Writing With a Broken Tusk
Writing With a Broken Tusk began in 2006 as a blog about overlapping geographies, personal and real-world, and writing books for children. The blog name refers to the mythical pact made between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the Mahabharata. It also refers to my second published book, edited by the generous and brilliant Diantha Thorpe of Linnet Books/The Shoe String Press, published in 1996, acquired and republished by August House and still miraculously in print.
Unpacking the Notion of Genius
I suppose if you live long enough the world as you know it begins to settle itself into a pattern in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle. Truth is, I was never very good at those, but every now and then I get the feeling that I can see something I couldn’t before, that maybe I’ve gained a glimmer of understanding of what was previously incomprehensible. A recent post by political rhetoric scholar Ryan Skinnell came my way via the JSTOR daily, offering one of those clarifying moments. It was about the myth of the universal genius. Not just a myth, but a destructive one.
We Have Been Taught…
This July 4th seems as good a day as any other to reflect upon the nature of history—whose it is and who’s depicted in it? Who tells the story and why?
Waiting 187 Years for Representation
Over the years, I’ve come across these children’s books by writers from the Cherokee Nation:
Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Story by Andrea L. Rogers
The Reluctant Storyteller by Art Coulson with Traci Sorell
And of course Traci Sorell’s many lovely books.
I thought of these writers and their books and of stories yet to be written when I spotted this article from National Geographic, a publication that now seems committed at last to making up for its own many past wrongs.
Guam, Past and Present
With Earth Day appoaching, on my reading list is The Properties of Perpetual Light, a new book by Julian Aguon, founder of Blue Ocean Law, an international law firm based in Guam, specializing in human and indigenous rights, self-determination, and environmental justice in the Pacific. The book addresses the history of colonization and militarization of Guam — and how Indigenous people have resisted U.S. influence.
India and Black America
India and Black America have often been on intersecting paths, paths that have largely been ignored in the national discourses of both countries.