Please stay tuned. I’ve been working on three separate creative writing projects. So, whenever there’s free time, a rarity, I’ve managed to piece together several narratives for the first essay for the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.
The poetry writing element was just completed through the publication of a photograph-collage, as the magazine cover, and two poems in the Fall 2023 Issue of The Yellow Medicine Review. In tandem preparations have begun on a poetry manuscript for submission to various publishers, including Ice Cube Press. In-progress also is a nonfiction manuscript of essays that’ll include Meskwaki-to-English translations. These essays will be contrasted with photographs, 1968 to present, of a Meskwaki family and the landscape of their home known as the Meskwaki Settlement.
Finally, research on fiction has taken up a majority of my time. Most of the writing, as I’m discovering, was done years ago. However, it can be difficult trying to juggle work while doing my share of watching two grandchildren, ages 2 and 3. My work area is in one corner of the living room where they spend their days. Yes, we take turns releasing those wild horses to Dragonfly Hill behind the house.
With that as my update, I’m looking forward to publishing a series of essays here.
Soon, I’ll be posting the first entry for “From Red Earth Drive.” It’s about language, the obstacles and challenges a bi-lingual writer faces in modernity.
For many reading this article, the holidays have a religious connotation.
For me, winter or the very first snowfall symbolizes the first visit by the Meskwaki Creator. In my youth, winter was a special time as our late grandmother would
recite Winter Stories: these are myths considered to be true that outlined reasons why we exist on Grandmother Earth. Moreover, with the Meskwaki Creator embodied as falling snow, we are told He literally returns to see if the gifts of Meskwaki Language, Religion, Culture and History given long ago are still being followed. Winter, therefore, is a time of reflections and obligations—for the Meskwaki people.
By the way, as a Meskwaki tribal member, I’m honored to be a part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.