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COUNTRY: Canada
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_King_(novelist) http://www.randomhouse.ca/books/93028/the-inconvenient-indian-by-thomas-king http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/the-curious-history-of-the-inconvenient-indian/ https://www.uoguelph.ca/sets/sets-thomas-king
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 24, 1943, in Sacramento, CA; son of Robert Hunt and Kathryn K. King; married Kristine Adams, 1970 (marriage ended, 1981); married Helen Hoy; children: (from first marriage) Christian, (from second marriage) Benjamin, Elizabeth.
EDUCATION:Chico State College (now California State University, Chico), B.A., 1970, M.A., 1972; University of Utah, Ph.D., 1986.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator, administrator, photojournalist, writer, and editor. Photojournalist in Australia and New Zealand; Boeing Aircraft, tool designer; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, director of Native Studies, 1971-73; California State University, Humboldt, associate dean for student services, 1973-77; University of Utah, coordinator of History of the Indians of the Americas Program, 1977-79; University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, assistant professor of Native Studies, 1979-89; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, associate professor of American and Native Studies, beginning 1989, chairperson of Native Studies; University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, professor of English, became professor emeritus. New Democratic Party candidate for federal office in Guelph, Ontario, 2008.
AVOCATIONS:Photography.
AWARDS:PEN/Josephine Miles Award and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize nominee, both for Medicine River; Governor General’s Award nominee, 1992, for A Coyote Columbus Story, and 1993, for Green Grass, Running Water; named Member of the Order of Canada, 2004; McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award, 2006, for A Short History of Indians in Canada; Queen’s Jubilee Medal, 2013; B.C. National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and RBC Taylor Prize, both 2014, both for The Inconvenient Indian; Governor General’s Award, 2014, for The Back of the Turtle; named Companion of the Order of Canada, 2020; Governor General’s Award finalist, 2020, and Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, 2021, both for Indians on Vacation.
WRITINGS
Also author of the teleplay Medicine River, broadcast by CBC-TV, 1993, and the radio drama Medicine River, CBC-Radio, 1993. Story editor for CBC-TV drama Four Directions, 1993-94; writer and performer for CBC-Radio series The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, 1997-2000; writer and director of film short I’m Not the Indian You Had In Mind, 2007. Contributor to periodicals, including Canadian Literature, Hungry Mind Review, Journal of American Folklore, Soundings, Tonyon Review, Whetstone, and World Literature Written in English. Editor of Canadian Fiction, 1988.
SIDELIGHTS
Thomas King is a writer of Greek, German, and Native American heritage whose writings and edited works center on Native Americans, their cultures, and their historical and contemporary experiences. As a novelist for adults, King is best known for works utilizing comedy and irony to expose the continuing subordination of Native American Indians and their culture by the white world. Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water are examples of these works. He offers cultural insight as well as heightened narrative tension in his “DreadfulWater” series of mysteries, starring a Cherokee ex-cop and photographer living in the Pacific Northwest. King has also written children’s books, beginning with A Coyote Columbus Story, that share with his adult works an irreverent approach to reality as it is traditionally perceived by the white world. Although King was born in California and bears Cherokee heritage from a father who abandoned his family when King was five, the author is often dubbed a Native-Canadian writer, for he has lived and taught extensively in Canada and writes primarily about Natives of the Blackfoot tribe who reside on or near reservations in the province of Alberta. [open new]Among his career accomplishments, he was the first Native American to deliver the Massey Lectures, a cross-country tour of five talks collected in 2003’s The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative, and he has been nominated for Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Award several times, winning for his 2014 novel The Back of the Turtle.[suspend new]
Medicine River, King’s first novel, describes a half-Blackfoot Indian named Will who returns to the reservation where his mother lived and, courtesy of a trickster figure named Harlan Bigbear, finds himself becoming involved in the lives of those around him. Similarly, Green Grass, Running Water, King’s second novel, features characters in often comical situations where the underlying theme is a serious attempt to explore Indian identity. The title alludes to the standard phrasing of Indian treaties that the land will be theirs “as long as the grass is green and the water runs.” Central to the novel, ironically, is a dam which threatens to stop the water and dry up the grass. Four mystical elderly Indians named Hawkeye, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Lone Ranger escape from a mental institution determined to intervene. Woven throughout the narrative is a talking coyote who tells a creation myth. Lauding the work in Newsweek, Malcolm Jones, Jr. asserted: “Successfully mixing realism and myth, comedy and tragedy … King has produced a novel that defies all our expectations about what Native American fiction should be. It is a first-class work of art.”
[resume new]King’s next novel, Truth & Bright Water, is a bildungsroman narrated by fifteen-year-old Tecumseh and set in twin towns on the U.S.-Canada border—Truth, Montana, and Bright Water, Alberta—separated by the Shield River. With the Indian Days festival a week away, Tecumseh and his cousin Lum watch as a woman dumps the contents of a suitcase off a bluff over the river and then makes the leap herself, disappearing from sight. With Tecumseh’s fabled Aunt Cassie back from travels, secrets about his estranged parents start coming into focus, while artist Monroe Swimmer’s quirky renovations of an old church get Tecumseh’s mind whirring as the mysteries unravel.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer lauded the “moving vision,” “keen powers of observation,” and “extraordinary narrative power” shown by King in the “winning” Truth & Bright Water. The reviewer suggested, “This sharp-edged novel is also King’s sweetest; there’s plenty of magic, yet it’s also his most realistic book thus far.” Kliatt reviewer Michael P. Healy enjoyed how the novel’s settings “reverberate with meaning”; its “witty and irascible characters” hold charged dialogue producing “a bright, satiric surface that contrasts nicely with the hurt and unhappiness”; and Monroe Swimmer “brings a touch of magic realism that deepens its already considerable pleasures.”[suspend new]
A Coyote Columbus Story is a picture book that combines a humorous version of the creation myth with the story of the “discovery” of America by Columbus told from the perspective of the Native Americans who already lived there. “This is an entertaining story, great fun to read aloud because the language is crisp, colloquial, and very expressive,” wrote Celia Lottridge in Quill & Quire. “It is also extremely thought-provoking.” Coyote, a trickster figure found in traditional Native lore, creates the world and then begins populating it in the hopes of putting together a team to play baseball. After a while, however, neither the animals nor the humans want to play because Coyote is constantly changing the rules so that she always wins. Coyote then creates a new group of potential players, Christopher Columbus and his crew, who only want to work and make money, and go off in search of things to buy and sell. Part of what they find to sell are members of the first race of humans, whom they enslave.
Like King’s novels for adults, A Coyote Columbus Story sets aside the restraints of linear storytelling, and achieves some of its comic effects from surprising and anachronistic juxtapositions. Sarah Ellis, writing in Horn Book, noted that King’s comedy does not hide the fact that his sympathy lies with the values of the first nation of humans, whose Native American speech patterns dominate the narrative. Furthermore, added Ellis, “what Coyote captures–a quality I’ve often heard in native storytelling, but less often seen expressed in print–is the spirit of cheekiness, a bold, outrageous iconoclastic energy that incorporates warmth and inclusiveness.”
[re-resume new]King brings Coyote face to face with modern life and all its trappings in A Coyote Solstice Tale. In rhymes so sing-song they highlight the author’s ironic perspective, the story finds a little girl seeking friendship and goodwill during the season of giving. She happens upon Coyote and his friends, and when they try to bring her home, they get distracted by a mall, and Coyote gets entranced by the shopping experience. Noting that the narrator’s “deadpan commentary” makes clear that there is “much fun being poked,” Horn Book reviewer Martha V. Parravano affirmed that King “demonstrates his characteristic iconoclastic humor in this anti-consumerism story.”
Coyote Tales packages together King’s earlier two picture books Coyote Sings to the Moon and Coyote’s New Suit, with new illustrations by Byron Eggenschwiler. Set in the world of myth, the former tale finds Old Woman and all the animals singing a nightly hymn that fails to rouse Moon from her quiet spot at the bottom of the lake. But Coyote’s shrill howling gets Moon up and shining, and keeps her there. In the latter tale, Raven is the trickster at large, convincing Coyote to steal the other animals’ pelts while they bathe. After telling the other animals to steal humans’ clothing to keep warm, Raven advises Coyote to clear out his closet by holding a yard sale, and pandemonium ensues. Ever since then, humans and animals have refused to speak to each other. A Kirkus Reviews writer deemed these stories that put Coyote on the defensive “a nice complement to other Coyote tales.”
Borders is a graphic novel that King adapted from his 1993 short story, with artwork by Métis illustrator Natasha Donovan. The story centers on a Canadian Blackfoot boy from a reservation in Alberta. His older sister Laetitia, whose father is affiliated with a Chippewa-Cree tribe in the United States, has recently moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Looking forward to a reunion after several years, the boy and his mother drive southward and, at the border, identify themselves as Blackfoot. Eventually, this spurs the U.S. border authorities to turn the mother and boy away—only for them to be turned away by Canadian authorities as well, starting a circular, days-long ordeal that makes a reunion with Laetitia appear impossible.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer of Borders remarked that this “sobering yet inspiring tale effectively spotlights a Native woman who quietly demands that her voice be heard.” A Kirkus Reviews writer observed that the artificial divison of the Blackfoot people’s homelands by the arbitrary line of the U.S.-Canadian border is “an absurdity captured here with trenchant, cutting wryness.” The writer deemed Borders “brilliant.”[suspend new]
The exclusion of Native Americans from white society, history, and culture is a prevalent theme in much of King’s writing. “I think of myself as a serious writer,” he told Malcolm Jones Jr. of Newsweek. “Tragedy is my topic. Comedy is my strategy.” [re-re-resume new]In an interview with Colleen MacPherson of the University of Saskatchewan, King explained, “If you’re going to talk about really serious stuff, I don’t think you should let that seriousness permeate the discussion. … Humour is a way to draw people in. It allows serious information to get closer to you and at the same time, it sharpens the tragedy.” By the year 2020, between the author’s award-winning novels, popular mysteries, insightful nonfiction, and imaginative children’s books, CBC contributor Ryan B. Patrick could affirm that King “is regarded as one of the most influential Indigenous writers and scholars of his generation.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 89, Gale, 1996, pp. 74-102.
Gruber, Eva, Thomas King: Works and Impact, Camden House (Rochester, NY), 2012.
Native North American Literature, Gale, 1994, pp. 373-82.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2005, Rebecca Maksel, review of The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative, p. 1258.
Horn Book, September-October, 1993, Sarah Ellis, review of A Coyote Columbus Story, pp. 637-38; November-December, 2009, Martha V. Parravano, review of A Coyote Solstice Tale, p. 643.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1993, p. 14; July 1, 2003, review of DreadfulWater Shows Up; August 1, 2013, review of The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America; July 15, 2017, review of Coyote Tales; September 1, 2021, review of Borders.
Kliatt, January, 2002, Michael P. Healy, review of Truth & Bright Water, p. 12.
Library Journal, August 1, 2013, John R. Burch, review of The Inconvenient Indian.
Newsweek, April 12, 1993, Malcom Jones Jr., review of Green Grass, Running Water, p. 60.
Publishers Weekly, March 8, 1993, pp. 56-57; August 14, 2000, review of Truth & Bright Water, p. 327; August 9, 2021, review of Borders, p. 72.
Quill & Quire, April, 1990, p. 26; July, 1992, Celia Lottridge, review of A Coyote Columbus Story, p. 44; March, 1993, p. 46.
School Library Journal, April, 1991, p. 154.
ONLINE
Canadian Writers, Athabasca University website, https://canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/ (February 12, 2015), author profile.
CBC website, https://www.cbc.ca/ (September 25, 2020), Shelagh Rogers, “Thomas King’s Latest Novel Was Inspired by an Eventful Trip to Europe”; (November 10, 2020), Ryan B. Patrick, “Thomas King Is Hopeful That His Writing Has Changed the World—but He’s Still Not Sure.”
First Nations Drum, http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/ (September 9, 2002), Natasha Davies, “Thomas King: Canada’s Native Writer Tells His Story.”
Globe and Mail Online, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/ (July 19, 2012), Daniel David, “Thomas King, Still Not the Indian You Had in Mind.”
Indigo, https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/ (July 7, 2021), Amanda Gauthier, “Thomas King on the Importance of Indigenous Storytelling.”
Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/ (September 26, 2013), Michael Bourne, review of The Inconvenient Indian.
University of Guelph website, https://www.uoguelph.ca/ (April 25, 2022), author profile.
University of Saskatchewan website, https://artsandscience.usask.ca/ (December 18, 2017), Colleen MacPherson, “An Interview with Arts & Science Book Club Author Thomas King.”
Thomas King
Canada (b.1943)
aka Hartley GoodWeather
Thomas King, is a noted novelist and broadcaster who most often writes about Canada's First Nations and is an outspoken advocate for First Nations causes. He is of Cherokee and Greek descent.
Genres: Mystery, General Fiction
New Books
January 2022
(paperback)
Deep House
(DreadfulWater Mystery, book 6)
Series
DreadfulWater Mystery
1. DreadfulWater (2017)
2. The Red Power Murders (2017)
3. Cold Skies (2018)
4. A Matter of Malice (2019)
5. Obsidian (2020)
6. Deep House (2022)
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Minerva Chronicles
1. Insurrection (2020)
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Novels
Medicine River (1990)
Green Grass, Running Water (1993)
Truth and Bright Water (2000)
Dreadful Water Shows Up (2002) (as by Hartley GoodWeather)
The Back of the Turtle (2014)
Indians on Vacation (2020)
Sufferance (2021)
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Collections
One Good Story, That One (1993)
A Short History of Indians in Canada (2005)
77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin (poems) (2019)
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Picture Books
A Coyote Columbus Story (2007)
Coyote Sings to the Moon (2008)
A Coyote Solstice Tale (2009)
Coyote Tales (2017)
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Anthologies edited
All My Relations (1992)
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Non fiction
The Truth About Stories (2003)
The Inconvenient Indian (2012)
THOMAS KING has written several highly acclaimed children’s books. A Coyote Solstice Tale (illustrated by Gary Clement) won the American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book and A Coyote Columbus Story (illustrated by Kent Monkman) was a Governor General's Literary Award finalist. King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent and was a Professor of English at the University of Guelph for many years, won a Governor General's Literary Award for his adult novel, The Back of the Turtle; he won both the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian. His most recent novel, Indians on Vacation, has recently been nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award. Thomas lives in Guelph, Ontario with his family.
Thomas King: Canada’s Native Writer Tells His Story
by First Nations Drum, September 9, 2002
By Natasha Davies
If you can live your life without writing then do so — it will be a lot easier that way. But if you’re desperate to write because it is so much a part of you, forget about having any sort of personal life.
This advice comes straight from someone who knows all about writing, its challenges and rewards – Thomas King, Canada’s celebrated native author.
“When people ask me what they have to do to become a writer I say, ‘Don’t get involved with anyone, don’t get married, don’t have any children, learn to live on as little as possible, and then see if you could afford to try to be a writer.’ But of course no one takes that advice,” King explains, in his deep and calm voice.
King hasn’t exactly followed his own advice either. He began writing “seriously” at the age of 40, to impress a very special woman, his wife. Before that he was busy working regular jobs in order to raise his family.
Born in 1943 to a Cherokee father and a mother of Greek and German descent, King grew up in Northern California, received his PhD in English literature at the University of Utah, and worked for a number of years at the University of Minnesota as Chair of their American Indian Studies program. A Canadian citizen, he returned home in 1980 to accept a position as Professor of Native Studies at the University of Lethbridge.
Finding inspiration
As a young reader, King found himself inspired by N. Scott Momaday, author of House Made of Dawn, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. The book received a lot of attention and brought even more attention to Native writers, both literary and oral. At the time, there were few published native writers. However, it led King to think, “If they bought one book about Indians, maybe they’d buy another one.”
With that thought in the back of his mind, King believed that writing would be a real possibility for him, one day. In the eighties, King’s creative and critical writing were widely published: articles, stories, and poems of his appeared in many journals, including World Literature Written in English, the Hungry Mind Review, and the Journal of American Folklore.
He has also edited a book entitled The Native in Literature (1987) and a special issue of Canadian Fiction Magazine (1988) devoted to short fiction by Canadian Native writers.
His first novel, Medicine River, published in 1990, was turned into a television movie that starred Graham Greene and Tom Jackson.
Other books included Green Grass, Running Water, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Award in 1993; One Good Story, That One; and Truth and Bright Water. He also writes books for children, and a popular CBC radio series, The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour. His latest book is DreadfulWater Shows Up.
Cowboys and Indians
One of the biggest obstacles for Native writers is that North Americans have grown up on a particular kind of Indian in literature, according to King.
“You never know how big a market there’s going to be in non-native North America for novels about Indians, especially if you’re trying to do something different than the old cowboy and Indian routine or the historical western stuff,” says King.
“There are many non-natives who have written about Indians, so you have this backdrop against which you have to write. If you move away from that backdrop, as a lot of native writers try to do, than it puts you on the fringe because people aren’t used to seeing Indians in those roles; they’re not used to seeing some of narrative strategies.”
King notes that the stereotypical Indian gets repeated over and over again in different ways and varieties.
“Basically you still see that cliché Indian character pop up in books. You would think by now, non-natives or natives would be able to get around that but those images are pretty well burned into our minds,” says King, citing the stoic, innocent, loner type; or the savage Indian type.
“It’s disheartening in this day and age to have it repeated,” says King. “The fact of the matter is publishing houses are only going to publish so many books a year by native writers that deal with native issues.”
For aspiring writers seeking an audience, King suggests contacting native publishing houses that “look kindly” at their work. Another option is to solicit literary journals, native and non-native.
“Of course the other thing that may happen are native writers doing non-native material, and that’s legitimate. Just because a person is native doesn’t mean they have to write about native issues,” says King.
“It’s a slow process. Don’t wait until 40 like I did,” advises King, with a soft chuckle.
Native style
There’s a difference of narrative strategies between native and non-native writers, observes King. Non-natives who write about Indians usually write about the historical Indian; their books are set in the past.
“But when Natives write about native material, for the most part we write about the present. I’m not sure why that is, but it seems to be the case,” says King.
A good example is a new book entitled Porcupines and China Dolls, by Robert Alexie. A terrific book, King says, that deals with present day concerns. “Its narrative strategy is one that North American readers aren’t going to be used to – they may even find a little bit on the laboured side. But for native readers, what they’ll hear is some of the overtones of oral literature and oral story telling.”
New book, new direction
King’s latest book takes him from his usual “serious, adult writing” to a more fun style of writing. Thumps DreadfulWater, is a Cherokee photographer living in Chinook. An ex-cop, he gets to play detective when a computer programmer is found dead in the band’s new resort and casino just before its grand opening. Writing under the pseudonymous Hartley GoodWeather, Thomas King plans on making DreadfulWater a series of detective books.
“This book will get to more get more native readers than included Green Grass, Running Water, which is more complex,” compares King. Green Grass, is currently scheduled to go into filming next spring.
How does King find motivation and ideas for his writing today?
“To be able to hear a good story well told is a wonderful thing,” says King.
“At this point in my career, I guess I have to look to myself for inspiration. I have friends who are writers who are kind to me and say nice things to me when they read my work, which is encouraging. I also hang out with all sorts of weird native people. They tell their stories, and sometimes bits of those stories become bits of my prose. I keep my ears open.”
Currently, King is a professor at the University of Guelph where he teaches Native literature and Creative Writing. He will appear at the Vancouver International Writers Festival at Doing Canada Proud, an event that takes place on Wednesday, October 23 at 8:30 pm at Performance Works on Granville Island. For more information, visit the Festival’s web site.
Thomas King (novelist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Thomas King
CC
King in 2008
King in 2008
Born April 24, 1943 (age 78)
Roseville, California, US
Pen name Hartley GoodWeather
Occupation
Writerpresenteractivistacademic
Citizenship United States, Canada
Period 1980s–present (as writer)
Genre Postmodern, trickster novel; comedy and drama script
Subject First Nations
Notable works Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; The Truth About Stories
Notable awards Order of Canada, 2004
Children Christian (born 1971), Benjamin (born 1985) and Elizabeth (born 1988)
Thomas King CC (born 1943) is a Canadian writer and broadcast presenter who most often writes about First Nations.[1]
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Activism
3 Writings
4 Politics
5 Other work
6 Personal life
7 Works
7.1 Books
7.2 Selected short stories
7.3 Scripts
8 Awards and recognition
9 Electoral record
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Early life and education
Thomas King, who was born in Roseville, California, on April 24, 1943,[2] claims German and Greek descent from his mother and Cherokee descent from his father.[3] King says his father left the family when the boys were very young, and that they were raised almost entirely by their mother.[4][5] In his series of Massey Lectures, eventually published as a book The Truth About Stories (2003), King tells that after their father's death, he and his brother learned that their father had two other families, neither of whom knew about the third.[4][5]
As a child, King attended grammar school in Roseville, California, and both private Catholic and public high schools. After flunking out of Sacramento State University, he joined the US Navy for a brief period of time before receiving a medical discharge for a knee injury. Following this King worked several jobs, including as an ambulance driver, bank teller, and photojournalist in New Zealand for three years.
King eventually completed bachelor's and master's degrees from Chico State University in California. He moved to Utah, where he worked as a counselor for American Indian students before completing a PhD program in English at the University of Utah. His 1971 MA thesis was on film studies.[6] His 1986 PhD dissertation[7] was on Native American studies, one of the earliest works to explore the oral storytelling tradition as literature.[8] Around this time, King became interested in American Indian oral traditions and storytelling.[8] He left the reservation in 1980.[3]
After moving to Canada in 1980, King taught Native studies at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta) in the early 1980s. He also served as a faculty member of the University of Minnesota's American Indian studies department. He is currently an English professor at the University of Guelph (Ontario) and lives in Guelph.
King was chosen to deliver the 2003 Massey Lectures, entitled The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative.[4] King was the first Massey lecturer of self-identifying aboriginal descent. King explored the Native experience in oral stories, literature, history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest in order to make sense of North America's relationship with its aboriginal peoples.
Activism
King has criticized policies and programs of both the United States and Canadian governments in many interviews and books.[4] He is worried about aboriginal prospects and rights in North America. He says that he fears that aboriginal culture, and specifically aboriginal land, will continue to be taken away from aboriginal peoples until there is nothing left for them at all. In his 2013 book The Inconvenient Indian, King says, "The issue has always been land. It will always be land, until there isn't a square foot of land left in North America that is controlled by Native people."[9]
King also discusses policies regarding aboriginal status. He noted that legislatures in the 1800s withdrew aboriginal status from persons who graduated from university or joined the army. King has also worked to identify North American laws that make it complicated to claim status in the first place, for example, the US Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 or Canada's 1985 Bill C-31. Bill C-31 amended the Indian Act in 1985 to allow aboriginal women and their children to reclaim status, which the Act had previously withdrawn if the woman married a non-status man. King claims that the amended act, though progressive for women who had lost their status, threatens the status of future generations because of its limitations.[4]
Writings
King has been writing novels, and children's books, and collections of stories since the 1980s. His notable works include A Coyote Columbus Story (1992) and Green Grass, Running Water (1993) – both of which were nominated for a Governor General's Award (the former for children's literature, and the latter for fiction[8] – and The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (2012), which won the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize.[10]
King's writing style incorporates oral storytelling structures with traditional Western narrative. He writes in a conversational tone; for example, in Green Grass, Running Water, the narrator argues with some of the characters. In The Truth About Stories (2003), King addresses the reader as if in a conversation with responses. King uses a variety of anecdotes and humorous narratives while maintaining a serious message in a way that has been compared to the style of trickster legends in Native American culture. Within this story, King also integrates the recently popularized idea of turtles all the way down in an anecdote introducing this narrative, calling into the relevancy of this ideology in American and Native American history.
Politics
In April 2007 King announced that he would seek the New Democratic Party (NDP) nomination for Guelph district. On March 30, 2007, he was named the NDP candidate. NDP leader Jack Layton was present at the nomination meeting.[11] A by-election was called in the riding due to the resignation of incumbent Liberal Member of Parliament Brenda Chamberlain, effective April 7, 2008. Scheduled for September 8, 2008, the by-election was cancelled with the calling of the October 14, 2008 federal general election. King finished fourth behind Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote, Conservative candidate Gloria Kovach, and Green candidate Mike Nagy.
Other work
In the 1990s, he served as story editor for Four Directions,[12] a CBC Television drama anthology series about First Nations which was held up by production and scheduling delays before finally airing in 1996.[13] He also wrote the teleplay "Borders", an adaptation of his own previously published short story, for the series.[13]
From 1997 to 2000, King wrote and acted in a CBC radio show, The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, which featured a fictitious town and a fictitious radio program hosted by three First Nations characters. Elements were adapted from his novel, Green Grass, Running Water. The broadcast was a political and social satire with dark humour and mocking stereotypes.
In July 2007, King made his directorial debut with I'm Not the Indian You Had in Mind, a short film which he wrote.[14]
In 2020, his book The Inconvenient Indian was adapted by Michelle Latimer as a documentary film, Inconvenient Indian.[15]
Personal life
His partner is Helen Hoy, a professor emerita of English and Women's Studies at the University of Guelph, School of English and Theatre Studies.[16] She has written a study, How Should I Read These? Native Women Writers in Canada, (2001). He has three children, Christian (born 1971), Benjamin (born 1985) and Elizabeth (born 1988). The couple resides in Guelph, Ontario.[17]
As of 2020, King was listed as Professor (retired), Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies by the University of Guelph.[18]
A news item in November 2020 stated that King "self-identifies as being of Cherokee and Greek ancestry...".[19]
Works
Books
Medicine River (Viking Canada, 1990), novel
A Coyote Columbus Story (Douglas & McIntyre, 1992), illustrated by William Kent Monkman – Governor General's Award finalist
Green Grass, Running Water (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), novel featuring Coyote, OCLC 26632171 – Governor General's Award finalist
One Good Story, That One (1993), stories
Borders (1993)
Coyote Sings to the Moon (1998), illus. Johnny Wales
Truth and Bright Water (HarperFlamingo Canada, 1999)
The Truth About Stories (House of Anansi Press, 2003); US edition The Truth About Stories: a native narrative (U. of Minnesota Press, 2005) – Massey Lectures
Coyote's New Suit (2004), illus. Johnny Wales
A Short History of Indians in Canada (HarperCollins, 2005), stories – McNally Robinson Award winner
A Coyote Solstice Tale (Groundwood Books, 2009), illus. Gary Clement
The Inconvenient Indian: a curious account of native people in North America (Doubleday Canada, 2012)
The Back of the Turtle (Doubleday, 2014) – Governor General's Award winner
Indians on Vacation (2020)
Sufferance (2021)
DreadfulWater Mysteries
Dreadful Water Shows Up (2002), published under the pen name Hartley GoodWeather (reprinted 2017 as DreadfulWater, as author Thomas King)
The Red Power Murders (2006), as Hartley GoodWeather (reprinted 2017, as author Thomas King )
Cold Skies (2018)
A Matter of Malice (2019)
Obsidian (2020)
Deep House (2022)[20]
As editor
The Native in Literature (1987)
An Anthology of Short Fiction by Native Writers in Canada (1988)
All My Relations: an anthology of contemporary Canadian native fiction (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990)
Selected short stories
Short story collections are listed above.
"Coyote and the Enemy Aliens" (HarperCollins, 2012), ebook, OCLC 877892260
Scripts
Four Directions (CBC Television, 1996), drama anthology series, as editor and sometime writer
The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour (CBC Radio, 1997 to 2000) and its sequels (2002 and 2006)
I'm Not The Indian You Had In Mind, 2007, short film also directed by King
Awards and recognition
Nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1992 for A Coyote Columbus Story.
Nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1993 for Green Grass, Running Water.
Selected in 2003 to give the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Massey Lectures. The series, entitled The Truth About Stories, was published that year by the House of Anansi Press.
Green Grass, Running Water was chosen for the inclusion in the 2004 edition of Canada Reads, and championed by then-Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray. In the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, his non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian was defended by activist Craig Kielburger.
In 2004, King was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
A Short History of Indians in Canada won the 2006 McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year Award.
The Inconvenient Indian won the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize,[10] and was a finalist for the 2013 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature.[21]
The Back of the Turtle won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2014 Governor General's Awards.[22]
Indians on Vacation was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,[23] and for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2020 Governor General's Awards.[24]
In November 2020, King was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. He had been named a Member of the Order of Canada six years earlier.[17] The naming was because of King's "enduring contributions to the preservation and recognition of indigenous culture, as one of North America’s most acclaimed literary figures".[25]
Won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2021 for Indians on Vacation[26]
Electoral record
Guelph – 2008 Canadian federal election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frank Valeriote 18,977 32.22% -6.17
Conservative Gloria Kovach 17,185 29.18% -0.57
Green Mike Nagy 12,456 21.15% +12.43
New Democratic Tom King 9,709 16.49% -5.51
Marijuana Kornelis Kleverling 172 0.27% N/A
Libertarian Philip Bender 159 0.27% N/A
Communist Drew Garvie 77 0.13% -0.05
Animal Alliance Karen Levenson 73 0.12% N/A
Independent John Turmel 58 0.10% N/A
Marxist–Leninist Manuel Couto 29 0.05% -0.02
Thomas King is hopeful that his writing has changed the world — but he's still not sure
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Indians on Vacation won the 2021 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
Ryan B. Patrick · Posted: Nov 10, 2020 1:03 PM ET | Last Updated: June 7, 2021
Thomas King is a Canadian American author of Cherokee and Greek heritage. (Trina Koster/Canadian Press)
Thomas King is a Canadian American writer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry who is regarded as one of the most influential Indigenous writers and scholars of his generation.
King was the first Indigenous person to deliver a CBC Massey Lecture in 2003. His bestselling books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian, Green Grass, Running Water, The Back of the Turtle and the DreadfulWater mystery series.
His latest book, Indians on Vacation, was on the shortlist for the 2020 Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the longlist for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the shortlist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
It won the 2021 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
King spoke with CBC Books at length about his books, his career and his approach to writing.
How do you feel about award nominations at this stage in your career?
"It does offer validation, but you never write for those prizes. They're always that extra thing that comes along at the end of a project.
It does offer validation, but you never write for those prizes.
"It certainly helps book sales, there's no question about that!"
Congratulations on the screen adaptation of The Inconvenient Indian. What was that experience like?
"I haven't seen the finished film yet. I saw a rough cut way back when — but I haven't had a chance to just see the film. Partly it's due to my electronic bone headedness — you send me something over the Internet but I can't get it to work.
"The movie itself is not the book. The book was just the inspiration, a springboard for filmmaker Michelle Latimer to launch into. That's the way it should be — I write the book, she makes a movie, and we have two pieces that we can present to the public that are quite different in many ways. It certainly was flattering to be asked to be a part of that whole process."
The Next Chapter16:47
Thomas King on Indians on Vacation
Thomas King talks about the autobiographical inspiration by his novel Indians on Vacation, which is longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize. 16:47
What keeps you inspired to write at this stage in your career?
"Well, it's the only thing I can do. It's not as though I chose to do this. I enjoy storytelling. I get up in the morning and it's the first thing I think about, after my espresso.
Writing is just something I do. It's who I am. It's not a job. It's not even a vocation.
"I think, 'What am I going to do with the day?' I've got two options: I can write or I can get my canoe and go on the river. I try to do both of those in the day, especially these days.
"Writing is just something I do. It's who I am. It's not a job. It's not even a vocation. It's just what I do."
What inspired Indians on Vacation?
"My partner, Helen Hoy, and I, she and I travel. I used to be a pretty good traveller when I was young — I once jumped on a tramp steamer in San Francisco and went to Australia and New Zealand for about three years.
"But over the years, travel has not held the interest for me that it used to. But Helen, she likes to travel. Whenever I get an offer to go travelling, I always say no. And she says yes. So off we go.
"I've always been interested in why people travel and what they might think the value of travel is. When we go on these trips, I'll ask people, 'Why do you travel? Why do you think it's important to travel?' And I get pretty much the same stock answer all the time: 'Travel is broadening' or 'Travel makes us more kind and generous to other people from other cultures.'
"That's completely untrue. If you look at the social and political climate of the world, people travel more than ever before. We're still just as phobic about everything — from languages to cultures to different peoples and whatnot. I don't think travel has helped that at all.
I use that idea of travel as an occasion to talk about more serious issues.
"One of the reasons for that is when we go to other places, we normally go to tourist places. Those tourist places are set up to emulate North American culture in many ways. It's like going from one McDonalds to another or one Starbucks to another.
"It's sad in a way, because you travel in bubbles. Helen and I were in Prague, and that city was interesting. We then went down to Budapest and Budapest was interesting. I thought maybe I'll write a book about travel. That's how it started.
"Then it got out of hand. I began thinking about other things I could do with a book that, at least on the surface, looked to be about travel, but in the end, is about the world and social and political concerns. All wrapped up in a cute little package so nobody gets too worried about it. I use that idea of travel as an occasion to talk about more serious issues."
The Next Chapter13:52
Thomas King on Cold Skies
Thomas King talks to Shelagh Rogers about Cold Skies, the latest instalment of his Dreadful Water mystery series. 13:52
Is this a hopeful novel?
"I'm a pessimistic guy. There's no question about. I don't think that humans are going to change any time soon. We're not very smart.
I don't know if it's optimistic. I don't know if it's pessimistic. I think it just is.
"I think there is hope within the novel and the main characters of Mimi and Bird seem to be managing their relationship well enough. I suppose if they can manage their relationship, maybe the world can come to an understanding about how we should treat people in general.
"I don't know if it's optimistic. I don't know if it's pessimistic. I think it just is. I look at a relationship set against the social and political background of the world."
Let's talk about the DreadfulWater series of mystery novels. What do you love about writing those books?
"Well, I love mysteries, although I don't read much anymore. My eyes are not what they used to be and I've got to save them for my own writing. I generally do not read while I'm writing.
"But if I do read during that period of time, it generally is those schlocky mystery books. There are some good ones and some really terrible ones. But you never know when you open a book if it's going to be good or bad. But I keep going back to the well to try to find good mysteries.
But I enjoy writing the mystery and I enjoy those characters. They're friends of mine and I don't have a great many friends in the world.
"I like mysteries to begin with. When you finish writing a literary novel, you're drained, at least for me. I discovered that if I write a mystery in between, and grease the wheels, it gets me up and going. When you do a mystery series, you have the same characters. You don't have to recreate those. It makes it a bit easier. I'm not going to say it's like paint by numbers, but what you have to do is find the plot because you've already got the characters. The plot is the hardest thing I can do.
"I enjoy writing the mystery and I enjoy those characters. They're friends of mine and I don't have a great many friends in the world. Those characters are pretty, pretty dear to me. I enjoy creating their lives."
Windsor Morning7:19
Thomas King on Indigenous education
Award-winning author Thomas King was in town for UWindsor's Humanities Week. We spoke to him about role of education in Canada's Indigenous communities. 7:19
In The Inconvenient Indian, you write about you and your brothers playing cowboys and Indians when you were kids. If you could go back, what would you say to your younger self about his identity and his culture?
"I don't know if I could have told him anything that would have made any difference. That's the thing about human beings, we always seem to have to reinvent the wheel with every generation. If someone had given me some advice way back, would I have taken it?
"I would have listened to them, but I don't know if any kind of advice would have made a difference in my life. But don't forget, it's not just offering advice to an individual, it's the society that you're in at the time.
That's the thing about human beings: we always seem to have to reinvent the wheel with every generation.
"That 14-year-old boy was in a society very different from the one we're in now. So my advice, standing where I am now, to that boy probably would have been useless.
"I would have done it if I had the chance. But I don't know that it would have made a big difference."
How then has your approach to race and identity changed over the years?
"It is a difficult thing to navigate, especially if you sort of sit in that border zone, as it were. I'm Cherokee and Greek: would it be easier if I was all Cherokee, or all Greek? I don't know. But it feels as though I'm in a border zone most of the time. It's not quite this, not quite that.
"What do you do with that? Do you ignore it? Sometimes I try to ignore it completely. Other times, they go in one direction or another and see how that feels. It's like driving a car without a road map. Other people don't help much because they either help or hinder, as the case may be.
I'm Cherokee and Greek: would it be easier if I was all Cherokee, or all Greek? I don't know.
"I'm surprised that racism has taken such a jump in the last little bit. I would have thought that we would have gotten past the intolerance of racism by now. And we haven't, there's no way around it.
"As a matter of fact, I'm not sure that we're not worse off than we were 15 years ago."
You've been at the forefront in terms of intellectualizing the plight of Indigenous and First Nations people. What would you say to the new generation of Indigenous writers and thinkers?
"I let them have the floor. I had the floor for a while, or at least I had part of the floor for a while, a little corner. And that was fine. I had my say.
"There are a lot of voices out there that need room, that should have room. I'm happy to stand off to one side or even leave the house, for that matter, and let those other voices have a go at it.
I had the floor for a while, or at least I had part of the floor for a while, a little corner. And that was fine. I had my say.
"Did I make any difference in the world? Not sure I did. Maybe they will sway a few more voices out there. There are more of those voices now than there have been in the past. And that's encouraging.
"So it is kind of nice to sit back in a deck chair and watch to see what happens."
Thomas King's comments have been edited for length and clarity. Read more interviews from our In Conversation series here.
Thomas King's latest novel was inspired by an eventful trip to Europe
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CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 25, 2020 10:35 AM ET | Last Updated: December 24, 2021
Indians on Vacation is a novel by Thomas King. (CBC/Sinisa Jolic, HarperCollins Publishers)
The Next Chapter16:47
Thomas King on Indians on Vacation
This interview originally aired on Sept. 26, 2020.
Thomas King is a Canadian-American writer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry. His books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian, Green Grass, Running Water and The Back of the Turtle. He also writes the DreadfulWater mystery series.
King's latest is Indians on Vacation, a novel about a couple named Bird and Mimi, who decide to travel through Europe after discovering postcards from Mimi's long-lost Uncle Leroy, who sent them while on his own European adventure almost 100 years ago.
Indians on Vacation was on the 2020 Writers's Trust Fiction Prize shortlist. It was also on the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for fiction.
The novel won the 2021 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
King spoke with Shelagh Rogers about why he wrote Indians on Vacation.
Vacation mode
"I always wondered what I was going to be able to do with all the travel that my wife drags me off on. And so I decided, well, I'll write a book about that. And so I did.
My wife loves to travel. It's one of her great treats and it's one of my abject horrors.
"We were in Prague and then we went down to Budapest to get on a river cruise up to Amsterdam. My wife loves to travel. It's one of her great treats and it's one of my abject horrors."
"Bird doesn't like to travel much — and in that we are alike. But I don't know if it's autobiographical. There are pieces of autobiography that creep in, but that happens with all my books."
Thomas King is hopeful that his writing has changed the world — but he's still not sure
Being in Budapest
"When we went from Prague to Budapest, we didn't even know that [Syrian refugees were seeking asylum in Hungary]. It was just breaking in the news.
"We couldn't understand Prague television. We could see pictures. We had no idea where they were. But the Budapest train station was filled with refugees — kids and their families. Everyone was sitting around on blankets, tarps and sleeping bags.
That is the kind of travel that makes you question who you are, what you've done as a human being.
"These were people who had left their homes and had very little other than what they were carrying. To have to walk through that — those hundreds of people who had been displaced and didn't know where they were going to go or how they were going to get there — with your little suitcases and your little happy shirts and khaki pants was pretty awful.
"You want to stop and help if you can. That's the first impulse. That is the kind of travel that makes you question who you are, what you've done as a human being."
Thomas King on why humour and tragedy are inseparable
Doing enough
"I think for anybody who works within society and politics, there's always that problem of not having done enough — or not having made the kind of impact that you'd like to make.
"As a writer, I don't think I've done very much at all to change the world that I see in front of me. It's very frustrating because I try hard to do that. I just don't think I've had much success.
As a writer, I don't think I've done very much at all to change the world that I see in front of me. It's very frustrating because I try hard to do that.
"Bird is in that category. He's done a fair amount, but he doesn't think that he's done much at all. And there is another character in the book that reminds him of that."
Stories can be both wondrous and dangerous, according to writer Thomas King
Love of a certain vintage
"Mimi and Bird have come to a middle ground, if you will. That's the critical thing in a relationship. Once passion wanes a little bit — as it does, there's no doubt about it — you begin to see the edges and the cracks of a person. You decide that these are comfortable things rather than annoying things or ugly things.
Once passion wanes a little bit — as it does, there's no doubt about it — you begin to see the edges and the cracks of a person.
"When you get to that point, then you've had a real relationship going — something that can weather the smaller problems that come along. I don't know what the formula actually is for it.
"I'd be a fool if I said I knew. I would can it and sell it if I did."
Thomas King's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
An interview with Arts & Science Book Club author Thomas King
Thomas King's celebrated non-fiction classic The Inconvenient Indian is the 2018 Arts & Science Book Club selection.
2017-12-18
NEWS
By Colleen MacPherson
Thomas King doesn’t particularly like writing non-fiction—he says it’s like herding porcupines with your elbows—so with his celebrated 2013 book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, the author chose to approach it like he does all of his work—as a story that needed to be told.
“I started writing it as a straight history but I bored myself to tears,” King said in an interview from his home in Guelph. “I wanted to demonstrate that I’m an intellectual, but I’m not. I’m a story teller… and everybody likes a story.”
The resulting book, which was six years in the writing, is King’s personal reflections on being “Indian” in North America, on the relationship between Natives and non-Natives over the centuries, and on how understanding the events of the past can change the story in the future. Although the subject matter is difficult, King infused his story with sarcasm and humour as a way to keep readers from turning away from the facts in horror.
“If you’re going to talk about really serious stuff, I don’t think you should let that seriousness permeate the discussion,” said King, who will visit campus Jan. 29 for two book club events. “Humour is a way to draw people in. It allows serious information to get closer to you and at the same time, it sharpens the tragedy.”
King was born in California in 1943 to a Greek mother and Cherokee father. He completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Chico State University before doing a PhD in English at the University of Utah. After immigrating to Canada in 1980, he taught Native Studies at the University of Lethbridge while also serving as a faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s American Indian Studies department. King is a professor emeritus in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.
His first novel, Medicine River, was published in 1990; it was made into a CBC film and was runner up for the 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize. King has continued to produce acclaimed works of fiction, including A Coyote Columbus Story (1992), written for children, and Green Grass, Running Water (1993), both of which were nominated for the Governor General’s Award. His most recent novel, The Back of the Turtle, received the 2014 Governor General’s Award.
From 1993–94, King was story editor for Four Directions, a CBC TV drama series by and about First Nations people. He also wrote and starred in Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, which aired on CBC Radio from 1997–2000. King was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2004 and received the Queen’s Jubilee medal in 2013.
Since it was first published, interest in The Inconvenient Indian has never waned, “much to my great surprise,” he said. “The book has had far greater success that I ever would have anticipated.” How it affects people’s thoughts or actions, however, is often unknown.
“The magical thing about books, and the horrible thing about books, is that it’s like sending a child out into the world—you have no idea what they’re going to do. And what people do with the story has nothing to do with you (the author).”
Looking ahead to his U of S visit, King said some people attending a book club event may find it to be “just a little interlude,” but there may well be a student in the audience destined for a seat in Parliament where their experience with The Inconvenient Indian could be brought to bear on, for example, setting public policy. In either case, the author believes universities can play an important role in shaping the Native/non-Native relationship.
“Universities have the best chance to make changes quickly. There is no mechanism to do that in society as a whole where Native matters are not high on the hierarchy of needs list. The role of a university is to look at new ideas, and students have a chance to consider a whole variety of different ways of thinking. The notion of academic freedom … is one of the reasons why we can have these discussions.”
Thomas King will be at the Gordon Oakes Red Bear Student Centre Jan. 29 from 2–3:30 pm for a reading and discussion of The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. At 7 pm in Convocation Hall, he will be in conversation with Saskatoon StarPhoenix journalist Betty Ann Adam for My Writing Life: A Conversation with Thomas King.
Colleen MacPherson is a Saskatoon-based freelance writer.
Learn more about the Arts & Science Book Club with Thomas King: artsandscience.usask.ca/bookclub
Heather Reisman:
Hi, I’m Heather Reisman, and this is Well Said, a podcast on the art and science of living well. This podcast is brought to you by Indigo.
Our guest today is one of the great storytellers of our time, Thomas King. Thomas is a writer, professor, broadcaster, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential Indigenous writers of his generation. He was the first Indigenous person to deliver the Massey Lectures. He has written a number of powerful works, including the Governor General Award-winning The Back of the Turtle, The Inconvenient Indian, and Indians on Vacation—that last one, a Heather’s Pick. And he recently won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, for Indians on Vacation.
Thomas’s latest book is called Sufferance. This is a book about power, privilege, and inequality. It’s a rich story about Jeremiah Camp, a man with the power to see societal patterns and forecast the future, and maybe even to change it, set in a fictional, small reserve town. Sufferance is moving, it’s important, but it’s also laugh-out-loud funny.
Today’s episode is hosted by Amanda Gauthier, a fellow booklover and a senior member of Indigo’s book team. Amanda, over to you.
Amanda Gauthier:
Thomas King, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thomas King:
Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure.
Amanda Gauthier:
So, you were just awarded the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, for your book Indians on Vacation.
Thomas King:
Yeah.
Amanda Gauthier:
What does that mean to you?
Thomas King:
It’s a lovely award. I was surprised that I was up for it. I don’t see myself as a humorist, particularly. Although when I look at Leacock’s work, certainly there was the bit of the satirist in Leacock.
And I’ve always enjoyed him for that. He was really quite a lovely writer. I don’t think he gets as much attention as he should. So, in that sense, the Leacock was very nice to win for Indians on Vacation. And I suppose, of all my books, that would be the one that would qualify for something like the Leacock more than anything else.
Amanda Gauthier:
That book was so joyful.
Thomas King:
The plots that I deal with in my novels are not terribly important to me. What’s important are the characters and the interaction of the characters. If you come to my novels, you come for the characters; don’t come for the plot. If you come for the plot, stay home.
Amanda Gauthier:
(laughs)
Thomas King:
My plots are not terribly complex; they’re not terribly difficult. Even the mysteries that I write—the DreadfulWater mysteries that I write—are not terribly complex plots. But it’s the characters and the richness of those characters and their interaction that brings me back to writing, again and again and again. Because I really love those characters.
Amanda Gauthier:
You know, there’s been a lot of discussion recently, in recent years, about appropriation and who gets to tell what story.
And what is kind of interesting, to me personally—as I’ve been, you know, listening and trying to learn from these discussions—is underpinning all this idea, of who gets to tell what, is that the story itself is so valuable, otherwise we wouldn’t care who said what, who tells what story.
Thomas King:
Umm-hmm.
Amanda Gauthier:
That underneath that, the story itself has value, because we want to be sure the right person gets to tell it. And I would love to hear your point of view on that, on who gets to tell what story and the power of storytelling.
Thomas King:
Well, I mean, I’ve been fairly clear about this over the years. As far as I’m concerned, the person who gets to tell the story is the person who can tell it—and who can tell it well. And in many cases, if it’s Aboriginal stories, that’ll be Aboriginal writers; but not always. And sometimes people who tell non-Native stories—White stories, if you will—don’t have to be White writers, particularly.
But you have to be able to tell it well. You’ve got to be a good storyteller. You have to have respect for the material and for the story. And if you don’t, I don’t care who you are, it’s not going to turn out very well. I understand the issue of appropriation, especially with Native text, because that’s been going on for years—anthropologists, ethnographers, linguists, right up to the present day—where there are people who think they can tell a better story than Indigenous people can. For the most part, they can’t, because they don’t know the material and they really don’t have the kind of respect for the material that’s going to make a good story.
But there are some writers who do. There are some non-Native writers who have written stories about Native people that I quite liked. But you have to be careful. There’s so much bad stuff that gets on the market that it makes us cranky (laughs).
Amanda Gauthier:
I think storytelling is about getting close. Right? We want to be able to tell a version of something. And in this book, you have so many storytellers. I think of Florence and her recap and version of the news. She has stories that she tells there. With many different types of storytelling, including Lala, you know, who is her own storyteller, and who is a joyful storyteller.
Thomas King:
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.
Amanda Gauthier:
And they’re quite funny as storytellers. But they all tell very different stories. So I’m curious about why there are so many storytellers in this book and the differences between the stories they tell.
Thomas King:
Well, I mean, within regular society there are hundreds of storytellers that you meet in your everyday life. And some are good, and some aren’t so good.
There’s that old joke about prisoners. This guy gets thrown into prison. And he’s there. The first night when the lights go off, somebody in the darkness…. Do you know this story?
Amanda Gauthier:
No, I do not.
Thomas King:
Somebody in the darkness yells, “43!” And everybody laughs. And then the person yells, “49!” Everybody just laughs. And the person yells, “24!” Everybody in the jail laughs and laughs. In the morning, the guy gets up and he gets in line for breakfast. He says, “Listen. Last night after the lights went out, somebody began calling out numbers in the dark, and you all laughed.” And he says, “Yes, yes.” He said, “We’ve been here for so long that we know the stories by heart, and we just give them numbers, and so, you know, we have a good time.”
And so that night the guy stands by the bars, and when the lights go out, he goes, “24!” There’s dead silence. You know, “43!” Nothing. “49!” Just a tomb.
He gets up the next day, gets back in the line. He says, “Listen. Last night after the lights went out, I called out all your favourite stories, and nobody laughed.” And the guy said, “Well, you know how it is, some people can tell a story, some people can’t.”
Amanda Gauthier:
(laughs) Oh, that’s really actually quite powerful. Isn’t it? (laughs)
Thomas King:
It is.
Amanda Gauthier:
That’s incredible.
Thomas King:
So what you have to have in those communities is—if you’re writing about that, you have to have everyone who is, in their own way, a good storyteller.
And so whether it’s Lala—who really is my four-year-old granddaughter, she’s lovely, I just, I have such a good time with her—or whether it’s Bob Loomis, Mayor Bob.
Amanda Gauthier:
Bob’s the one. (laughs)
Thomas King:
Or Bob’s the one. Yes. (laughs)
(laughter)
Accusation and endorsement in equal parts.
Amanda Gauthier:
Oh, so perfect. (laughs)
Thomas King:
And Florence, you know, who has a background in the Caribbean. Or Nutty, who is there on the reserve.
All of these people have a story to tell. And the trick is to let them tell their stories in a way that creates the community—creates a literary community, creates a social community.
And what I found out—by the way, this is an interesting thing—as a writer, I thought of writing as fairly complex and difficult, but I’m also a photographer—I’ve been doing photography for as long as I’ve been doing writing—and I just recently, in the last months, tried to switch over from still photography to filmmaking, and let me tell ya, a part of me wakes up every day and says, “I should have stayed in writing.”
If I thought writing was hard and getting a story together, making a film is infinitely more difficult, because there’s that entire technical part of it that will drive you up a wall. It’s so brutal. And it really makes me want to come back to writing full-time again. (laughs)
Amanda Gauthier:
Well, I guess you can’t just like strike a line in film, can you? When you’re editing it must be a completely different animal.
Thomas King:
No. And you know, it’s so easy to write, compared to the other.
So. And but storytelling, all the ways in which we can tell stories—dance, song, film, writing, art—they all have their easy parts and their hard parts. But I have to say that filmmaking is one of the harder ones that I’ve seen, so far.
Amanda Gauthier:
Well then why do it? What…?
Thomas King:
Ahh!
Amanda Gauthier:
You’re a masterful driver, so why go into a new medium?
Thomas King:
Yeah. Well, you know, here’s what happens is—I’m 78 now, and I’ve been writing for a fairly long time. It’s easy to get bored. Once you think you’ve mastered something—and nobody masters writing, but I think you get to a point where you believe that you might have. And I’m easily bored. I’m that dog in the house that you leave alone and come back to find your couch destroyed and your door torn to pieces.
And so I’m always looking for new outlets for storytelling—always new ways to tell a story. And so I’ve done it in short stories; I’ve done it on radio; I’ve done it in novels; non-fiction. And so I’d gotten a little bit bored, I think. And I said, “You know what? I’ve got a little hiatus right now, Sufferance is out. This is the time for me to swing over and try my hand at filmmaking.” Well, just shoot me in the head. (laughs)
Amanda Gauthier:
One of the things that we talk about on this podcast is wellness—this idea of grappling with our own wellness, our health and wellness. And something that, you know, was underpinning all the really great characters and the laughs in this book was everybody is dealing with a little piece of trauma, and they’re metabolizing it with the tools they have at hand.
Thomas King:
Umm-hmm.
Amanda Gauthier:
And the humour is so connected to the capacity to, you know, deal with our trauma. I wondered what your point of view is on the connection between laughter being the best medicine.
Thomas King:
Well, my attitude really is that if I’m going to create a really awful situation then I better be able to mix some humour into it to—not just to leaven it. That’s not the purpose of humour. The humour is also to sharpen the pathos.
So in my books, if we’re dealing with a horrendous occurrence and you see some humour in there, normally it’s humour that is to bring that level of tragedy even higher than it is. It’s an odd thing that humour does in those situations, if it’s handled correctly. So it’s a highwire act; it’s like walking on the edge of a knife. One misstep and the whole thing falls apart. So if you’re a writer and you’re going to use that kind of a strategy, you really better know what you’re doing.
Because you can fall off either side. You can fall off and make the tragedy seem silly. Or you can go the other way and try to make it satiric, which you really can’t afford to do. I mean, sometimes you can. But many times…. If you’re dealing, say, with residential schools and the death in residential schools, you have to walk a very fine line if you’re going to mix humour in with that particular story. But I don’t think there’s any other way to tell that story, otherwise people turn away.
When I was younger and I was very active in—not the American Indian movement so much but in Native movements in the U.S., I made the mistake of being the sort of, you know, an in-your-face kind of guy. And what happened was that people just turned away. They’d stop listening to you. And so whatever message you had, it was lost in the anger. It’s not that the anger wasn’t justified. It was just, as a strategy, it was a lousy strategy. And it took me years to learn that. Years to learn that.
And my book deals with an established cemetery in a residential school. And there are hundreds of sort of hidden cemeteries around residential schools. And it’s not new. And while the non-Native population may find it shocking, Native people have been talking about these kinds of things for years. When I was first involved in Native activity, back in the early ’60s, people were talking about these kinds of occurrences at residential schools. We’ve been talking for years to say that, you know, people who ran those residential schools were sexually and physically abusing the students. Over and over again we said that, and no one listened to us. And so now, all of a sudden, when they do—when you have the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where you have direct testimony to that, and people are going, “Oh, we didn’t know that was happening”—well, you didn’t know because you weren’t listening.
Amanda Gauthier:
It’s very beautiful, the small—it seems like a small act of replacing the wooden crosses with limestone that Jeremiah undertakes, you know, engraving in a more permanent and Earth-minded way, perhaps, the names of those children—it seems like a small act, but it does feel very healing. Was that your intention? What was the metaphor you were working there?
Thomas King:
The metaphor, basically, was pulling the stake out of the heart, out of the wound, if you will. That here is the symbol of a religion that killed the kids, basically. And to have those things still stuck in the ground like that was an offence. Jeremiah saw that as an offence. And so he begins replacing those with river stones. And he carves the name of the children into the stones and puts them there. Puts the crosses into a pile with the idea he’s going to burn those, which just drives a couple of characters up a wall that he’s going to do that.
That was—for me, that was kind of delightful. I went to a Catholic residential school for two years. Not the kind on the reserve. This was in a—this was in a city. And I remember the kind of strictures there. And I was overwhelmingly depressed being there. Because they really do—whether you’re Native, whether you’re non-Native—you go to some of those schools and they really do press the life right out of you. But I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. And you can see the damage to today.
Amanda Gauthier:
You know, this idea that Jeremiah says, “My efforts in the cemetery” are his efforts of the Reconciliation Project. You know, that he doesn’t believe in reconciliation. But that there’s small healings that can move a community forward.
And that leads me to Jeremiah and his role as the forecaster. What a great ominous name to give someone. We have Florence with her tarot cards trying to predict the future. But he has a very different version of forecasting. And it’s quite dark. Can you tell us a little bit—without giving away too much, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Thomas King:
Yeah. I mean, everybody has a skill. Most people, you know, some people don’t find their skill, but a lot of people do. For Jeremiah, he has the ability to look at human society—to look at history, to look at what’s happening in the world right now—and he can see patterns. That’s his skill. He can see patterns. And he was fortunate enough, or unfortunate enough, to be hired by a large multinational corporation to look for those patterns in the world. Because recognizing those patterns, knowing those patterns, being able to predict what’s going to happen is very important to a multinational business. And so that’s what Jeremiah did for a living.
The problem was, the more you look at the world, the more you look into the heart of that world, it’s like that old saw about looking in the abyss and the abyss looking back. That’s more or less what happens to Jeremiah. He’s looked once too often. And his answer to that, to that vision that he’s seeing, is to retreat to the old residential school on the reserve. And I don’t think he knows what he’s going to do. He certainly didn’t plan on doing what he does or, you know, what people will do to him. But there it is. That’s pretty much life, isn’t it?
Amanda Gauthier:
It is, yes. I think that contrast is so beautiful. You know, he’s made a fortune, you know, presumably being able to predict and tell people’s stories—tell the exact story of somebody else’s life—but he’s unable to control his own story.
Thomas King:
Yeah.
Amanda Gauthier:
You know, he becomes enmeshed in this community—for better or for worse—from his point of view, for worse. But for them it’s just such an embrace. And they’re so happy to have him home. I think there’s something really—again relating back to trauma—this idea that we can break cycles, that we can forecast a different future for ourselves.
Thomas King:
Yeah. Of course, who was it? Was it Mike Tyson who says, “Everybody has a plan until you get hit”? And Jeremiah has a plan, and then he, metaphorically, gets hit by the community. So.
[music]
[announcer voice]
We hope you’ve been enjoying Well Said and the meaningful conversations with experts, authors, and thought leaders to help you live life with purpose and intention. Visit indigo.ca to explore more books from your favourite podcast guests, including the Own Voices collection, featuring stories by diverse authors from their own perspectives.
Amanda Gauthier:
At the end of every one of our episodes, we like to ask our guests a few fun questions. What book has had a profound impact on your life?
Thomas King:
There aren’t any books that have a profound on my life. Pieces of books have spoken to me. There are parts of Moby Dick, there are parts of House Made of Dawn, there are parts of a Portrait of an Artist With 26 Horses that have stayed with me. But I don’t think of it in terms of books. I think of it in terms of emotions or moments that are created that I can take with me.
Amanda Gauthier:
Mmm, beautiful. What are you reading right now?
Thomas King:
The last book that I read was Jesse Wente’s book, which is coming out, called Unreconciled, which is a very good book.
Amanda Gauthier:
Oh, wonderful.
Thomas King:
Yeah, I was really impressed with that book. So I’m hoping that that does really well.
Amanda Gauthier:
What brings you joy?
Thomas King:
Oh. Well, I guess, I wake up in the morning, I have my breakfast. I have an espresso and a little piece of cake of some sort. And for that moment—for that moment, everything is more or less perfect.
And then it falls apart.
And my grandkids and my kids bring me a great deal of joy. My partner certainly brings me a great deal of joy. I’m a fairly simple guy in the end. And ah, so those things keep me going. And right now it’s my four-year-old granddaughter, who is a non-stop talker. I mean, this kid does not shut up. She’s found language. And she’s found the world. And she can’t wait to share those insights with you.
Amanda Gauthier:
Oh, wonderful.
One of the values that we have been trying to live here at Indigo is speaking to the idea of living with intention. What does that mean to you: living with intention?
Thomas King:
Well, living intention, for me just simply means doing my work. Doing what I think is valuable. I seldom do anything that I think is worthless. Although interviews…
Amanda Gauthier:
(laughs) Oh, no!
Thomas King:
… interviews tend to come close.
Amanda Gauthier:
(laughing)
Thomas King:
But I like to spend my time … For instance, this morning I was out with my movie camera doing some shots for a film that I’m working on. And so, it’s just—it’s small stuff. I just go out and I shoot, and I come home and I feel as though I’ve accomplished something because it’s what I wanted to do, what I think is going to be important in the end. And so I try to do that all the time. And then I have a nap. Or a couple of naps.
Amanda Gauthier:
(laughs) Thank you, so much, for your time today, Mr. King. I really enjoyed our conversation. I hope we get to do this again.
Thomas King:
Pleasure. Thank you. (singing) Oh, thanks for the memories, ya-do-do-do-do-do.
[music]
Heather Reisman:
Thank you for tuning in to our conversation with Thomas King. For more ideas to help you live well, including the book featured in this episode, Sufferance, visit indigo.ca/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts, but you can follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Well Said was produced for Indigo Inc. by Vocal Fry Studios and is hosted by me, Heather Reisman. A special thank you today to Amanda Gauthier for guest hosting today’s conversation.
[music]
Thomas KingPhoto of Thomas King
Thomas King was born in Sacramento, CA in 1943. He is of Cherokee, German and Greek descent. King was raised in California, later becoming a photojournalist in Australia. In 1986, he completed his Ph.D. in English and American studies at the University of Utah. He has taught Native Studies at the University of California, the University of Lethbridge, and at the University of Minnesota, where he was also Chair of American Indian Studies. King is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph, west of Toronto.
King published his first novel in 1989, Medicine River. It marked him as an important voice in Canadian Literature. His use of humor, well-crafted dialogue (influenced by his interest in traditional oral literature), and an honest portrayal of day-to-day life of Natives marked the book as an important work of fiction. In 1990, King tried to radically redefine how theorists view Native literature. In the article, "Godzilla vs. Postcolonial," King challenges the view that all Native literature is a reaction to colonialism, rather than an extension of longer Native tradition. The term postcolonial serves, in King’s opinion, to reinforce the legacy of colonization.
In 1992, King published the collection of short stories One Good Story, That One. Again mixing humor, traditional Native mythology and contemporary issues, King creates a collection of memorable stories. One such story that plays with the idea of Christopher Columbus discovering America, "A Coyote Columbus Story," was transformed into a children’s book that was ultimately nominated for a Governor-General’s Award. He was also nominated for a GG’s Award in 1993 for his second novel, Green Grass, Running Water . Maintaining the same theme and style of his previous works and enhancing them, King combines the lives of a number of Native characters making their way back to their Reserve with a continual retelling of the Creation myth. Truth and Bright Water was published in 1999 and focuses more on the oral tradition of the Natives in its form and style.
Thomas King also wrote a series of comic radio scripts for the CBC during the 1990s, The Dead Dog Cafe. He has edited a number of anthologies on Native writers. (Lee Skallerup)
Biography and Critical Introduction from NorthWest Passages
Thomas King Links: Includes book/story reviews
Review of Truth and Bright Water
Introduction to King’s Massey Lectures
Updated February 12 2015 by Student & Academic Services
Thomas King, still not the Indian you had in mind
DANIEL DAVID
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED JULY 19, 2012
This article was published more than 9 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.
Author Thomas King has been nominated twice for a Governor-General’s Award.
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A knock on the door at a house in Guelph, Ont., brings a tall, thin man. He fills the doorway. "Did you bring the whole tribe?" Thomas King asks in mock horror. "Come on in. I just baked an apple pie. It's right out of the oven. We'll let it cool, then have it with some coffee."
Mr. King has been expecting writer Drew Hayden Taylor, his partner Janine, and myself for the past hour. He almost turned down the interview. He doesn't like interviews or many interviewers. "I dislike talking about myself. It's boring. I've heard all the stories before."
On the way to the kitchen, a large, plain white canvas dominates one wall in the living room. "That's the White Whale," Mr. King says. "I stretch canvas for Helen." Helen Hoy is his life partner, muse and, until he retired this year, a fellow professor at the University of Guelph's department of English literature. "She paints, and the White Whale is my way of reminding her that she's got work to do."
In his work space is a poster produced by the House of Anansi Press. The Usual Suspects features a scowling Margaret Atwood wearing a black leather jacket in a mock police lineup. Two burly six-foot-plus figures tower over her. Thomas King is on one side, writer Michael Winter is on the other.
Every room seems to whisper of a life and hints to a future. A Jane Ash Poitras painting in an upstairs hall demands an explanation. "I sent her some pictures of my two children and she did this painting. That's our son and daughter," Mr. King points to the two children in the painting.
"I sent her those photographs. She used them. She knew I'd have to buy it," he says, grinning.
There's barely a mention or sign of official awards or prizes. His Order of Canada is mentioned only when talk turns to a recent event at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. There is nary a word about shortlists for a Commonwealth Writer's Prize or nominations (twice) for a Governor-General's Award. There's no shrine for his Canadian Authors Award or Queen's Jubilee Medal. Instead, the talk is about apple pie, the house and writing.
"I have a new book coming out in November," he says. "It's called The Inconvenient Indian. Non-fiction. Sort of." The "sort of" slips by almost unnoticed.
"I decided not to call it a history because it's not a proper history," he explains. "I'm calling it a narrative history. I know what a history looks like, with footnotes and all. This is more of a narrative history. I think I say in the book that it's more of an adult conversation that I've been having with myself for most of my life."
"Doubleday wanted me to come up with a book that was similar to the Massey Lectures because they wanted it at universities and high schools. They wanted to make native history accessible. Normally, you get a chronological history with lots of dates – and I do have lots of dates. I've got 470 dates in 266 pages. But it really is a kind of running conversation with myself."
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A poster at the top of the stairs shows an old passenger liner riding a wave to North America. It's in Italian, a promotion for a shipping company from the mid-1900s.
"We know it's America because there's an Indian peering out from behind palm trees looking at the ship. This Indian is wearing a full Plains headdress," Mr. King chuckles to himself. "This is what they thought of us at the time. This is the image they had of Indians."
That poster took on added meaning once Mr. King decided to write a history book with a difference. In fact, the poster has been transformed into the cover for The Inconvenient Indian.
Thomas Hunt King came into the world in 1943 in Sacramento, Calif. His father was Cherokee and his mother was Greek. There's German in there, too. His family history could be a book in itself.
"[Sherman] Alexie and I had a bet about which one of us could put the other into their book first," Mr. King says. "He won the bet. Here," he says, passing Mr. Alexie's book Indian Killer to Mr. Taylor. "Read from this paragraph on."
Mr. King left the reservation in 1980 to attend university and become a teacher, it says. He made it through one semester before he ran out of money. Too ashamed to return to the reservation, he worked on a fishing boat for a few years, then was struck by a hit-and-run driver while on shore leave. Too injured to work, and without access to disability or worker's compensation, he was homeless for most of the past 10 years.
"Hmm," Mr. King smiles at the memory. "That's actually almost accurate. Except I wasn't really homeless. I just didn't stay in any one place for very long."
The official version has Mr. King working in a bank, then signing on to the crew of a fishing boat before heading off to New Zealand and Australia. He returned to the United States and enrolled at the University of Utah where he graduated with a PhD in English literature. After that, he moved to the University of Minnesota and became the chair of American Indian studies. Somewhere in all of that, he was also an activist and a journalist.
Somehow, this brought Mr. King to the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, where he taught Native Studies for about 15 years. This was where his writing really began to take shape.
"I felt at home – really at home – perhaps for the first time in my life," Mr. King says of his time in Alberta. He became a Canadian citizen. He finagled Helen Hoy into his life. He began to work with writers such as Tomson Highway and Richard Wagamese. He developed a distinctive and critical voice that often took his adopted and former countries to task for their native policies.
It wasn't long before he hammered out his first novel, Medicine River, to much critical acclaim. Then one after the other came a children's book, A Coyote Columbus Story, nominated for a Governor-General's Award, followed by the novel that really made a splash in Canadian literature – Green Grass, Running Water. This book earned him his second Governor-General's Award nomination.
Two other titles come out that same year: One Good Story, That One and Borders, as well as another novel, Truth and Bright Water. By then, Mr. King was also doing a weekly comedy show for CBC Radio called The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour.
Dead Dog Café takes two characters from Green Grass, Running Water and plunks them down with the author, Thomas King, who plays the cultural third wheel and confused butt for most of the humour. The show turned Indian stereotypes inside out and upside down. It put a big red clown's nose on the cigar store Indian. The show also made Thomas King a household name on both sides of the international border.
In 2003, Mr. King – the first indigenous person to do so – delivered that year's Massey Lectures, five lectures on one topic to different audiences across Canada. Then, the perception is, Tom King dropped out of sight for the next nine years.
Not so, he replies. "You produce what you can produce while you produce it. Between 2003 and now, I ran for federal office for the NDP. I built this house. I was the contractor on this house. And we raised my grandson."
He was also awarded the Order of Canada in 2004, the same year former Winnipeg Mayor Glenn Murray took Green Grass, Running Water to the Canada Reads series. In 2005, Mr. King published a collection of short stories called A Short History of Indians in Canada. It won a McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. Then he wrote and directed a short film about Indian stereotypes called I'm Not the Indian You Had In Mind.
"But if I don't have anything to publish, I don't publish it. If I don't have a good idea or a good piece that I've done, then nothing happens. There's a thing called 'commercial speed' for writers which is one book every year. That's for genre writers. I don't know if it's written anywhere but if you're a literary writer, and you want to keep your place in the great mandala, you publish every two or three years. I haven't done that."
"If I have to ask myself what I've done in the past week, month or year, I'll never have any peace or satisfaction. Because it means that all I've done in the past isn't worth anything, and all I'm worth is what I can produce in the next little bit. I can't live my life like that."
The Inconvenient Indian is due out in November. "The voice is very much like the Massey Lectures – a little more strident, I suppose. A little less forgiving. I guess you could call this a kind of historical journalism. I'd agree with that. I suppose my journalistic instincts crept back in."
"I think it'll do well. I wrestled with it for six years. But I'm at the age where I don't really care any more. I used to be really concerned about what people thought of me or said about me. But not any more. I don't read reviews. I suppose some people won't like this book. They'll criticize me for writing it. And that's just fine with me."
Special to The Globe and Mail
Thomas King A Coyote Solstice Tale; illus. by Gary Clement
64 pp. Groundwood 9/09 ISBN 978-0-88899-929-0 $14.95
(Primary, Intermediate)
Oh no--not another tale of holiday togetherness, in annoying doggerel, no less! Well, it is, and it isn't. First Nations author King (A Coyote Columbus Story) demonstrates his characteristic iconoclastic humor in this anti-consumerism story. A little girl, looking for "friendship and goodwill and peace" in a materialistic world, unexpectedly drops in on Coyote and his friends at Christmastime. Setting out through the woods to bring her home, they find themselves at the mall, where Coyote temporarily falls under the spell of excessive consumption. The rather relentless meter of the verse would seem to deliver the message with a heavy hand--but King breaks into the sing-song with deadpan commentary ("So this is what humans do, said Coyote') that makes it clear there's much fun being poked here. Dryly humorous cartoon illustrations in pen-and-ink and watercolor wash put Coyote's emotions on full display--whether a bundle of nerves when first meeting the little girl or blissed out on shopping. M.V.P.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Parravano, Martha V. "Thomas King: A Coyote Solstice Tale." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 85, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2009, pp. 643+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A212035424/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=05e5a990. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
King, Thomas. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Univ. of Minnesota. Sept. 2013. 272p. index. ISBN 9780816689787. $24.95. SOC SCI
King (The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative) is a multitalented author of Cherokee descent whose accomplishments include writing children's books, novels, short story collections, and historical works. Here he offers his views on people and events that have impacted Native people in North America from the time of Columbus to the present day. Although this type of monograph has become somewhat overrepresented, King's title manages to rise above other works in the genre. Simply put, his conversational authorial voice makes the book both witty and thought-provoking. His inclusion of Canada's First Nations also offers an essential dimension not seen often enough in such works. While he touches on the usual suspects, such as Columbus and Pocahontas, King also addresses topics such as the activities of Native Americans who perpetuate stereotypes of their own people. One example he offers is U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's speech at the opening of an American Indian museum in 2004; to appear "authentic," the senator wore buckskins and a feathered headdress instead of a suit, which is what he would have typically worn as a politician. VERDICT This is an entertaining read that will most appeal to academic readers interested in anthropology or North American history.--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY
Burch, John R.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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Burch, John R. "King, Thomas. The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America." Library Journal, vol. 138, no. 13, 1 Aug. 2013, pp. 110+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A339016246/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=78dd3c4b. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
King, Thomas THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN Univ. of Minnesota (Adult Nonfiction) $24.95 9, 1 ISBN: 978-0-8166-8976-7
"[A]ny discussion of Indians in North America is likely to conjure up a certain amount of rage," writes King (A Short History of Indians in Canada, 2013, etc.) in this quirky history--but also "moments of irony and humour." Taking a deep historical look at both Canada and the United States, the author irreverently recounts the wonderful treaties that were made and frequently broken. As William Tecumseh Sherman said, "treaties were never made to be kept, but to serve a present purpose, to settling a present difficulty in the easiest manner possible-and then to be disregarded as soon as this purpose was tainted." Though the story is hardly new, many readers likely don't know much about Canadian Indians' difficulties with the English and French. In fact, they were treated as badly as the natives of the Lower 48. The author's wit and storytelling talent make the book easy to read; more importantly, his humor may keep readers from wanting to scream at the injustices. In his exploration, King roughly categorizes Indians as "dead Indians," "legal Indians" and "live Indians." Dead Indians are the stereotypical noble savages clad in buckskin and feathers. Live Indians are literally live and not living up to the dead Indian clich�; legal Indians are those people that the government(s) has declared are live Indians. The author has plenty to say about the white man's treatment of the land, with environmental issues like the Alberta Tar Sands and the Keystone Pipeline at the top of his how-dumb-can-you-be list. If there are anger and sarcasm in the tales of abuse and sequestered Indian lands, you can't really blame him. King's wife, reading over his shoulder, suggested he had way too many lists. She's right, but this is still a solid book and a good look at what can be done in the future of Indian-white relations.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"King, Thomas: THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2013. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A338102070/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9baf0b33. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
King, Thomas COYOTE TALES Groundwood (Children's Traditional Literature) $16.95 10, 3 ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In "Coyote Sings to the Moon," the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn't enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake--until she is finally driven forth by Coyote's awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In "Coyote's New Suit" he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they're bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans' clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler's monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl. Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)
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"King, Thomas: COYOTE TALES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A498345220/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f74e9141. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
Thomas King, illus. by Natasha Donovan. Little, Brown, $24.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-316-59306-9
In this sparsely worded, moving graphic novel adaptation of King's 1993 short story of the same name, the team adeptly captures the dilemma of Native Nations whose homelands were split by political borders. "For the Blackfoot," King (who is of Cherokee/Greek descent) writes in the dedication, "who understand that the border is a figment of someone else's imagination." An unnamed Blackfoot boy from a Canadian reserve recalls his 17-year-old sister, Laetitia's, move to Salt Lake City. Because Laetitia's father is affiliated with Rocky Boy, a Chippewa-Cree tribe in the U.S., Laetitia is free to live in the States. After several years, the boy and his mother drive to visit Laetitia, only to be asked their citizenship at the American border. "Blackfoot," the mother repeats to various guards in the hours they are detained, until they are sent back to Canada--only to face the same tribulations at the Canadian border, thus beginning a days-long loop. Simple pen-and-wash illustrations by Donovan (who is Metis) capture the child's distress as the likelihood of his reunion with Laetitia dwindles. This sobering yet inspiring tale effectively spotlights a Native woman who quietly demands that her voice be heard and her identity recognized. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)
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"Borders." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 32, 9 Aug. 2021, p. 72. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A672379347/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1b74f4d0. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
King, Thomas BORDERS Little, Brown (Children's None) $24.99 9, 7 ISBN: 978-0-316-59306-9
A family tries to overcome all borders.
Laetitia has moved from her reserve in Alberta to Salt Lake City in Utah. When her mother and younger brother try to visit, they run into a problem at the border. The agents at the U.S. booth ask them their citizenship, and the mother answers only "Blackfoot." The agents will accept only either "Canadian" or "American." Turned away, they proceed back past the duty-free store to the Canadian booth, where the same thing happens--again and again. Mother and son are marooned between the borders for days. Readers see this from the unnamed brother's perspective, which flashes back and forth between the past when Laetitia decides to move away and the attempted visit. King, of Cherokee and Greek descent, adapts his text from a previously published short story, laconic text expanded by artwork that captures the vastness of the Albertan prairie sky, with multiple panels showcasing the sky above buildings and natural backdrops. The story highlights both the universal feelings of a family moving apart and a very specific Indigenous experience: The Blackfoot have existed since before the border, and now they are artificially split into two sides, an absurdity captured here with trenchant, cutting wryness. M�tis illustrator Donovan's depictions of Blackfoot people are slightly varied, showing those who live on a reserve as well as urban Indigenous who live in cities.
Brilliant. (Graphic fiction. 8-adult)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
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"King, Thomas: BORDERS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673649648/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ceb4f518. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
THOMAS KING. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (272p) ISBN 0-87113-818-2
* In this winning bildungsroman, King (Green Grass, Running Water) demonstrates once again his extraordinarily moving vision of contemporary Native America. The book follows the relationship between two boys, narrator Tecumseh and Lum, and the story, set in motion by a mystery, takes place among Blackfoot Indians living on the U.S./Canadian border in two towns separated by the Shield river (Truth is in Montana, and Bright Water is on an Ottawa Indian reservation). The youths witness a woman dump the contents of a suitcase off a river bluff and then jump into the abyss herself, but by the time they get to the spot, she's nowhere to be seen. Other mysteries are created by significant homecomings: Tecumseh's free-spirited, world-traveling Aunt Cassie is in town, but no one will tell Tecumseh why; and "famous Indian artist" Monroe Swimmer buys the old mission church on the reservation and moves in. Swimmer is a trickster who paints his hilltop abode in trompe l'oeil clouds and sky and sets artificial buffalo arou nd it, so that to the naked eye below, it's almost invisible. Closer in tone to King's debut, Medicine River, than to the antics of Green Crass, Running Water, this book exhibits the author's keen powers of observation and captures the essence of reservation life with dark humor and cutting satire. But the wry humor mediates and belies desperation, with 15-year-old Tecumseh fixated on getting his mother to reconcile with his dreamy but shiftless father. All plots come together, some in tragedy, and all mysteries are solved as Indian Days approaches. This sharp-edged novel is also King's sweetest; there's plenty of magic, yet it's also his most realistic book thus far. Readers familiar with King's work will revel in it, while new readers will discover his extraordinary narrative power. Agent, Lisa Bankoff, ICM. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2000 PWxyz, LLC
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"TRUTH AND BRIGHT WATER." Publishers Weekly, vol. 247, no. 33, 14 Aug. 2000, p. 327. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A64425767/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=79557189. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
Grove, dist. by Publishers Group West. 266p. c1999. 0-8021-3840-3. $13.00. SA
Set on the high plains along the border of Montana and Alberta, this fast-moving novel covers a week in the life of its young Native American narrator. The boy is surrounded by a dozen or so characters who are all preparing for the Indian Days festival, and in the course of these activities he learns some truths about his estranged parents, his accursed cousin Lum, and the meaning of friendship, love and death.
King sets his action in a vividly imagined landscape. The two towns of the title, one on each side of the Shield River, which forms the international border, are set on the undulating plains. The cliffs narrow the river there, so the townspeople cross in a creaky, bucket-like ferry strung on cable above the river. Dominating the American side is a dilapidated church that is taken over by Monroe Swimmer, a black sheep artist back for a visit. All these settings reverberate with meaning as the novel progresses.
In the midst of this resonant landscape struggle the witty and irascible characters. Though they all have important emotional business to conduct, rarely do they speak two coherent sentences of dialogue in a row, always avoiding what must be said in favor of distracting non-sequiturs. This gives the book a bright, satiric surface that contrasts nicely with the hurt and unhappiness they feel.
While the rather passive young narrator is the focus of the novel, the artist Monroe Swimmer is its imaginative heart. He brings a touch of magic realism that deepens its already considerable pleasures. The iron buffalo he sends roaming the plains, his fantastical potlatch, and especially his painting the church so that it disappears into the landscape are all lovely feats. Highly recommended for young readers and adults. Michael P. Healy, English Teacher, Wood River H.S., Halley, ID
Healy, Michael P.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 Kliatt
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Healy, Michael P. "King, Thomas. Truth & Bright Water." Kliatt, vol. 36, no. 1, Jan. 2002, p. 12. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A107217360/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1eb80cce. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
Good Weather, Hartley
Scribner (272 pp.)
$24.00
Sep. 2003
ISBN: 0-7432-4392-7
GoodWeather, a.k.a. novelist Thomas King (Truth and Bright Water, 2000, etc.), debuts with a droll comedy of murder on a reservation overrun with developers, technocrats, and Native American goofballs.
Buffalo Mountain Resort's Cataract condominium model comes with no view, one bedroom, and, if you play your cards right, a corpse in an easy chair. The interloper is Genesis Systems computer programmer Daniel Takashi; the natural suspect is Stanley (Stick) Merchant, missing activist who would've loved to sabotage the system Genesis planned to install in the new casino he so bitterly opposed; and the detective deputized to keep Stick out of harm's way is Thumps Dreadful Water, sometime lover of Stick's mother Claire, the band council head who'd fought everybody, including her son, for the casino. Once a cop back in Eureka, Thumps has come to Chinook to peddle his art photos and forget the trauma that drove him off the force, and he does such a fine job that despite facing a rising body count and getting asked a lot of questions he'd rather not answer, he makes his first case a deadpan delight, studded with characters who really are characters, from Sheriff Duke Hockney, whose face resembles "a bowl of remorsef ul oatmeal," to donut baker Morris Dumbo, "a social garbage can on legs."
Even armchair sleuths who can see the solution from a mile away will appreciate GoodWeather's unerring knack for converting social, racial, and economic conflict into blissful farce. (Agent: Jackie Kaiser/Westwood Creative Artists)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Dreadfulwater Shows Up. (Mystery)." Kirkus Reviews, vol. 71, no. 13, 1 July 2003, p. 885. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A105368343/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a68b1ee6. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
THOMAS KING WRITING AS HARTLEY GOODWEATHER. Scribner, $24 (272p) ISBN 0-7432-4392-7
Canadian author King (Medicine River) adopts a transparent pseudonym for his first venture into the mystery field, with agreeable results. Thumps DreadfulWater, an ex-California cop and a Cherokee Indian, ekes out a living as a photographer in the little Pacific Northwest community of Chinook. A self-described "self-unemployed" fine arts photographer, he also does crime scene photography for the local police on occasion. When a murder victim turns up in a condo of the tribe's new Buffalo Mountain Resort casino complex that's getting ready for its grand opening, a reluctant Thumps soon finds himself looking for his sometime girlfriend's hotheaded son, a prime suspect. King's wry humor ("Thumps liked women who knew what they wanted, but... like most men, he liked them better in theory than in practice") goes over well, as does Thumps's laconic but effective investigative style. King's quirky characters play some lively variations on familiar stereotypes, from the wise Indian sage who always knows when to expec t visitors to the lady coroner who refers to the morgue as her "kitchen." The author's mostly gentle satire evokes appreciative chuckles rather than belly laughs. Readers who'd like to see more of Thumps and the denizens of Chinook will be pleased to note several clues suggestive of a sequel. (Sept. 23)
Forecast: A blurb from Tony Hillerman will alert fans of Native-American mysteries, but the mild; inoffensive humor may disappoint readers expecting more hilarity and pointed satire.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 PWxyz, LLC
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"Dreadfulwater Shows Up. (Mystery)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 250, no. 29, 21 July 2003, p. 177. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A106084896/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e5d6e74e. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.
King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative. Mar. 2005. 184p. Univ. of Minnesota, $24.95 (0-8166-4626-0). 813.
Trust a novelist and English professor to get to the heart of how stories and storytelling shape our perceptions. Oral stories, King asserts, are public, requiring interaction with an audience. Gathering oral stories into book form compromises the narratives; once set on the page, a story loses its context and voice. And written stories are usually private; no matter how many people read a particular book, each person reads that story as an individual. While King primarily considers narratives by and about Indians, his unusual treatise also includes coverage of a lengthy stay in New Zealand, identity politics, Native American history, and the experience of being the only middle-aged member of an amateur basketball team. Ultimately, King exhorts listeners to accept the responsibility of stories, writing, "Take it. It's yours. Do with it what you will. But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now." This is a wonderful study of the power of words. --Maksel, Rebecca
YA/L: For both teachers and students, particularly those interested in Native American culture. GE.
YA/L, for books with a limited teenage audience
Maksel, Rebecca
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2005 American Library Association
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Maksel, Rebecca. "King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories: a Native Narrative." Booklist, vol. 101, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2005, p. 1258. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A131083131/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b4ec9019. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022.