The Sea in Winter

Christine Day is an Indigenous author of children’s books. She is a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe located in Washington State. Her mother is of Upper Skagit and Nooksack ancestry, and her father is of Northern European ancestry. Day grew up in Seattle and developed a love for books at a young age. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Washington and wrote her thesis on Coast Salish weaving traditions. In addition to her 2019 award-winning debut novel, I Can Make This Promise,  and The Sea in Winter, Day has also written a biography of Maria Tallchief, an Indigenous woman who was also America’s first prima ballerina. Like The Sea in Winter, Day’s 2023 novel, I Still Belong, also depicts an Indigenous girl’s struggle to find her place within her community.

Day draws on her own cultural heritage to explore Indigenous identity and to convey contemporary stories featuring Indigenous communities. She uses nuanced storytelling techniques to focus on the personal and cultural challenges faced by Indigenous youth, and to this end, The Sea in Winter follows Maisie, a young Indigenous girl who must come to terms with a leg injury that forces her to temporarily abandon her dancing.