Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. Louise is married and has two adult children and three grandsons.
She graduated with a Bachelor of social work from the University of Regina. She served as Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate for two years and has traveled extensively. She has served as keynote speaker at numerous conferences. Her books, Bear Bones and Feathers, Blue Marrow, The Crooked Good, and Burning In This Midnight Dream, published by Coteau Publishers, have all received numerous accolades and awards. All will be republished by Brick Books and Kegedonce. Sohkeyihta are selected poems published by Wilfred Laurier Press. Awasis – Kinky and Disheveled will be released in the spring of 2021, and published by Brick Books.
Louise has received the following honorary degrees: Wilfred Laurier University, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, and the University of Saskatchewan and Mount Royal University – Calgary, Alberta. She serves as an Elder and consultant for various committees and departments at the University of Saskatchewan and other provinces.
On February 3, 2021, the Speaker of the Senate, the Hon. George J. Furey, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Hon. Anthony Rota, announced the appointment of Louise for a two-year term as the ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
