Eden Victoria Lena Robinson (born 1968) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.
Born in Kitamaat, British Columbia, she is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations. She was educated at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.
Robinson's critically acclaimed first book, Traplines (1995),
was a collection of four longish short stories. The young narrators
recount haunting tales of their disturbing relationships with sociopaths and psychopaths. The collection won Britain's Winifred Holtby Prize for the best regional work by a Commonwealth writer. One of the stories, Queen of the North, was also published in the The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Another of her short stories, Terminal Avenue, (which was not included in Traplines) was published in the anthology of postcolonial science fiction and fantasy So Long Been Dreaming.
Her second book, Monkey Beach (2000), was a novel. It is set in Kitamaat territory and follows a
teenaged girl's search for answers to and understanding of her younger
brother's disappearance at sea while in the retrospective, it tells a
story about growing up on a Haisla reserve. The book is both a mystery
and a spiritual journey, combining contemporary realism with Haisla
mysticism. Monkey Beach was short-listed for the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award, and received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
In her third book, Blood Sports (2006), also a novel, Eden Robinson returns to the characters and urban terrain of her novella "Contact Sports," from Traplines.
Reviewers praise Robinson's unflinching and compelling exploration of the darkest impulses of humanity. She is a recipient of the University
of Victoria's Distinguished Alumni Award. Her sister, Carla Robinson, is a Canadian television journalist at CBC Newsworld.
