David Treuer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Treuer
|
|
|---|---|
Treuer in 2019
|
|
| Born | 1970 (age 54–55) Washington, D.C., United States |
| Occupation |
|
| Alma mater | Princeton University (BA) University of Michigan (PhD) |
| Parent | Margaret Treuer |
| Relatives | Anton Treuer (brother) |
David Treuer (born in 1970) is an American writer, critic, and university professor. He is known for his books and essays, especially those about Native Americans.
By 2019, he had written seven books. His 2019 book, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, was a finalist for a major award called the National Book Award. Many important publications have praised his work.
David Treuer is also very interested in keeping languages alive. He and his brother, Anton Treuer, are working together to create a grammar guide for the Ojibwe language.
Contents
David Treuer's Early Life and Education
David Treuer was born in Washington, D.C. His mother, Margaret Seelye, was an Ojibwe woman. She first worked as a nurse and later became a lawyer.
His parents met when his father, Robert Treuer, was teaching high school on his mother's reservation. Robert Treuer was an Austrian Jewish person who survived the Holocaust.
When David's family lived in Washington, his father worked for the government. His mother went to law school at Catholic University. Later, they moved back to the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. David and his two brothers and one sister grew up there. Their mother became a judge for the Ojibwe tribal court.
Studying at Princeton University
David Treuer went to Princeton University. He finished his studies in 1992. While there, he wrote two big research papers. One was for the anthropology department, which is the study of human societies and cultures. The other was for the Creative Writing program.
He learned writing from famous authors like Joanna Scott and Paul Muldoon. His main advisor for his writing paper was Toni Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize for literature.
After Princeton, he earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1999.
David Treuer's Teaching Career
David Treuer has taught English at several universities. He taught at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
For one semester, he taught Creative Writing at Scripps College in Claremont, California. In 2010, Treuer became a Professor of Literature at the University of Southern California. There, he teaches in the Creative Writing & Literature Ph.D. program.
David Treuer's Writing Journey
David Treuer has written stories and essays for many well-known magazines and newspapers. These include Esquire, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Atlantic.
His First Novels
He published his first novel, Little, in 1995. This book uses many different narrators and points of view to tell the story.
His second novel, The Hiawatha, came out in 1999. It was named after a famous fleet of trains. The book is also a nod to the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. This novel is about a Native American family who moves to Minneapolis in the mid-1900s. They moved as part of a government program that helped Native Americans relocate to cities.
Later Works and Ideas
In 2006, Treuer published his third novel, The Translation of Dr Apelles. This book is about a Native American professor who translates an unknown language. The character does not fit common ideas about Native American characters. Critics noted that the book explores how fiction can be like a game, full of clever tricks. Treuer used ideas from classic Western stories to connect his novel to mainstream literature.
That same year, Treuer also published a book of essays called Native American Fiction: A User's Manual. This book caused some discussion because he shared strong opinions about the works of other major writers. He argued that "Native American fiction" should be seen as part of all English literature. He felt it should not be treated only as a "cultural artifact" of old Indian cultures.
He believed that some books, even well-meaning ones, showed Native Americans in ways that were too simple or not real. He mentioned authors like Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich. He felt that Native American literature needed to move beyond old stereotypes more quickly.
In 2012, Treuer published Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life. This book mixes his own experiences with reporting about life on reservations. He writes about his personal journey and also looks at issues on other reservations. These issues include government policies and tribal self-governance.
Efforts to Revive the Ojibwe Language
David Treuer is very interested in the Ojibwe language and culture. He is working with his older brother, Anton Treuer, to create a grammar guide. This project aims to help keep the language alive and help more people learn it. His brother has been studying Ojibwe since high school.
Treuer has written that he doesn't think stories written in English by writers whose only language is English are truly "Indian stories." He believes that Native American cultures are at risk if their writers only use English. He argues that tribes need their own languages to keep their cultures strong and alive.
Awards and Recognition
David Treuer has received several important awards for his writing:
- 2014 NACF Literature Fellowship
- Pushcart Prize
- 1996 Minnesota Book Award for his novel Little (1995)
- He has also received an NEH Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
- His novel The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a "Best Book for 2006" by several publications, including The Washington Post and Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Books by David Treuer
- Little: A Novel (1995)
- Native American Fiction: A User's Manual (2006)
- Prudence (2015)
Articles by David Treuer
- "A language too beautiful to lose", Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2008.
- "Return the National Parks to the Tribes", The Atlantic, May 2021.
- "'A Sadness I Can't Carry': The Story Of The Drum", New York Times, October 11, 2021.
- "Portrait of the Coyote as a Young Man", Harper's Magazine, November 2021.
- "Adrift Between My Parents' Two Americas", New York Times, July 18, 2022.
- Yorker.com/magazine/2022/11/14/do-we-have-the-history-of-native-americans-backward-indigenous-continent "Do We Have the History of Native Americans Backward?", New Yorker, November 7, 2022.
See also
