Life and career[edit]

Born in Curve Lake, Ontario, Taylor is of both Ojibwe and white ancestry. About his background Taylor says: "I plan to start my own nation. Because I am half Ojibway half Caucasian, we will be called the occasions. And of course, since I’m founding the new nation, I will be a special occasion."^[1] He also mused in a Globe and Mail essay: "Fighting over status/non-status, Métis, skin colour etc., only increases the sense of dysfunction in our community."^[2]


He writes about First Nations culture and has also been a frequent contributor to various magazines including This Magazine. His writing includes plays, short stories, essays, newspaper columns and film and television work. In 2004 he was appointed to the Ontario Ministry of Culture Advisory Committee.


As well as his writing, Taylor has been the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, and has taught at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. He co-created the series Mixed Blessings for APTN in 2007, and has been a writer for The Beachcombers, Street Legal and North of 60, and has made documentary films for CBC Television, including Searching for Winnetou, Cottagers and Indians and The Pretendians.^[3]


Taylor has held writer-in-residence positions at Native Earth Performing Arts, Cahoots Theatre, the University of Michigan, The University of Western Ontario, the Stephen Leacock Festival, the Blyth Festival, Lüneburg University, and Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University).^[4]


Le Baiser de Nanabush, the French translation of Taylor's Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, was selected for the 2023 edition of Le Combat des livres, where it will be defended by social media personality Xavier Watso.^[5]