Dallas Soonias is bringing his A-game to Canada Reads for Jessica John's Bad Cree

Former Canadian national volleyball star and current CBC SportscontributorDallas Soonias is championing the novelBad Creeby Jessica JohnsonCanada Reads2024!

Soonias is Cree/Anishinaabeand is excited to bringan Indigenous book to this year'sCanada Reads.

The great Canadian book debate will take place on March 4-7. This year, we are looking forone book to carry us forward.

• Meet theCanada Reads2024 contenders

The debates will be hosted byAli Hassanandwill be broadcast onCBC Radio One,CBC TV,CBC Gem,CBC Listenand onCBC Books.The debates will take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET.You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice.Check out all the broadcast details here.

Bringing an athlete's spirit to the competition

As a former starplayer on the Canadian National Men's Volleyball Teamand a current contributorforCBC Sports,Sooniasis no stranger tocompetition nor the CBC. Hailing fromSaskatoon, he isregistered with theChippewas of Nawash. Sooniasmade history as thefirst Indigenous male to represent Canada in volleyball and actively promotes a more inclusive environment for Indigenous athletes and students.

He's also part of CBC Sports' broadcast team for the 2024 Paris Olympicsand will bring his sharp observations to this year's Canada Readsdebates.

Sooniasfurther tapped into his creative side in 2023, when he wrote, directed and producedtheshort film,Frank Gets the Job Done,which was commissioned by the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival.

Soonias'sfavourite books of all time are theScott Pilgrimseries by Bryan LeeO'Malleythat follow the misadventures of Scott Pilgrim, a musician and slacker living in Toronto.In fact,Sooniasis a big fan of graphic novels and strayed from the genrewithBad Creebut that doesn't mean it's not right up his alley!

• How the Scott Pilgrim series kept Dallas Soonias tethered to home and 5 other stories that speak to him

"The author, Jessica Johns, describes herself as a nehiyaw aunty. I'm nehiyaw. This story is a nehiyaw story. So I felt like I had a shorthand with the characters and the author," he said onCommotion.

I felt like I had a shorthand with the characters and the author.- Dallas Soonias on his connection to Bad Cree

"Just listening to how she describes and writes about her family dynamic...I'm right there with her. For me, personally, that was super lucky."

LISTEN | TheCanada Reads2024contenders speak with CBC Radio'sCommotion:

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Commotion is proud to announce the most highly anticipated reading list of the year. Elamin will reveal the five Canadian celebrities and the five books they'll be championing, and give each panelist a thirty second preview of what's to come.

The power of audiobooks

"I'm super dyslexic, soto read I really, really have to try and it takes forever," said Soonias."So if I want to read something from a book, I have tobe so dedicated to it and read it over and over. That being said, audiobooks are awesome and I love graphic novels because they work for my brain just the way it's wired."

In fact, it was Soonias's love for audiobooks that brought him toBad Cree. Originally, he was hoping to champion a graphic novel onCanada Reads, but when his friend Tanis Parenteauposted about voicing Bad Cree's audiobook, he was intrigued.

• Miss theCanada Readscontenders onThe Next Chapter? Catch up here

"I thought right away, 'I have to look into this book because of the title," he said. "And then I read it and Tanisdoes such a great job performing the book basically. It grabbed me and it was awesome."

LISTEN | Dallas Soonias and Jessica Johns discuss Bad Cree:

The Next Chapter54:00Canada Reads contenders Jessica Johns and Dallas Soonias, 3 must-read Black Canadian writers to check out in 2024, Sheila Heti on publishing her diary, and more

Former professional volleyball player and filmmaker Dallas Soonias sits down with Jessica Johns, author of the bestselling Canada Reads novel he will be championing in the upcoming March debates; Ryan B. Patrick announces his anticipated Black Canadian writers to watch list; Sheila Heti explains how she turned 10 years of diary entries into her latest book, and more.

A family story with horror elements

"[Johns]does such a great job of describing the horror-infused aspects of the book that it kept me, as a non horror reader, very engaged," he told CBC Books. "You feel like you're there the entire time."

Soonias was equally impressed by the care and thoughtfulness with which Johns chose each word. "Speaking to Jessica Johns, you understand that words are incredibly important to herand she doesn't want to put a single word in the wrong place. I think that's exactly what you want in an author."

While the horror elements certainly gave the story excitement, the parts that spoke toSoonias were the quiet moments that showcased the family dynamics and the little details of prairie life.

"This is all stuff that I know because I'm from that area," he said. "So that's what resonated most with me.I think it will with the reader as well, because she's so good at describing things."

LISTEN | Dallas Sooniason Trail's End:

Canada Reads9:27Dallas Soonias on Trail's End

CBC Sports analyst and former Team Canada volleyball player Dallas Soonias spoke to Trail's End host Lawrence Nayally about being on Canada Reads.

Reconciling with land and community

Bad Creeis a horror-infused novel that centres around a young woman named Mackenzie, who is haunted by terrifying nightmares and wracked with guilt about her sister Sabrina's untimely death. The lines between her dreams and reality start to blur when she begins seeing a murder of crows following her around the city and starts getting threatening text messages from someone claiming to be her dead sister.

Looking to escape, Mackenzie heads back to her hometown in rural Alberta where she finds her family still entrenched in their grief. With her dreams intensifying and getting more dangerous, Mackenzie must confront a violent family legacy and reconcile with the land and her community.

• Jessica Johns's novelBad Creeis a story about grief, guilt and healing read an excerpt now

Johns is a queer nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation. Johns won the2020 Writers' Trust Journey Prizefor the short storyBad Cree, which evolved into the novel of the same name.Bad Creealso won the MacEwan Book of the Year prize. Johns is currently based in Edmonton.

"I really wanted to represent, in this novel, the important relationships that aunties have had in my life," Johns said onThe Next Chapter.

I really wanted to represent, in this novel, the important relationships that aunties have had in my life.- Jessica Johns

"And the aunties in the novel are a mishmash of all of my aunties in small ways and one of the things that I wanted to do was also kind of subvert this idea of the 'all-knowing' native person. That's kind of funny to me because all of the brilliant people in my life, all of the Indigenous people who are so, so brilliant are also very human and flawed and complex."

LISTEN | Jessica Johns discussesBad Cree:

The Next Chapter2:52Jessica Johns on Bad Cree

Jessica Johns on the inspiration behind her book, Bad Cree.