2011 UND Writers Conference

By Brianna Brickweg
Contributing Writer

The 42 Annual UND Writer’s Conference “(Inter) National Affairs” begins March 29 and runs through April 2.

The conference will include panel discussions, public readings, community workshops and films.

Susan Deer Cloud will speak on April 1 at the “In Between Places” panel. The panel also includes other writers: Maxine Hong Kingston, Jamaica Kincaid and Amoussa Koriko.

Deer Cloud will also give a public reading at 4 p.m. on the same day in the UND Memorial Union. She will be reading from her new book of poetry, “Braiding Starlight,” which includes her poem “I Hate Emily & Sylvia,” that speaks of the frustration Deer Cloud feels for how women writers are portrayed through two of the women writers to whom most attention is paid: Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath.

“I tell people [that] even though I brought a lot of humor to the poem,” Deer Cloud said, “it’s really the most serious poem I’ve ever written because it deals with some very serious matters having to do with women writers and what people emphasize about women writers, as if we’re still supposed to all commit suicide or be depressed or live in our rooms.”

Deer Cloud explored that in the poem and tried to bring humor to it because she believes humor, instead of lecturing people or preaching at them, helps bring people into understanding how other human beings feel.

“Humor and poetry are soul mates,” she said.

“I Hate Emily & Sylvia” received an honorable mention in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition, an award she has already won twice.

Deer Cloud is a Métis Catskill Indian of Mohawk/Seneca/Blackfoot lineage. She has a B.A. & M.A. in Literature & Creative Writing from Binghamton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.

Deer Cloud’s writing has been published in numerous anthologies, including “Sister Nations: An Anthology of Native Women Writers on Community, Unsettling America & Identity Lessons” and “The Yellow Medicine Review.” She published two books under FootHills Publishing, “The Last Ceremony” and “Car Stealer,” before publishing “Braiding Starlight” under Split Oak Press. She is also a recipient of The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Deer Cloud has edited two anthologies: “Confluence” and “I Was Indian (Before Being Indian Was Cool).” Currently she is editing “The Re-Matriation Chapbook Series of Indigenous Poetry” for FootHills Publishing and a special Native issue for online journal “Big Bridge.”

Dr. Crystal Alberts, director of the conference and an assistant professor of English at UND, first saw Deer Cloud at the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), a national conference for creative writers, in April of last year. After seeing Deer Cloud read, Alberts decided she wanted Deer Cloud to read at the UND Writer’s Conference and has been working with Deer Cloud since last year to prepare for her visit.

“She’s a fantastic person,” Alberts said. “She’s a pleasure to work with.”

Deer Cloud, who has been published in many different literary outlets, thinks there is too much emphasis on new writers getting published and winning prizes.

“My enduring belief and feeling on [how to improve as a writer] is that younger people should read everything they can read,” Deer Cloud said. “Experience life and write without considering the possibilities of being published because I think it can be a big pratfall if people keep [getting published] too much in their minds.”

That said, Deer Cloud still hopes younger people do get published.

“It brings the writer into community,” Deer Cloud said. “It goes way back to the beginning of storytelling when we used to all sit around the fire and tell stories.”

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