is a Cree, Métis, and Salish memoirist, journalist, essayist, poet, content creator, public speaker, creative writing teacher, mentor, and screenwriter from Edmonton, Alberta. Her essay “Soar” won first place in the Edna Staebler Essay Contest, and then won the Silver Medal in the National Magazine Awards.

She lives in NYC, and was the first Indigenous graduate from Columbia University’s creative nonfiction MFA, where she then worked as an adjunct Creative Writing professor. She publishes regularly with HuffPost, and her debut memoir, Soft as Bones was published with House of Anansi in May 2025. 

Her writing is a celebration of culture, overcoming adversity, and shows the ways that Indigenous methods, cultural stories and practices have great capacity for healing. When she is not writing, she is most often travelling, as she loves to learn and experience other cultures and ways of life.

She is currently working on a short film and writing a magical realism novel.

Chyana is represented by Claudia Cross at Folio Literary Management.