Eric Gansworth is Coming to the 2021 UNLV online Summit by Rebecca Chatham-Vazquez
The UNLV Young Adult Literature Summit is pleased to feature Eric Gansworth this year. Gansworth is a member of Eel clan, enrolled Onondaga, born and raised at the Tuscarora Nation. He has written several novels for adults, many plays, and collections of poems and visual art. His two novels for young adults, Give Me Some Truth and If I Ever Get out of Here, brought him into the Young Adult world, and, with his new memoir-in-verse Apple (Skin to the Core), he has shared himself and given young people a multimodal memoir that goes deep inside of us and speaks to all of our hearts.
Eric Gansworth with Debbie Reece at AWP 2015. Debbie Reece is the Nambé Pueblo scholar and educator who founded American Indians in Children's Literature
*You can find out more about the work of Debbie Reece at this link.
He has been honored with Writer-in-Residence awards from Canisius College (where he is currently a professor), the just buffalo literacy center, inc., and The Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. He also has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Seaside Institute in Seaside, Florida and at Fresno State University’s Arne Nixon Center for Children’s Literature. His novels, plays, and poetry and visual arts collections have won numerous awards, including the American Indian Youth Literary Award for If I Ever Get out of Here and the Whippoorwill Award for Give Me Some Truth. His newest novel, a memoir-in-verse, Apple (Skin to the Core), was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award.
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While much of Gansworth’s work has been in the real of novels for adult readers, his Young Adult novels leave an imprint. The multimodality of Gansworth’s work, the use of music and poetry and visual art integrated throughout, creates a full world for the reader and enables the reader to connect with the characters and, now, with Gansworth himself.
As I was reading Apple (Skin to the Core), I found myself remembering my own past along with Gansworth through the Beatles music he uses throughout the memoir. The album titles, song titles, and lyrics all brought back my own memories. I felt so connected to the story and also very seen--to know that someone else, Gansworth himself, felt moved by this music and had deep childhood memories connected to specific songs and albums, just like I do. This connection between author and reader is so powerful and something our students/young readers long to feel with the authors and books they pick up. As we know, YAL provides this connection for our students.
As I was reading Apple (Skin to the Core), I found myself remembering my own past along with Gansworth through the Beatles music he uses throughout the memoir. The album titles, song titles, and lyrics all brought back my own memories. I felt so connected to the story and also very seen--to know that someone else, Gansworth himself, felt moved by this music and had deep childhood memories connected to specific songs and albums, just like I do. This connection between author and reader is so powerful and something our students/young readers long to feel with the authors and books they pick up. As we know, YAL provides this connection for our students.
Gansworth also collaborated with Cynthia Leitich Smith and others on the newly released Ancestor Approved, a collection of interweaving stories from an intertribal powwow. See more on that collection here.
For snapshots of each of Gansworth’s novels (and other work!), as well as to read excerpts from each text, visit https://www.ericgansworth.com/books.
There are also audio-book options for all three of Gansworth’s Young Adult texts on audible. Check them out here: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Eric+Gansworth
For more from Gansworth, see his interview with Diversity in YA on If I Ever Get out of Here https://diversityinya.tumblr.com/post/56887452593/interview-with-eric-gansworth-on-if-i-ever-get-out-of ) OR this interview with the New York State Writer’s Institute about (Apple: Skin to the Core)
https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/post/writer-and-visual-artist-eric-gansworth-s%CB%91ha-we%C3%B1-na-sae%CB%80
Other YA Wednesdays where Gansworth appears:
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/what-books-are-you-using-in-your-ya-courses-here-are-my-selections
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/gansworth-latour-and-the-agency-of-objects-a-catalogue-of-non-human-actors-in-apple-skin-to-the-core-by-stacy-graber
There are also audio-book options for all three of Gansworth’s Young Adult texts on audible. Check them out here: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Eric+Gansworth
For more from Gansworth, see his interview with Diversity in YA on If I Ever Get out of Here https://diversityinya.tumblr.com/post/56887452593/interview-with-eric-gansworth-on-if-i-ever-get-out-of ) OR this interview with the New York State Writer’s Institute about (Apple: Skin to the Core)
https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/post/writer-and-visual-artist-eric-gansworth-s%CB%91ha-we%C3%B1-na-sae%CB%80
Other YA Wednesdays where Gansworth appears:
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/what-books-are-you-using-in-your-ya-courses-here-are-my-selections
http://www.yawednesday.com/blog/gansworth-latour-and-the-agency-of-objects-a-catalogue-of-non-human-actors-in-apple-skin-to-the-core-by-stacy-graber
Until Next Time.
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