Michigan Writers welcomes Gordon Henry, who on Saturday, April 26, will lead a workshop titled:
Arranging Spaces, Phrases and Lines:
Writing and Reading Collaboratively with Musicians.
1:00-3:00 p.m., Saturday, April 26, 2014
Room 214, NMC University Center, Cass Rd.
This workshop is open to the public (free to Michigan Writers members, $10 for non-members).
A poet and novelist, Gordon Henry is an enrolled member of the White Earth Chippewa Tribe of Minnesota. A Professor of English and American Indian Studies at Michigan State University, he now lives near Stanwood, Michigan. In 2006 he was appointed Senior Editor of the American Indian Studies Series at Michigan State University Press. His first novel, The Light People, won an American Book Award in 1995 and has recently been reissued from Michigan State University Press.
Henry’s poetry and fiction is anthologized in various collections including Songs From This Earth on Turtle’s Back, Earth Song, Sky Spirit, Stories Migrating Home, Returning the Gift, Children of the Dragonfly and Nothing But the Truth. His poetry, fiction and interviews have been translated and published in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Greece. In 2004, Henry and George Cornell co-authored a middle-school text on the Ojibway for Masoncrest Publishing. His mixed-genre work, The Failure of Certain Charms: And Other Disparate Signs of Life, was published by Salt Press, in 2007. His most recent publication is titled Stories Through Theory/Theory Through Story, a co-edited collection of critical essays on American Indian Storytelling, Writing and Critique.
Henry currently serves as Director of the Native American Institute at Michigan State University. The NAI is dedicated to serving American Indian communities in Michigan and the Great Lakes, by connecting tribes, American Indian organizations and American Indian people with resources and opportunities which will enhance the culture and community life of Native people.
Henry is working on a second novel, a book of poems, and a biographical work on Turtle Mountain spiritual leader Francis Cree. For over 25 years, Professor Henry has participated in the Nibaagwe Shimowin Ceremony, as passed on by Francis Cree. In 1994 Cree passed that ceremony to Gordon. Gordon has three daughters, Kehli, Mira, and Emily. He lives in Michigan with his wife, Mary Anne, and two dogs, Griffin and Hershey.