due out this year. They include the recently released mental health memoir All the Little Monsters (HarperCollins Canada) and 52 Ways to Reconcile: How to Walk with Indigenous Peoples on the Path to Healing (McClelland & Stewart, May). On the children’s side, Little Shoes (Tundra, July) is a picture book illustrated by two-spirit artist Maya McKibbin that addresses the generational trauma of residential schools, and The World’s End (Tundra, Aug.) concludes his Misewa Saga.
As for Swift Water, “we want to represent as many of the Indigenous cultures across Turtle Island [North America] as we can—we’re very mindful of the representation that’s so empowering for young Indigenous readers to see in literature,” Robertson says. “We want to put out books that educate non-Indigenous readers about our histories, languages, and resiliency, and shine a light on the beauty of our cultures.”
