Joseph Bruchac (born October 16, 1942) is an American writer and storyteller based in New York. He writes about Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American lives and folklore. He has published poetry, novels, and short stories. Some of his notable works include the novel Dawn Land (1993) and its sequel, Long River (1995), both of which feature a young Abenaki man before European contact.

Early life and background

Bruchac was raised in Saratoga Springs, New York. He identifies as being of Abenaki, English, and Slovak ancestry. Joseph Bruchac is a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Vermont. His claims, and the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation's claims, to Abenaki identity have been contested by Abenaki First Nations leaders, including by the Odanak First Nation in Quebec.

Education

Bruchac holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Cornell University, a master's degree in literature and creative writing from Syracuse University, and a PhD in comparative literature from the Union Institute & University.

Career

Writing

Bruchac is a writer and storyteller who has published more than 120 books. Much of his work explores Abenaki identity and Native storytelling. He began publishing in 1971 and has collaborated on eight books with his son Jim. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas. Coauthor with Michael J. Caduto of the Keepers of the Earth series, Bruchac's poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from Akwesasne Notes and The American Poetry Review to National Geographic Magazine and Parabola. He has edited a number of anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. As one of the founders of the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, he has helped Native American authors and authors who identify as being of Native descent get their work published. For more than five decades, he has been a part of Native American literary networks in the Northeast and across the continent, advocating for reciprocal relationships that connect writers, archives, and communities. With his late wife, Carol, he founded the Greenfield Review Literary Center and the Greenfield Review Press.

Musician

Bruchac is also a performing storyteller and musician. He plays several instruments, including the hand drum, Native American flute, and the double wooden flute, which produces two notes at the same time. He performs with his sister, Marge Bruchac, and his sons, Jim and Jesse, as part of The Dawnland Singers.

Teacher

Bruchac volunteered as a teacher in Ghana for four years. He subsequently taught writing classes for maximum security prisoners as part of a program run by Skidmore College.

Personal life

Bruchac lives in Porter Corners, a hamlet in the town of Greenfield, New York. Bruchac has studied various martial arts. He has black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and karate and runs martial arts classes.

Works

Awards and honors

In 1996, Bruchac was awarded the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature by the New York Library Association. This recognizes "a New York State author who has demonstrated, through a body of work, a consistently superior quality which supports the curriculum and the educational goals of New York State School". Bruchac's 2004 work, Jim Thorpe's Bright Path, won the Carter G. Woodson Book Award in 2005. Other honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature, and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. He received the annual NWCA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.