Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, resides in Qualla, NC. She holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her debut novel, Even As We Breathe (UPK 2020), was a finalist for the Weatherford Award, named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, and received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award (2021). Clapsaddle’s work appears in Yes! Magazine, Lit Hub, Our State Magazine and The Atlantic. She teaches secondary English and Cherokee Studies, is an editor for the Appalachian Futures Series (UPK), and serves on the board of trustees for the North Carolina Writers Network.
Even As We Breathe, University of Kentucky Press, examines race and class in the secluded microcosm of Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, during the summer of 1942. Clapsaddle tackles the complexities of race relations, familial identity, and citizenship for Cherokees and draws comparisons between rural Cherokees, rural whites (soldiers and civilians), and upper-class foreign diplomats.
“A fresh, welcome, and much needed addition to the fiction of the Appalachian South and its neglected people and places.”
—Charles Frazier, New York Times
bestselling author of Cold Mountain