A MELUS Interview: Joseph Bruchac

Abstract

If the past thirty years encompass what has been called a Renaissance period in Native American literature, Joseph Bruchac, who has devoted his life to translating one culture to another through his writing and teaching, must surely be considered a Renaissance man. He has taught English in Africa and African American and Native American literature in this country. As the editor of The Greenfield Review Press, dedicated to the publication of multicultural material, he has published anthologies of poetryfrom American prisons-collected during seven years of teaching in the prison system-as well as anthologies of Native American, Asian American and African American poets. Greenfield Press has published early works by many writers who have gone on to become quite well known, such as Linda Hogan, Barney Bush, and Beth Brant, and an instructional volumefor other small press publishers. Bruchac's writing includes poetry, novels, short stories, essays, and retellings of traditional Native American stories. Yet, he is perhaps best knownfor his award-winning storytelling. Much of his time is devoted to telling stories in schools, and his stories have been published in more than twenty books and numerous magazines, and in both audio and videoformats. Bruchac's contributions to the educational process are numerous. Among his notable works of children's literature are his praised collaborations with Michael Caduto, Keepers of the Earth and Keepers of the Animals. In these books, traditional Native stories serve as a centerpiecefor lessons about environmental concerns. Motivated by a belief that the world is in need of saving, Bruchac says: My writing...give[s] me a chance to my insights into the beautiful and all toofragile world of human life and living things we have been granted. Which is one of the reasons I write-not to be a man apart, but to share (Albany Times Union 1 [June 1980]). Born in upstate New York, Bruchac is of Abenaki and Slovak heritage. In his essay Notes of a Translator's Son, Bruchac translates the FrenchCanadian termfor a person of mixed blood, metis, into English as translator's son. Unlike half-breed, a terms he finds insulting, metis means that you are able to understand the language of both sides, to help them un-