Rising Stars: Meet Andrea Grant of Irvine

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Grant.

Hi Andrea, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a storyteller and multimedia artist of mixed-blood Coast Salish ancestry. My work rises from a lifelong fascination with mythology and a desire to merge stories, poems, photography, film, spoken word, and performance into layered experiences that can be felt on many levels.

For the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest, stories are more than entertainment—they are truth. My latest book, MODERN NATIVES: AN ILLUSTRATED COLLECTION OF REIMAGINED COAST SALISH MYTHS (Eaglespeaker Publishing, 2025), is a luminous, genre-bending collection that brings the living myths of my people into sharp, contemporary focus. I blend ancestral teachings, vivid memory, and cinematic prose to explore a world where ancestral spirits walk through New York City, where water serpents stalk dreams, where trickster gods order whiskey in Tacoma dive bars, and supernatural white wolves appear beneath Manhattan streetlights. This collection honors Coast Salish oral tradition while daring to ask: What if the spirits never left?

I began my career in Vancouver with the launch of COPIOUS Magazine, an arts-focused publication that quickly gained a following and aligned itself with the city’s spoken word scene. Eventually, my path led to New York City, where I worked as a digital editor at Condé Nast. In 2009, I released my first poetry collection, THE PIN-UP POET, a book pairing noir-inspired, Cindy Sherman–like portraits of me inhabiting various women characters with imagistic poems that examine their identities and predicaments.

My passion for merging words with visuals is what drew me into the world of graphic novels. As early as 2003, I began writing illustrated stories featuring MINX, a mysterious Native warrior woman capable of moving between the dimensions of Dreamtime and waking life, often guided by white spirit wolves. After several standalone comics and anthology stories, I published my full-length graphic novel, ANDREA GRANT’S MINX: DREAM WAR, in 2011.

My desire to explore different media eventually led me to filmmaking. I completed my first short film, MODERN NATIVE (2020), based on my spoken word poem of the same name. The film highlights the storytelling traditions of Native culture and the empowerment that comes from facing challenges and reclaiming one’s destiny.

My second film, NIGHT SWIMMING (2024), was shot in California and uses water as an allegory for the emotional range of women—how the ocean can cleanse, a thunderstorm can soothe heartbreak, and rain can feel like a healing dance when guided by intuition and ancestral voices. The film has received numerous awards and international recognition, screening at festivals in Prague, Seattle, San Francisco, Tokyo, Berlin, and beyond. It has been honored with awards including Best Short Film on Women, Best Music Video, and Best Make-Up.

Most recently, I completed my third spoken word film, THE BONES OF OUR NEVER-CESTORS (slated for a 2026 release), which confronts the intergenerational trauma of the residential school system through a haunting Coast Salish retelling of the Hansel and Gretel fairytale—a blend of myth, horror, and reclamation.

I am currently working on a poetry collection titled NO RETURN: TOO NARROW FOR MY SHOULDER BLADES, which I describe as an exploration of mythological female archetypes from the perspective of a Coast Salish woman of mixed blood. The concept of “returning” threads throughout the work—returning to origins after self-realization, escaping suffocating or dangerous spaces, and arriving back in symbolic or literal homelands only after essential transformation.

This collection reclaims and reimagines the mythologies of goddesses, warriors, sinners, priestesses, medicine women, mothers, daughters, and sisters who look to ancestral stories for guidance. It also explores matriarchal traditions, and the sacrifices generations of women have made in order for others to survive.

I studied Creative Writing at Kwantlen University College and have been honored with several First Nations Storyteller Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, along with support from the B.C. Arts Council and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council.

Across every medium—page, stage, and screen—I strive to explore new ways of telling Indigenous stories and affirming that the mythic world is always present, waiting to be seen.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road hasn’t always been easy, but my mindset has made all the difference. I’ve learned to ignore the impossibilities, silence the doubts, and focus on overcoming. To me, challenges aren’t roadblocks; they’re initiations—thresholds that carve you into a sharper, truer version of yourself. Growing up in a difficult family environment, healing from intergenerational trauma, and reclaiming my voice as a Coast Salish woman taught me to trust my intuition even when everything felt uncertain. Choosing a unique path will always attract naysayers, but I don’t listen to the noise. Perseverance and determination are just as essential as talent—often more. Art became my ammunition, my way of transforming pain into story, fear into imagery, and silence into something that could finally speak. My ancestors taught me that resilience isn’t about being unbroken; it’s about remembering who you are after the breaking. That truth guides my life and my work, reminding me that the mythic world is always present—and that healing is both personal and collective.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a storyteller and multimedia artist of mixed-blood Coast Salish ancestry, weaving Indigenous mythology into contemporary art. My latest book, MODERN NATIVES, brings ancestral stories into the modern world—where spirits walk through New York City, water serpents slip into dreams, and wolves prowl beneath Manhattan streetlights. My creative path spans publishing, photography, spoken word, and film: I founded COPIOUS Magazine, worked as a digital editor at Condé Nast, created the graphic novel MINX: DREAM WAR, and directed award-winning short films including Modern Native, Night Swimming, and The Bones of Our Never-Cestors. A recipient of multiple First Nations Storyteller Grants, I continue to push the boundaries of Indigenous storytelling, proving that ancient myths still breathe, shift, and speak through us—bridging memory, culture, and transformation.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I’ve learned that intuition is my truest compass, and that clarity comes from motion—you find your direction by walking it, not by waiting for perfect conditions. I’ve also realized that discipline is a quieter form of courage: the daily choice to show up for your craft, your community, and yourself. I’ve learned to value patience, to embrace the long arc of creative work, and to trust that things unfold at the pace they’re meant to. Another lesson is that boundaries are an essential form of self-respect; protecting your energy is just as important as pursuing your ambitions. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned that curiosity keeps you alive. When you stay curious—about people, stories, history, and your own evolution—if you stay open to transformation, that openness becomes its own kind of strength.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andreagrant.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreagrant.copious
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndreaGrant.CopiousAmounts
• Other: https://www.copious-consulting.com

Image Credits
Kent Szadowski
Susana Clark