Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac is a prolific award-winning writer for both children and adults, with over seventy books to his name. He was born in 1942 and raised by his maternal grandparents in the Adirondack foothills in upstate New York. Today, he lives in the same house he grew up in - built by his grandfather - with his wife and children. His mixed heritage includes Abenaki Indian, Slovak, and English blood, but it is his Abenaki culture that has influenced him the most. Through his writing and other activities, Bruchac strives to preserve the culture that he feels has nourished him so well.

Bruchac holds a BA from Cornell University, an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse, and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. He spent three years teaching in Ghana and returned to the United States with a greater understanding of humanity: "It showed me many things. How much we have as Americans and take for granted. How much our eyes refuse to see because they are blinded to everything in a man's face except his color. And, most importantly, how human people are everywhere--which may be the one grace that can save us all" (Gale).

Bruchac's writing is wide-ranging and includes fiction for both children and adults, re-tellings of American Indian folk tales, picture books, poetry, nonfiction, and a collection of plays for American Indian children. He has also served as editor of numerous anthologies and is the founder and co-director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and the Greenfield Review Press, whose aim is to publish the works of people often marginalized by larger presses, such as Native, Asian-American, and incarcerated writers. He has written a number of critically-acclaimed books for young adults, including Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II, which tells of the importance of the Navajo language to the United States in sending codes during the war, as told through the eyes of a sixteen year old Navajo soldier. In Geronimo, Bruchac writes about the famous American Indian leader and resistor of white settlement from the perspective of Geronimo's fictional adopted grandson.

Like many American Indian authors, Bruchac recognizes the importance of the oral tradition in storytelling. He is a nationally-known live storyteller who has performed traditional tales of the Abenaki peoples in Europe and across the country. Sybil Steinberg, contributor to Publisher's Weekly, cites Bruchac as "perhaps the best-known contemporary Native American storyteller" (Gale). He has been the featured storyteller at many storytelling festivals and regularly visits schools to share with children the culture of the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. In 1998, the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers honored Bruchac with both the Writer of the Year award and Storyteller of the Year award. In addition to sharing American Indian culture through storytelling, Bruchac also performs traditional and contemporary Abenaki music as a member of the Dawnland Singers, alongside his sister and two sons.

For more information about Joseph Bruchac, including a full list of his publications and awards he has received, visit his home page at http://josephbruchac.com. The website includes audioclips of Bruchac reading some of his poetry, as well as a youtube video of Bruchac performing one of his songs, Dare to Hope.

Sources:

• "Joseph Bruchac." Contemporary Authors. 16 Aug. 2007. Gale. U Texas at Austin. 15 June 2009 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/?db=CA.
• Joseph Bruchac Storyteller and Writer. 15 June 2009 http://josephbruchac.com.