Save the date! Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop returns for its second year. Created in partnership with author and MotCP board member Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), the series of workshops offers citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians access to high-quality writing instruction from the world’s top Indigenous writers at no cost.

Two tracks are offered during Confluence: Christine Day (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe), author of the acclaimed middle-grade novel We Still Belong, leads a track focused on Young Adult Fiction. Calling For A Blanket Dance author Oscar Hokeah (Cherokee Nation, Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma) will instruct participants in the art of Literary Fiction. Each track will foster a welcoming environment for creative expression, discussion, and exchange. Space is limited, and registration is required.

Meet the Workshop Leaders

Christine Day (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe)

Christine Day is a citizen of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. Her first novel, I Can Make This Promise, was a best book of the year from NPR, as well as a Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book, and an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. Her second novel, The Sea in Winter, was a Top 10 Indie Kids’ Next selection, a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. She also wrote She Persisted: Maria Tallchief, a biography in Chelsea Clinton’s book series about inspirational women.

Her most recent book, We Still Belong, was released in the summer of 2023. In this warm hug of a novel, award-winning author Day assures readers that even with all the very real problems they may face, they are worthy, their voices matter—and they belong.

Christine lives with her family in the rainy and resplendent Pacific Northwest.

Oscar Hokeah (Cherokee Nation, Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma)

Oscar Hokeah is a regionalist Native American writer of literary fiction, interested in capturing intertribal, transnational, and multicultural aspects within two tribally specific communities: Tahlequah and Lawton, Oklahoma.  He was raised inside these tribal circles and continues to reside there today. He is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma from his mother (Hokeah and Stopp families), and he has Mexican heritage from his father (Chavez family) who emigrated from Aldama, Chihuahua, Mexico. Oscar’s debut novel was recently longlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

He holds an M.A. in English from the University of Oklahoma, with a concentration in Native American Literature. He also holds a B.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), with a minor in Indigenous Liberal Studies. He is a recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship Award through IAIA, and also a winner of the Native Writer Award through the Taos Summer Writers Conference. Hokeah has written for Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, World Literature Today, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.