Oscar Hokeah, Cherokee Novelist

Cherokee novelist and winner of this year's PEN Hemingway First Novel Prize, Oscar Hokeah will discuss his novel, Calling for a Blanket Dance. Hokeah is a regionalist Native American writer of literary fiction, interested in capturing intertribal, transnational, and multicultural aspects within two tribally specific communities: Tahlequah and Lawton, Oklahoma. He holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), with a minor in Indigenous Liberal Studies, and an MA in English from the University of Oklahoma. He was raised inside these tribal circles and continues to reside there today. Hokeah is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma from his mother (the Hokeah and Stopp families), he has Mexican heritage from his father (Chaves family) who emigrated Aldama, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Hoekah works to nurture Native community and the Indigenous values that sustain tribal communities, values that drive and ground his writing and artistic work.

This event is free, open to the public, and will include free refreshments. Sponsored by the Department of History, the Gable Fund in Southern Colonial American History, and the Institute of Native American Studies.