Together, Dr. Renae Watchman and Dr. ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui are co-editing an upcoming edition of Gale’s Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) that will focus on Contemporary Indigenous Writers (this is a working title once we finalize contributors).

 

Highlighting Indigenous writers is a magnanimous task. Because Gale has already published select biographies of authors up to 1999, and because of the recent publication of the Indigenous poetry anthology, When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, edited by Joy Harjo in 2020, we made the difficult decision to highlight writers who have published fiction and short stories in the 21st century. While we recognize the impossibility of acknowledging everyone who makes up the constellation of literary talent, we have come up with a working Table of Contents for the upcoming DLB and are seeking to fill many gaps (in terms of contributors). We hope to attract contributors who teach and work in Indigenous literary arts. If you’re interested in this project, please email for a copy of the working TOC and send us your name, institutional affiliation, and author preference. You may select more than one! We will respond and confirm your choice. In the event of overlaps, we will consult before deciding. Entry length will vary, but you can expect to write anywhere from 3,000-10,000 words. For now, we have allocated most authors at 3,000 words to allow for more coverage. If, by the end of April, some writers have not been assigned, we will rethink word-length and inclusion.

 

 

If you commit as a contributor, we will follow up with more specifics, including a sample biographic entry from a previous DLB edition, as well as a contract from Gale.

 

mahalo, ahéhee', thank you for your consideration, Renae Watchman and ku'ualoha ho'omanawanui renae@mcmaster.ca and kuualoha@hawaii.edu