American Studies Faculty and Staff Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1993

Abstract

As Gerald Vizenor explains in the following interview, the act of going away has allowed him to return home richer as an individual and as a writer. Asia has been especially important in this regard: it was in Japan just after the Korean War that Vizenor experienced his first major literary discovery--haiku. Then, over twenty years later, after having published numerous books of poetry (including several books of haiku) and journalism, a year teaching in Tianjin, China resulted in Vizenor 's second novel, Griever: An American Monkey King in China. We talked with Gerald Vizenor in his office at UC-Berkeley in early January 1992, just a few months after the publication of The Heirs of Columbus, a work which, appearing as it did in the face of the quincentennial, announced in no uncertain terms, "I'm not a victim of Columbus." For a mixed-blood Native American, that was quite an assertion. Looking at his own life and that around him, Vizenor continues re-shaping it, joined by the trickster who assists him in remembering "how to turn pain and horror into humor. "

Publisher

The University of Chicago Press

ISSN

0009-3696

Volume

39

Issue

3

First Page

50

Last Page

54

Language (ISO)

English

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