In 2003, Robinson moved back to Kitamaat Village to care for her father who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1998. In 2019, Robinson was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica.
Literary works
Robinson's first book, Traplines, was a collection of four short stories. The young narrators recount haunting tales of their disturbing relationships with sociopaths and psychopaths. The collection won Britain's Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for the best regional work by a Commonwealth writer. One of the stories, "Queen of the North", was also published in The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Another of her short stories, "Terminal Avenue", was published in the anthology of postcolonial science fiction and fantasySo Long Been Dreaming. Her second book, Monkey Beach, is a novel. It is set in Kitamaat territory and follows a teenage girl's search for answers to and understanding of her younger brother's disappearance at sea while in the retrospective, it tells a story about growing up on a Haisla reserve. The book is both a mystery and a spiritual journey, combining contemporary realism with Haisla mysticism. Monkey Beach was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award, and received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In her third book, Blood Sports, also a novel, Robinson returns to the characters and urban terrain of her novella "Contact Sports," from Traplines. Her novel Son of a Trickster is a humorous coming of age novel and the first of a trilogy. It took Robinson eight years to write, and was originally conceived as a short story. The second book in the trilogy is Trickster Drift, which follows the main character from Kitamaat to Vancouver. The third book in the trilogy will be titled The Return of the Trickster or The Trickster Returns. Son of a Trickster was optioned for a television series, premiering as Trickster on CBC Television in 2020.
Awards and honours
She won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2001 for Monkey Beach, and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award in 2016 for her body of work. In 2017 she was named a recipient of the $50,000 Writers' Trust Fellowship. Her novel Son of a Trickster was shortlisted for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Its sequel, Trickster Drift won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize at the BC Book Awards on May 11, 2019. Son of a Trickster was selected for the 2020 edition of Canada Reads, in which it will be defended by actress Kaniehtiio Horn.
