Iris

by Michelle Porter

Iris Hallows Smith is seventeen and living in a psychiatric hospital. After foreseeing the death of her adoptive parents, Iris snapped. Doctors keep her sedated but it is no escape from the horrors her visions bestow, the land of the sleeping has just as many terrors. Just as Iris becomes used to life among the sick, a mysteriously handsome boy breaks her out of the hospital.

12 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2015

About the author

MICHELLE PORTER is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers. Many of her ancestors told stories using music and today she tells stories using the written word. She holds degrees in Journalism, Folklore, English, and a PhD in Geography. Her academic research and creative work focus on home, memory, and women’s changing relationships with the land.

Her book A Grandmother Begins the Story: A Novel will be published November 7, 2023.

Her most recent book, Scratching River, a memoir exploring the meaning of her Métis heritage through her older brother’s life story, was published by Wilfrid Laurier Press in April 2022. She’s also published a book of creative nonfiction about her great-grandfather, a fiddler from the Red River, called Approaching Fire (shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award 2021) and a book of poetry, Inquiries, (shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award). Michelle has won numerous awards for her poetry and journalism and her work has been published in literary journals and magazines across the country. Currently she is teaching creative writing and Métis Literature at Memorial University. She is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and she lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.