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Triumphing Over Rejection To Break Through As A Native Writer: Meet Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle spent years writing her first novel, and it garnered critical acclaim: she won an award and became a finalist for another. Yet she could not find an agent to publish it. So, she started again, this time with the support of the Great Smokies Writing Program. 

Host Frank Stasio talks to author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle about her new novel, her upbringing in Western North Carolina and her career as a teacher at Swain County High School.

The cover of Clapsaddle's debut novel.
Credit Courtesy of The University Press of Kentucky
The cover of Clapsaddle's debut novel.

Her second novel, “Even As We Breathe” (The University Press of Kentucky/2020), comes out next month and makes Clapsaddle the first published author of a novel who is an enrolled member in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. In her work, Clapsaddle examines Native American stereotypes and a fluid relationship with identity, both issues she has confronted in her own life as she moved through predominantly white spaces like Yale University and the College of William & Mary.

Host Frank Stasio talks to Clapsaddle about her upbringing in the Cherokee community, her new novel and her experiences in the classroom as a high school teacher in Swain County. Clapsaddle will host three upcoming book talk events: a virtual launch at Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville on Sept. 8; a socially-distanced in-person reading at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Sept. 10; and a virtual event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Sept. 16.  

Interview Highlights

On the difficulty of finding an agent for her first novel:

It's difficult to find the right fit, I think, [and] for someone who understands the community that you're talking about when there's no other literature to compare it to. There’s certainly other Native novelists out there. But every reservation, every tribal community is very different. So, you know, you may have agents who see a Native author, and they're expecting Sherman Alexie or Louise Erdrich or someone that has been more in popular culture, and that's not this community. It's very different. ... There's a kind of an education process, and you've got to sell literature.

On her grandmother’s role in the community:

She was not a passive woman. ... Seeing the recognition of that as accepted in our community verified for me that I could also be a strong woman [and] that some traditional gender roles that we think about in Western culture don't quite hold in Cherokee culture.

On the bonds she shared with Native students from around the country at the Association of Native Americans at Yale:

There are certain things that most Native communities have in common, like a shared sense of humor — it's kind of hard to categorize. An understanding of what family means. And then just a different perspective on being an American citizen and having ancestors who were on this land long before there was an America. I think that just kind of shines through regardless of what Native community you come from.

On why she is teaching at a public high school:

I had a professor at Yale who was in charge of the teacher prep program who told me that the best use of a Yale education — or a quality education in general — was to share it. And teaching public high school is the best place to share an education. It's access to everyone. And I just enjoy that. I enjoy learning with students. I enjoy being around my colleagues who are the hardest workers I have ever been around.

On the support she received from other rural Appalachian writers:

There's a lot of crossover between the Cherokee community and Appalachian culture in general. … When I became more a part of that Appalachian Writers’ Workshop, I was exposed to many different writers across the region who've been grappling with how to explain what it's like to really live here and not be a stereotype.

Clapsaddle as a young girl with her mother.
Courtesy of Annette Clapsaddle /
Clapsaddle as a young girl with her mother.
A high school photo of Clapsaddle, who was an avid basketball player.
Courtesy of Annette Clapsaddle /
A high school photo of Clapsaddle, who was an avid basketball player.
Clapsaddle and her friend Andy Lunne were named 'Best All Around' in their high school yearbook.
Courtesy of Annette Clapsaddle /
Clapsaddle and her friend Andy Lunne were named 'Best All Around' in their high school yearbook.

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Amanda Magnus grew up in Maryland and went to high school in Baltimore. She became interested in radio after an elective course in the NYU journalism department. She got her start at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, but she knew public radio was for her when she interned at WNYC. She later moved to Madison, where she worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for six years. In her time there, she helped create an afternoon drive news magazine show, called Central Time. She also produced several series, including one on Native American life in Wisconsin. She spends her free time running, hiking, and roller skating. She also loves scary movies.