Markoosie Patsauq (ᒫᑯᓯ ᐸᑦᓴᐅᖅ; 1941 or 1942 – 2020) was a Canadian Inuk writer from Inukjuak (Nunavik, Québec).^[1][2] He is best known for Harpoon of the Hunter (ᐊᖑᓇᓱᑦᑎᐅᑉ ᓇᐅᒃᑯᑎᖓ), the first published Inuktitut language novel; the novel was written later, but published earlier (1970), than Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk's Sanaaq.^[3]

Born near Inukjuak, Quebec,^[4] his was one of the families forcibly relocated to Resolute, Northwest Territories in the High Arctic relocation in 1953.^[5] He later attended high school in Yellowknife.^[6]

Patsauq wrote the coming-of-age story Harpoon of the Hunter in 1969 when he worked as a pilot (the first Inuk pilot in Canada), using material he had heard from family members.^[7] It was serialized in the Inuit periodical Inuttituut before being published in an English translation in 1970.^[6] In Ukrainian, the story was first published in 1974 by the publishing house Veselka (Rainbow). A French translation was published in 2013, and translations into Hindi and Marathi followed in 2015.^[8][9] He also wrote short stories and non-fiction, although none of his other work became as known as Harpoon of the Hunter.^[4]

In 2016, scholar Valerie Henitiuk, was studying how the meaning of the original story written in Inuktitut may have changed when it was translated into English; subsequent translations were based on that English translation.^[10]

He died in March 2020 at his home in Inukjuak.^[4]