Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, she grew up in the neighbouring city of North Vancouver and attended Simon Fraser University. She was one of the first Aboriginal people to be published in the early 1970s.
Maracle is one of the most prolific aboriginal authors in Canada and a recognized authority on issues pertaining to aboriginal people and aboriginal literature. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the l? people.
Maracle was one of the founders of the En’owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, British Columbia and the cultural director of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto, Ontario.
Maracle has given hundreds of speeches on political, historical, and feminist sociological topics related to native people, and conducted dozens of workshops on personal and cultural reclamation. She has served as a consultant on First Nations’ self-government and has an extensive history in community development. She has been described as “a walking history book” and an international expert on Canadian First Nations culture and history.
Maracle has taught at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Southern Oregon University and has served as professor of Canadian culture at Western Washington University. She currently lives in Toronto, teaching at the University of Toronto First Nations House. She most recently was the writer-in-residence at the University of Guelph.
Essays and Criticism on the Writing of Lee Maraclemoreless
Contemporary American Indian Literatures and the Oral Tradition Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez
Contemporary American Indian Writing: Unsettling Literature Dee Horne
"Raven's Plague: Pollution and Disease in Lee Maracle's Ravensong" Judith Leggatt in "Mosaic" 33.4. December 2000. pp. 163—178
"Storying the Borderlands: Liminal Spaces and Narrative Strategies in Lee Maracle's Ravensong" Karen E. Macfarlane in "Creating Community: A Roundtable on Canadian Aboriginal Literature" ed. Renate Eigenbrod and Jo-Ann Episkenew. 2002, Theytus Books. pp 109—123.
