The Museum of the Cherokee Indian (MCI) is pleased to announce Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop, an opportunity offered to citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other federally recognized tribes throughout 2023. Created in partnership with Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), author of the award-winning novel Even As We Breathe and MCI board member, the series of workshops offers tribal citizens access to high-quality writing instruction from the world’s top Indigenous writers at no cost.
The series, made possible through the generous support of North Carolina Arts Council and Fire Mountain Trails, will host four visiting writers with expertise in four different genres. Following three days of close instruction, creative exercises, and group discussion, the visiting writers will provide an evening public reading for the greater community to enjoy. Workshops are open to high school students and adults, recognizing that younger generations need to see role models in their own community in order to extend the continuum.
Workshop Schedule
This Community Learning opportunity is offered to citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other federally recognized tries but will be opened to the public if not filled. Each workshop takes place over three days in the Multipurpose Room of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian with lunch provided. Each workshop is limited to a maximum of 15 participants. Interested writers can register here.
Friday, 4-5pm: Registration
Saturday, 9am-5pm: Workshop
Sunday, 9am-until: Workshop and lunch (day concludes after lunch)
May 26-28, 2023
Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series
LITERARY FICTION: Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation)
June 16-18
Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series
FICTION: Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation)
July 14-16
Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series
POETRY: Mary Leauna Christensen (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
November 10-12
Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series
JOURNALISM: Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation)
Public Events
Join our visiting writers for three free, open-to-the-public events in the Museum Store:
Reading and Book Signing with Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation)
Friday, May 26, 2023 5:30-6:30pm
Reading and Book Signing with Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation)
Friday, June 16, 2023 5:30-6:30pm
Reading with Mary Leauna Christensen (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Friday, July 14, 2023 5:30-6:30pm
Museum Store, Museum of the Cherokee Indian
Reading with Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation)
Friday, November 10, 2023 5:30-6:30pm
Museum Store, Museum of the Cherokee Indian
Meet the Workshop Instructors
Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation) | kellijoford.com
Kelli Jo Ford is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize, the Everett Southwest Literary Award, the Katherine Bakeless Nason Award at Bread Loaf, a National Artist Fellowship by the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and a Dobie Paisano Fellowship. Her fiction has appeared in the Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, and the anthology Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, among other places.
Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation) | andrealrogers.com
Andrea L. Rogers is Cherokee. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but now lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she is enjoying being a student, again, spending time outside, and wishing she had more time to make art and cookies. Her three wonderful kids are the best things in her life. Her children’s work includes the book Mary and the Trail of Tears and her story, “The Ballad of Maggie Wilson” in Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids. She has, also, written a young adult book of scary stories called Man Made Monsters. She believes everyone has a story to tell.
Mary Leauna Christensen (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Mary Leauna Christensen recently received her PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi. Christensen is Managing Editor of The Swamp literary magazine. Her work can be found in Cream City Review, The Laurel Review, Southern Humanities Review, Denver Quarterly, and The Gettysburg Review, among others. She was named a 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets fellow for the inaugural In-Na-Po retreat and was selected as a returning fellow for 2023.
Rebecca Nagle | thislandpodcast.com
Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning journalist and citizen of Cherokee Nation. She is the writer and host of the podcast This Land. Her writing on Native representation, federal Indian law, and tribal sovereignty has been featured in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, Indian Country Today, and more. Rebecca Nagle is the recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, Women’s Media Center’s Exceptional Journalism Award, a Peabody Nominee, and numerous awards from the Native American Journalist Association. Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she also works on language revitalization.
Indigenous communities deserve the same standard of journalism as the rest of the country, but rarely receive it from non-Native media outlets. Nagle‘s journalism seeks to correct this. From the census, to COVID, to the Supreme Court, Nagle focuses on deeply and timely reporting that sheds light on issues of national importance.
Mary is Managing Editor of The Swamp literary magazine. Her work can be found in Cream City Review, the Laurel Review, Southern Humanities Review, Denver Quarterly, and the Gettysburg Review, among others. Mary was also named a 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets fellow for the inaugural In-Na-Po retreat and was selected as a returning fellow for 2023.