Mailhot grew up in
Seabird Island,
British Columbia, on the
Seabird Island First Nation reservation. Her mother, Wahzinak, was a healer, social worker, poet, and radical activist, and her father, Ken Mailhot, was an artist.[3] Her father had been incarcerated and was an alcoholic who molested Mailhot when she was young, and was often violent.[4] Mailhot's mother had a letter-writing relationship with
Salvador Agron, and shared the correspondence with musician
Paul Simon, who used them for his Broadway musical, The Capeman. The role of Wahzinak was portrayed by
Sara Ramirez in the musical.[5] She is one of four children.[6] As a child Mailhot had
tuberculosis.[7] She was in foster care periodically and eventually aged out of the system.
In 2017, Mailhot became a post-doctoral fellow at the English Department at
Purdue University, where she works with the Native American Educational and Cultural Center.[12] Mailhot is also a professor at the
Institute of American Indian Arts.[9][13]
In 2018, Mailhot released her debut book, Heart Berries: A Memoir.[14]Heart Berries deals with sexual abuse, trauma, violence, substance abuse, going hungry, being poor, and neglect. Mailhot has said she sees her journey as being one that reflects
intergenerational trauma and
genocide. She uses the term "Indian sick" to describe the idea of cleansing the heart and mind in a spiritual process, which is how her community often processes these experiences.[15] The title Heart Berries comes from a story about the healer O'dimin, the Heart Berry Boy, that an
Ojibwe friend who is a language teacher told her.[16] The book received overwhelmingly positive reviews in both popular and specialist sources.[17][18] In March 2018, actress
Emma Watson chose Mailhot's book as one of the monthly selections for her book club on
Goodreads.[19]Heart Berries is a New York Times bestseller.[20]
Mailhot began writing her memoir while she was institutionalized in a mental institution.[8][21] Mailhot had committed herself after having a mental breakdown related to dealing with childhood sexual abuse by her father.[14] The book consists of many essays that Mailhot wrote during her years as an MFA student.[2] Some of the book is written from Mailhot to her then-partner, Casey Gray, using an
epistolary approach to reflecting on memories of the past.[15]
Mailhot, Terese; Bearhart, Bryan, eds. (Fall 2017).
"Yellow Medicine Review". Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art & Thought.