The Native American Students at Syracuse (NASAS) present its annual
Coffee House with Renown American Indian poet, novelist, and artist Eric Gansworth 


Thursday, March 29, 2007
Syracuse University’s Schine Student Center Panasci Lounge
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm 


Free and Open to the Public
Dessert and Coffee will be served

Come participate in our open forum by sharing your works prior to Mr. Gansworth’s readings 



Sponsors: SU Student Affairs UEncounter, College of Arts & Sciences Native Studies Program, College of Law’s Center for Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship, Office of Multicultural Affairs Native Student Program

Gansworth is an Onondaga Nation citizen and Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo 
  
Eric Gansworth, an enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation, was born and raised at the Tuscarora Indian Nation in Western New York. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. 

His novels, Indian Summers (Michigan State University Press 1998), Smoke Dancing, (MSUP 2004), Mending Skins, (University of Nebraska Press 2005), and a collection of poetry, Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon, (MSUP 2000) feature paintings as integral parts of their narratives. His most recent book, Breathing the Monster Alive, (Bright Hill) consists of thematically linked poems, personal essays and paintings. Mending Skins won a PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award in 2006. Work of his, fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, has appeared or is forthcoming in the journals, The Boston Review, The Kenyon Review, Third Coast, Blueline, Cold Mountain Review, Shenandoah, The Cream City Review, Slipstream, phati’tude, UCLA’s American Indian Culture and Research Journal and American Indian Quarterly, in the anthologies, Growing Up Native American (Morrow), Blue Dawn, Red Earth (Doubleday) Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions (Bright Hill), The Second Word Thursdays Anthology (Bright Hill), Stories for Winter Nights (White Pine), Fishing for Chickens (Persea), Genocide of the Mind (The Nation Books), Eating Fire, Tasting Blood (Thunder’s Mouth), Children of the Dragonfly (University of Arizona Press) and Nothing but the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature(Prentice Hall), on Roadkillbasa, a performance audio tape and in Quartet, a just buffalo literary center, inc. chapbook. He was invited to write the entry for American Indian Literature in the Encyclopedia of New York State. He is a member of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers, the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, is listed in the Directory of American Poets & Fiction Writers and has received Writer-in-Residence awards from, The Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, just buffalo literary center, inc. as well as at his home institution, Canisius College, and was awarded an Artist’s Residency at the Seaside Institute, in Seaside, Florida. 

Gansworth began his creative work as a visual artist, and eventually expanded to writing as a way of furthering the narratives he had developed visually. His first solo exhibit, “Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon,” opened in 1999 at the Olean Public Library and an expanded show opened at the Castellani Museum in 2000. A recent solo exhibit, “Breathing the Monster Alive” opened at Bright Hill Center in 2006. A collaborative two-artist show, with sculptor Larry Plant, opened in 2005 at the Stuyvessant Gallery in Buffalo, NY. His work has been in group shows across New York State, including: “Revisiting Turtle Island,” at the Niagara Arts and Culture Center, “Native Vision: Art through Haudenosaunee Eyes,” at the Fanette-Goldman Gallery, "Art Creations from Tuscarora," at Neto Hatinakwe Ohnkwehowe, the "Keepers of the Western Door" Exhibit, co-sponsored by CEPA Gallery and the World University Games, and in a follow-up exhibit "In the Shadow of the Eagle," at the Castellani Museum; in "Teaching Metaphors" at the Niagara County Community College; and in "Sharing the Visions," at Hartwick College in Oneonta. One of his paintings was the cover of Sherman Alexie’s book First Indian on the Moon. Others have been included in the history text As Long as the Grass Shall Grow and Rivers Flow (Harcourt Brace) the art history text Pictures and Power: Haudenosaunee and Iroquoian Paintings and Visual Representation, A.D. 166-2004 (University of Oklahoma Press), the Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions anthology (Bright Hill), and the journal, The Cream City Review. He served 11 years on the Board of Directors of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and has served terms on panels for the Arts Council of Buffalo and Erie County and the New York State Council on the Arts Literature Panel, and on the Artists Advisory Committee for the New York Foundation for the Arts. He was also an artist in the Herd About Buffalo Project. 

Gansworth’s work is a commentary on the oral tradition existing within Haudenosaunee culture and its fluid nature. He uses iconography recognizable in the context of the mythic Haudenosaunee world, yet alters it to reflect issues relevant to a more contemporary Haudenosaunee existence.


PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS:

Developing, organizing and editing Sovereign Bones, a collection of Creative
Non-fiction by indigenous writers and artists, The Nation Books, (forthcoming).

A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function, poems and paintings, Syracuse
University Press, (forthcoming).

Breathing the Monster Alive, (poetry, creative non-fiction, paintings), Bright Hill
Press, 2006.

Mending Skins, (novel/paintings), University of Nebraska P, 2005.

Smoke Dancing, (novel/paintings), Michigan State UP, 2004.

Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon, (poems/paintings), Michigan State UP, 2000.

Indian Summers (novel) Michigan State University Press, 1998.

FICTION:

“Night in the Ruts,” Third Coast, (forthcoming).
“True Crime,” The Kenyon Review, Fall, 2006.
“Billy the Chicken,” Shenandoah, Fall, 2006.
“My Good Man,” in Working Class Indigenous, anthology, Allison Hedge Coke,
ed., (forthcoming).
“My Good Man,” in Boston Review, Feb, 2005.
“The Raleigh Man,” reprinted in Fishing for Chickens: Stories of Rural Youth in
America, Persea Press, 2001.
“Unfinished Business,” in Nothing but the Truth: An Anthology of Native
American Literature, Prentice Hall, 2000.
“The Last Dance,” in The Second Word Thursdays Anthology, 1999.
"Benefit Dinner," in For Winter Nights: Native American Storytellers,
(anthology) White Pine Press, 1999.
"As The Crow Flies," in QUARTET, chapbook, just buffalo literary center, 1997.
"Getting Used to It," in Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions, Bright Hill, 1996.
"The Raleigh Man," in Blue Dawn, Red Earth: An Anthology of Native American
Writers, Doubleday, 1996.
"The Ballad of Plastic Fred," in Growing Up Native American, Morrow, 1993.

POETRY:

“Dreamcatcher,” “Learning to Speak,” in To Topos, Winter 2006.
“Dakota I, II, III,” “Histamine,” “Holding the Shell to My Ear,” Slipstream 26, 2006.
“Wade Wakes Me with Sweat, Tears and Yes, the Rest Too,” “Reception,” in
Working Class Indigenous, anthology, Allison Hedge Coke, ed., (forthcoming).
“The Rain, the Rez, and Other Things,” Cold Mountain Review, Spring 2006.
“Vulnerability,” reprinted in a twentieth anniversary anthology for Blueline,
Syracuse University Press, 2004.
“Loving that Land O’ Lakes Girl” Shenandoah, winter issue 2004.
“Where the Dawes Act Finds Its Voice Even Now in Northern New York,” “A
Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function,” in The Cream City Review,
University of Wisconsin, Issue 27.1, Spring, 2003.
“It Goes Something Like This,” in Children of the Dragonfly anthology,
University of Arizona Press, 2000.
“Late August Sunsets,” “The Final Cut” in Second Word Thursdays Anthology, 1999.
“War Pony,” in The Buffalo News, March 7, 1999.
"Vulnerability," in Blueline, literary magazine, Potsdam, NY, 1998.
"Iroquois Backboard Rebound Song (I), (II)," "Mystic Powers(II)," "Traditional
Blanket," "On the Lack of Needing My Indian Celebrity Sunglasses," in
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, UCLA, 1998.
"Mystic Powers (I)," in phati’tude, volume 1, #2, Indian Summer issue, 1997.
"Black Leather Jacket," "Sirens," in Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions, Bright Hill, 1996.
"My Sister’s Back Yard," "Stinkpot," "Walking a Mile in his Wingtips," in
Slipstream, issues 14, 15, Fall, 1994.
"Just Lately," Roadkillbasa, poetry audio tape, Slipstream,1994.

NON-FICTION:

“Finding a Voice from Home: Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, essay in
Conversations, Fall 2006.
“American Heritage,” personal essay in Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: Breaking the
Great Silence of the American Indian Holocaust anthology, Thunder’s Mouth
Press, July 2006.
“Sharing the Plums,” essay, Literature Technical Assistance Program, Spring 2006.
Review of Flaming Lips’ CD, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Talking Leaves/New
World Records Guide, Winter 2005.
“Thinking in Subversion,” personal essay and poem, in American Indian Quarterly
Journal, Volume 30: 1 & 2
“The Reading as Invitation/Rock Concert, or Designing an Effective Set List,” essay,
Literature Technical Assistance Program newsletter, September 2005.
Entry for American Indian Literature in New York State, in The Encyclopedia of New
York State, Syracuse UP, 2005.
“Identification Pleas,” personal essay, solicited for anthology, Genocide of the Mind:
New Native American Writing, The Nation Books, 2003.
“Mark Lavatelli’s Treescapes: The Confines of a Natural World,” critical essay for
individual artist’s show, of Mark Lavatelli’s recent works, Buffalo Arts Studio
publications, January 2004.
"Links to Obscurity" critical essay for Artist’s Residency Exchange art catalogue of
Charles Agel’s Monuments to The Industrial Revolution, Hallwalls, 1998.

ART:

Cover and internal paintings for each book: Indian Summers (1998); Nickel Eclipse:
Iroquois Moon (2000); Smoke Dancing(2004); Mending Skins (2005); Breathing the
Monster Alive (2006).
Inclusion of paintings and references to visual art in the academic anthropological text:
Pictures and Power: Haudenosaunee and Iroquoian Paintings and Visual
Representation, A.D. 166-2004, by Neal Keating, University of Oklahoma Press
(forthcoming).
Cover painting, Spring 2004 Catalogue, Michigan State University Press.
Painting in The Cream City Review, University of Wisconsin, Issue 27.1, Spring, 2003.
Exhibit Catalogue, The Pan-American Exposition Centennial: Images of the American
Indian, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, 2001.
Cover painting, Fall 2000 Catalogue, Michigan State University Press.
Exhibit Catalogue, Herd About Buffalo, Burchfield Penney Art Center, 2000.
Inclusion of a painting, and references to fiction and visual art in the academic history
text: As Long as the Grass Shall Grow and Rivers Flow: A History of Native
Americans, by Clifford Trafzer, Harcourt Brace, 2000.
Painting in Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions, Bright Hill, 1996.
Painting in Premiere Issue, Akwesasne Notes, 1994.
Cover painting, First Indian on the Moon, by Sherman Alexie, Hanging Loose, 1993.

INTERVIEWS:
PRINT:

Buffalo News, February 5, 2006
Buffalo Spree, December 2005
Cold Mountain Review Spring 2006.
Niagara Gazette, Night and Day, with Revisiting Turtle Island show, June 26, 2003.
Buffalo Spree, June 2003.
Buffalo Magazine, May/June 2000.

VIDEO:

Interview, WXXI, Rochester PBS, November 2006.
Interview, “Homework Hotline,” Statewide PBS Originating at WXXI, November 2006.
Interview in George Quasha’s internationally documentary, “Poetry Is” 2005.
Video interview with Jane Jackson, Communications Department at SUNY Fredonia, for
a documentary on contemporary American Indian artists, 2002.
Interview in permanent collection of The Writers Forum Videotape Library, SUNY
Brockport, Fall 2001.

RADIO:

WNED, Buffalo Public Radio, November 21, 2006
Native Views, News and Reviews, WHLD, October 25, 2006.
Native America Calling, (nationally syndicated) March 30, 2005.
Inks Audible, WHLD, Buffalo, NY, March 25, 2005
North Country Public Radio (NPR Affiliate), May 2004.
Spoken Arts Radio (NPR Affil.), May 5, 2004.
North Country Public Radio, (NPR Affil.), October 4, 1999
Spoken Arts Radio (NPR Affil.) September 27, 1998.
Spoken Arts Radio (NPR Affil.) February 29, 1996.


ART EXHIBITS:

Permanent installation--Commission of a painting, Canisius College, September 2006.
Solo visual art show, Breathing the Monster Alive, Canisius College, November 2006.
Solo visual art show, Breathing the Monster Alive, Bright Hill Center, September 2006.
Exhibiting Artist--It’s Not You, It’s Me, Members Show, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts
Center, August, 2006.
Feedback, two-artist show, at Stuyvusant Gallery, Sept-Oct, 2005.
700 Main Street Redux, Members Show, Hallwalls, March-April, 2005.
Solo visual art show, Mending Skins, Canisius College, March, 2005.
Solo visual art show, Smoke Dancing, Canisius College, April, 2004.
Exhibiting Artist--The World of Tomorrow . . . Today! Members Show, Hallwalls,
January-February, 2004.
Exhibiting Artist--Revisiting Turtle Island, June 27, 2003-August 22, 2003.
Exhibiting Artist--Native Vision: Art through Haudenosaunee Eyes, Daemen College,
September 6-October 6, 2002.
Exhibiting Artist--The Pan-Am Exposition Centennial: Images of the American Indian,
October 13, 2001-January 6, 2002.
Participating Artist--Herd About Buffalo Project, , Burchfield Penney Arts Center,
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY May, 2000--October, 2000.
Solo visual art show, Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon, Castellani Art Museum. February
13-April 16, 2000
Solo visual art show, Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon, Olean Public Library August 5-
September 9, 1999.
Exhibiting Artist--Icons and Relics, Members Show, Hallwalls, February-March, 1999.
Exhibiting Artist--Art Creations from Tuscarora,. Neto Hatinakwe Onkwehowe, Buffalo,
New York May 4-June 20, 1998.
Exhibiting Artist--Black Velvet, Members Show, Hallwalls, February-March, 1998.
Exhibiting Artist--Books, Boxes and Altars, Members, Hallwalls, Feb.-March, 1997.
Exhibiting Artist--Sharing the Visions, The Museum at Hartwick,
Oneonta, New York, Spring-Summer, 1996.
Painting featured in premiere issue of Akwesasne Notes.
Exhibiting Artist--In the Shadow of the Eagle, Castellani Art Museum, November
13, 1994-February 5, 1995.
Cover Artist, First Indian on the Moon, Sherman Alexie, Hanging Loose Press, 1993. Exhibiting Artist--Keepers of the Western Door, sponsored by CEPA and World
University Games, July 1993.
Exhibiting Artist--Visual Gatherings, Shaking and Shaping Indian: Indigenous Identity, a
Native American Art exhibit, Niagara Community College, September-October, 1992.
Exhibiting Artist--Native American Art Exhibit, Niagara Community College Art
Gallery, February 1989.