Quote by Terese Marie Mailhot: “To tell the truth, I had to be a liar first, a storyteller.”

This paradoxical statement means that sometimes, to convey a deeper or more complex truth, one must use the creative license of storytelling, which might involve altering facts slightly. It acknowledges that strict factual reporting can miss emotional or experiential truths, which fiction can illuminate.

A central idea in 'Heart Berries,' where Mailhot grapples with memory, trauma, and the process of memoir writing. This reflects the challenge of conveying subjective experience and emotional truth, especially when conventional narratives might fail to capture the nuances of Indigenous life.

Canadian author and member of the Seabird Island Band whose memoir Heart Berries became a bestseller and was praised for its radical formal innovation and emotional honesty. She writes about Indigenous experience, trauma, and motherhood with compressed, visceral prose.