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Key points
- Finalist for the 2026 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
- Co-directed Sugarcane, nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards
- Member of the Canim Lake Band (Tsq'escen') in British Columbia
- Named to the TIME100 Next list in 2021
Julian Brave NoiseCat says his first ambition was always to be a writer. Filmmaking came along unexpectedly, and it took him all the way to the Academy Awards. Now his first book, We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning (Random House Canada), is a finalist for the 2026 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The Writers’ Trust lists his home as Kitsilano Indian Reserve No. 6 in Vancouver.
Roots in Secwepemc country
NoiseCat is a member of the Canim Lake Band, Tsq’escen’, in British Columbia, and a descendant of the Lil’wat Nation of Mount Currie. The Writers’ Trust describes him as a writer, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer and student of Salish art and history. He studied history at Columbia University and, as a Clarendon Scholar, at the University of Oxford.
Sugarcane and the Oscars
With co-director Emily Kassie, NoiseCat made Sugarcane, a documentary that follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the residential school near Williams Lake, B.C. His own family was sent to that school. The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the directing award, and went on to be nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards. It also won Best Documentary from the National Board of Review.
Asked about the Oscar nomination, he told APTN News: “That one is definitely going to be in the obituary.”
We Survived the Night
NoiseCat wrote the book while Sugarcane was being filmed, and he has said the two projects shaped each other. It starts with his own questions about culture, identity and story, then widens into what it means to be Indigenous in Canada, the United States and across North America.
The book is written in the style of a Coyote story, built around the trickster forefather of his people. “The trickster and the stories about him, these aren’t just fairytales, these aren’t just fables,” he told APTN. The Writers’ Trust jury citation points to the Secwépemc coyote stories woven through the book.
Journalist and Writers’ Trust finalist
Before the book and the film, NoiseCat built a career in journalism. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker, and has won several National Native Media Awards and Canadian National Magazine Awards. He was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2021.
The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction will be awarded in Toronto on November 10, 2026. The winner receives $75,000 and each finalist $5,000. NoiseCat shares the shortlist with Richard Kelly Kemick, Robert Moor, Trina Moyles and Dan Werb.
Where to learn more
Watch a short video about the book on his Writers’ Trust author page, and read his interview about the book with APTN News.
His official website is julianbravenoisecat.com.
Questions and answers
What is We Survived the Night about?
Published by Random House Canada in October 2025, the book tells a broad story about what it means to be Indigenous in Canada and North America, and how those stories should be told. NoiseCat shapes it in the style of a Coyote story, drawing on the trickster tales of his people.
What is Sugarcane?
Sugarcane is a documentary NoiseCat co-directed with Emily Kassie. It follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the residential school near Williams Lake, B.C. It won the directing award at Sundance in 2024 and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
When is the Writers' Trust nonfiction winner announced?
The winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction will be announced in Toronto on November 10, 2026. The winner receives $75,000 and each finalist receives $5,000.
