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. Since March 2024, Jen Breach (writer, VCFA graduate, and former student) has helped me curate and manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog.
The blog name refers to the mythical pact between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the epic narrative, 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, now part of Reading Is Fundamental, and still miraculously in print.
Posts on this site reflect personal opinion and commentary protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Guest Post: Kirk Van Brunt on Fight Song
Fight Song is the story of a girl with voice and spunk.
“My name is Nokes Lasley. Nokes is short for Nópika, a name no one called me—its pronunciation isn't obvious, and it doesn't rhyme with any insulting words. Also, I didn't tell people my real name. Dad once told me Nópika was the name of a famous woman warrior who fought alongside the men of her tribe.”
Nokes is tall—six-foot-two, at the age of fifteen, on account of “a pituitary gland thing.” She describes her mother as “a mix of Native American and First Nations descent, but she died when I was five. Dad, on the other hand, was about as white as the driven snow and he wanted me to be too, so he made sure I had nothing to do with Mom's side of the family.”
Nokes plays hockey and she’s all set to be a superstar when her life is upended by her father’s arrest for murder. Escaping from a series of unbearable homes she’s placed in through the foster care system in Ontario, she crosses the border and manages to make her way to Minnesota. Starving and in stinking clothes, she’s in search of a friend of her dad’s who’s always sent her birthday cards. There’s optimism for you, and youthful determination, and a kind of fiery humour that flares up when she needs it most. And the girl can lie, which is what she decides to do. Height and skills on her side, she’s set to play hockey and build a new life. Only the past won’t leave her alone. It’s a coming-of-age story that refuses to look away from difficult issues, while playing out against the thrill and intensity of life on the ice.
I invited Kirk Van Brunt to write about the making of this book. I am an impulsive, disorganized, messy writer. I feel my way through drafts and sometimes I give up too soon. Kirk’s essay warmed my writing heart.
Guest Post: Michael Thompson on The New Othering of Amerika
In all the conversations I’ve heard about the present events playing out in the United States — A constitutional crisis? An autocoup?A hijacking of executive powers? — one set of voices has seemed conspicuously absent: those of Native American people. So when I heard that my Writing Project friend and colleague in New Mexico, Michael Thompson, was interested in disseminating a piece he felt compelled to write, I invited him to post it here on Writing With a Broken Tusk. Welcome, Michael.
Process Talk with Jen: Kim Rogers on I Am Osage
[Posted by Jen Breach for Writing With a Broken Tusk]
Kim Rogers (Wichita and Affiliated Tribes) comes from a military family. Many of her family members served at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, named for Clarence Tinker, the first Native American Major General in the US Military, and the subject of Kim’s recent picture book biography I Am Osage.
Finding Clarence’s story was a surprise to Kim–she stumbled across a record of him in the Oklahoma Historical Society while researching something else entirely–and the process of writing the biography was likewise unexpected.
On Canada Day and July 4th
In acknowledgment of both Canada Day (July 1) and American Independence Day (July 4), this post addresses nations whose forebears were here on this land before either Canada or the United States:
[Posted by Jen Breach for Writing With a Broken Tusk]
In June 1942, Major General Clarence Tinker’s plane was downed in the Battle of Midway, and he was lost in the ocean. He had been a career soldier, a decorated aviator, and the highest ranking Native American officer in the US armed services.