Events › Native American Storytelling and the Publishing Industry

This workshop is presented by Writer-in-Resident Tom Holm.

I will convey the importance of storytelling in our communities. I will tell a couple of stories I’ve heard and ask the participants to analyze critically what these stories mean. Native stories don’t often make a moral point. That is usually left to the listener. Additionally, relatives tell stories that are actually directed at a person, such as grandmother to grandson, mother to daughter, father to son, and so on. They’re told to include one into the kinship system. Because of these factors publishers and agents often fail to understand the drift of a Native story.

The Tucson Festival of Books is March 15 and 16 on the University of Arizona campus. No registration required.

Tom Holm is Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. His latest academic book, Code Talkers and Warriors: Native Americans in World War II was released in 2007. The University of Texas Press published his 2005 book The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Indians and Whites in the Progressive Era. In 1996, his book on Native American veterans of the Vietnam War, Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls was a finalist for the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnology. His works of fiction include The Osage Rose (2008), its sequel, Anadarko (2015), and the third Hoolie Smith mystery novel, Panther Creek: A Pawnee Country Mystery (2024)

Tom is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a Muscogee Creek descendant. Between 2004 and 2009, he served the Cherokee Nation as a member of the Sequoyah Commission, a group of Cherokee scholars, and was named a member of the American Indian Graduate Center’s Council of 100 elders, scholars, and leaders. A deep interest in veterans’ affairs led to his membership on the first Native American advisory committee to the Veterans’ Administration. He is a Vietnam veteran and with Ina, his wife of fifty-five years, has two sons and four grandchildren and resides in Tucson Arizona.

The Writer in Residence Program is made possible by the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Find out more about the Writer-in-Residence program