American Indian Literature and Critical Studies

5 total works

Pushing the Bear

by Diane Glancy

Published 1 September 1996

In a novel that "retains the complexity, immediacy, and indirection of a poem," Glancy brings to life the Cherokees' 900-mile forced removal to Oklahoma in 1838 and gives us "a powerful witness to one of the most shameful episodes in american history" (Los Angeles Times).

Firesticks

by Diane Glancy

Published 30 March 1993

Incorporating elements of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, Diane Glancy's stories are lyrical yet down to earth, often tough and gritty. Experimental, sometimes surreal in form, they nevertheless concern people who are very real-a color-blind young boy who watches planes in flight and imagines color; a shy stamp collector who speculates that he and his friend, like the stamps, could go anywhere via the U.S. Post Office; an old woman who dies in the cold landscape of her inner life but retains her vision; a cynical woman reluctant to take risks with yet another traveling man.

In spite of life's hard realities, Firesticks is filled with humor and hope and a stitching together of cultures, as the crossblood characters search for their identities.

The Mask Maker

by Diane Glancy

Published 30 March 2002

In The Mask Maker, Diane Glancy tells the story of Edith Lewis, a recently divorced mixed-blood American Indian, as she travels the state of Oklahoma teaching students the art and custom of mask-making. A complex, subtle tale about f1esh-and-blood human beings, this enchanting novel shows how one woman copes with alienation, loss, and questions about identity and, in the end, rediscovers meaning in living.

Through Edith's daily life and efforts to teach, Glancy explores the power of the mask and mask-making. When Edith tries reaching out to a listless, alienated student, she knows enough to ask, ""Where would you want to go?"" He replies, ""Nowhere,"" to which she responds with the advice, ""Then make a mask to take you nowhere.""

For Edith, masks go beyond the limitations of words and surface gloss. ""A mask is a face when you have none,"" she reflects. Yet some stories need to be confronted, so Edith struggles with the question of how to use masks to tell stories without using words.

Glancy's Edith is no idealized sage but a very human character struggling as best she can while enduring clueless officials and teachers. When Edith explains to one teacher how the art of mask-making reaches students on a creative, intuitive level, she is chided as impractical: ""We're supposed to reach them through math and English.""

In The Mask Maker, Glancy provides the reader with intriguing new ways of looking at identity, at language, at intangible values, and at love. This captivating novel on the human need for self-expression will delight readers of all ages.

American Gypsy

by Diane Glancy

Published 30 November 2002

In American Gypsy, a collection of six plays, Diane Glancy uses a mélange of voices to invoke the myths and realities of modern Native American life. Glancy intermixes poetry and prose to address themes of gender, generational relationships, acculturation, myth, and tensions between Christianity and traditional Native American belief systems.

The six plays included, ""The Woman Who Was a Red Deer Dressed for the Deer Dance,"" ""The Women Who Loved House Trailers,"" ""American Gypsy,"" ""Jump Kiss,"" ""Lesser Wars,"" and ""The Toad (Another Name for the Moon) Should Have a Bite,"" run the gamut from monologues to multi-character pieces and vary in length from fifteen minutes to over an hour. Glancy concludes the collection with a thought-provoking essay on Native American playwriting.

Firesticks, 5

by Diane Glancy

Published 10 May 2022