Next week I leave Tucson for the Frank Waters Foundation in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. The Foundation is located about 8 miles outside of Taos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There is a small cabin on the Waters' property for artists to work in solitude, away from email, phones and daily distractions. By some miracle I was awarded a Writer's Residency for six weeks.
Long ago I discovered Frank Waters' writing in The Man Who Killed the Deer. Frank Waters navigates the psyche of a character struggling to live in two cultural realities - Native American and European/western. Through this novel and many others Frank wrote over his lifetime, he offers readers a chance to examine the values of different cultures. To do this well requires a kind of integrity that distinguishes Frank's writing.
Go to this link on the Foundation's website to read about his life and the experiences that were the well-spring of his writing: http://www.frankwaters.org/photo.htm
I plan to blog my experience writing at the Foundation. However, if I fall into a writer's crevass, you may not hear from me until October when I return to Tucson. In that case, I am leaving these links to sites and resources for you to explore perspectives of the American cultural experience and to wet your whistles for my new book.
Please leave your comments here about what you read or about your own experiences.
Food for Thought:
Read about the Iroquois Great Law of Peace:
http://sixnations.buffnet.net/Great_Law_of_Peace/
Read the Hopi Experience Living in the Fourth World:
http://www.hopi.nsn.us/emergence.asp
Two of my favorite Frank Waters Books
Link to Frank Waters' classic - The Book of the Hopi:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140045279/103-2967322-9485414?v=glance&n=283155
Link to The Woman at Otowi Crossing:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804008930/sr=1-1/qid=1154876637/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2967322-9485414?ie=UTF8&s=books
Here is a photo of the cabin where I will be working:
Later! Susan
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