Pam with ferocity and love, as is her way.
• @pamlhouston “I’m here at IAIA MFA in Creative Writing this week. I say this again and again, but I am more grateful for this job than any I have ever had. I am grateful to be welcomed into this community because more than any other I have ever known, it defines the word community with so much nuance and generosity and active compassion and imagining into a world where these values, Native values, could remind us that humans are not separate from one another or the Earth. The work that is done here, the art that is made here is so essential to the trouble we are in, as a country, as a world…the loss if this college
closed would be unquantifiable.
What some people do not know, is that the recent government budget proposal, which zeroes out funding for this and other Tribal Colleges is not the same as “defunding” Harvard, for example. The funding of Tribal colleges is part of a treaty, a tiny and inadequate fractional gesture of recompense for stealing billions and billions of acres of land. This violation of a treaty will not surprise one Native person. It is what the US does again and again. But it should outrage and shame every non-Native person who is aware we are immigrants who live on stolen land.
I am not going to say the name or reprint the words of a female conservatIve columnist from two days ago, the outright call for genocide, but if you missed it you can Google Chief Chuck Hoskin’s response from the Cherokee Nation.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and other Tribal colleges must go on. Please call your congress people. Congress has the power to amend the proposed budget and only they can approve it. Make your voice heard.”
I also got this up and running since I last saw ya’. Pull that novel out of the garage; fire up those short stories.
You can send me a finished or nearly finished ms., or we can work out a mentorship-type deal where you send pages and we meet monthly. Either way, I’d love to work with you.
Link’s in the bio!
Today’s Mom’s birthday and Pop’s was a couple weeks back. I wish we could take a month off and spend it fishing and eating and catching Mom making faces. How wonderful to have such champions in our lives.
Four Cherokee writers walk into an AWP panel & had such a great time chatting creative process, writing from the heart & heritage as well as the business of writing - Wado - thank you to the wonderful audience too - our hearts are so full ❤️ @autumnfourkiller@elianaramage@kayjayefff@vanessalillie
🔥 Don’t miss this all Cherokee panel Friday, March 6th at 12:10 pm @awpwriter chatting “Assimilation Blues: Citizenship & Belonging in Indigenous Fiction” with @kayjayefff@sadboyhowdy@brandon.hobson.7@vanessalillie & @elianaramage
Here’s more:
Questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and identity permeate Indigenous fiction. Together, five writers of the same tribe (Cherokee) will discuss these themes, among others, in their own work, their culture, and the work of the diaspora as a whole. While their sets of experiences differ, and they do not seek to answer the questions of one’s own identity, this panel will be helpful for any writer seeking to probe these same questions in their own work.
Location: Room 317, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Session Code: F167
Come write with us this fall at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont Writers Conference!! The wonderful folks of Confluence are offering a full scholarship for one EBCI tribal member.
@annette_saunooke_clapsaddle : “Thrilled to announce another opportunity for EBCI writers to engage in the Confluence experience. @tremontinstitute is offering an incredible workshop experience with some of the best writers in the country! Even our Cherokee Nation sister, @kayjayefff will be on faculty! Presented by Museum of the Cherokee People, the Confluence Scholarship grants one enrolled member of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians all-expenses paid attendance to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont Tremont Writers Conference, held in Townsend, Tennessee October 21-25, 2026.
Join renowned authors Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation), Linda Parsons, Ron Rash, and Crystal Wilkinson—along with professional park educators—for a writers conference like no other set on a lush, secluded campus nestled within America’s most-visited national park.
Apply today to be a part of your chosen cohort: fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—and enjoy the benefits of award-winning author workshop leaders dedicated to focusing on you and your work.
Apply via writers.gsmit.org by May 15. For scholarship consideration, under the “Tell us a little about yourself” section, include the text “Confluence Scholarship” and your EBCI enrollment number.”
Little bit of small town goodness for the grid: our local independent bookstore @stonesoupbooks held its grand opening today. We feel very lucky to have such a great bookstore downtown.
"If you want to have a coup against the constitutional order, you want to control the capital city. And if he has control of the policing in the city of Washington,... how do you stop him? Who's gonna tell him to leave the White House?"
The people of DC are standing up for us all when they fight the illegal takeover of their city, just as the activists and passers by who fight and document ICE abductions stand for us all, just as the Miccosukee Tribe is standing for us all as they fight for their sovereignty and against the so called “Alligator Alcatraz” (H/t Rebecca Nagle), just as all the people using their voices and bodies to stand for Gaza stand for us all.
We are in this together, and there are more of us.
Posted @withregram •@heathercoxrichardson
August 22, 2025
Letters from an American
One week and five years ago, Elisabeth Schmitz and the powerhouse team at @groveatlantic published Crooked Hallelujah. I think of it as the little book that could, the little book that changed my life and helped me realize my dream of teaching writing @iaia_mfa_cw . @aeaglin believed in the book for (so many!) years, but we only got one offer. How lucky we were! Grove was the perfect house. Elisabeth saw my vision for the book and helped me make it better than I knew it could be. Like Adam, she didn’t try to make the stories less story, helped me make the novel more full, and accepted that things were going to get more than a little weird at the end. Despite my shyness and difficulty talking abt the book and our general overwhelm with COVID and Zoom life, Deb and John Mark made sure the book had wings. The book made so many lists thanks to them and all the amazing librarians, book sellers, and readers who JUST KEPT giving the book love.
I can’t acknowledge five years without also feeling pretty blue about how long the next book is taking. A series of increasingly “complex” concussions that began about 8 years ago (but really started in high school) has made writing and reading very difficult for long stretches. I wish things were faster, but mostly I accept that healing and books take the time they take. Crooked Hallelujah took more than 10 years. (You should see how long it takes me to do the dishes. It actually gets me out of alot of dish doing.) I was able to return to teaching this summer at IAIA’s summer residency. I wasn’t sure how I would handle the week, but it was beautiful. Being with the students and faculty uplifted and healed me, even as the long days taxed me. AND I READ FROM THE NEW NOVEL. Nobody threw fruit. People even laughed. Kind of a lot!
So thank you to everyone who has supported Crooked Hallelujah, thank you to everyone who told me that they saw some of themselves in the Cherokee women of that book. Thank you to the fiercely loving Cherokee women who inspired it. Thank you to everyone who has lifted me up. I’ve needed so much support and encouragement—more than I care to admit—but at every turn I’ve found love. Thanks, y’all.
We said goodbye to our cousin Kirby today. She became an elisi just 7 months ago. She was a beautiful human who made everyone feel special, everyone feel loved. I’ll miss that pigtailed girl I grew up with for the rest of my days.
You have two more days to submit to Chapter House’s Indigenous Fiction Prize and have the brilliant Debra Magpie Earling read your work!!
• @chapterhousejournal ‼️ LAST WEEK OF SUBMISSIONS!!! ‼️
Submit to our new Indigenous Fiction Prize judged by the incredible, award-winning author Debra Magpie Earling!! $250 CASH PRIZE for winner 🎊
And to our General Submissions pool open for poetry, visual art, fiction and nonfiction!!!!
WE WANT YOUR WRITING 🎉🎉
Submissions close June 30th. Find submissions guidelines for prize and general submissions at our website linked in bio.
Please share and spead widely!!!!!!
