Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Dakota, born 1961) is a Native American author based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her debut novel, The Grass Dancer (1994), received the 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.
Mona Susan Power | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1961 (age 64–65) Chicago, Illinois, United States[1] |
| Pen name | Mona Susan Power |
| Occupation | Author |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA[citation needed]), Harvard Law School (JD),[2] Iowa Writer's Workshop (MFA)[2] |
| Notable works | The Grass Dancer[3] |
| Notable awards | PEN/Hemingway Award (1995)[3] US Artists Fellowship[3] |
| Relatives | Susan Kelly Power (mother)[4] |
| Website | |
| monasusanpower | |
Early life
editPower was born in Chicago, Illinois,[3] and is a Yantonai Dakota enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota.[4][5] Her mother, Susan Kelly Power, Gathering of Stormclouds Woman (Standing Rock Dakota, 1925–2022), was an activist who helped found the American Indian Center of Chicago.[4] Mona's grandmother, Josephine Gates Kelly, was three-term tribal chairperson for the Stand Rock Sioux Tribe.[4] Mona's great-grandmother was bead artist Nellie Two Bear Gates.[6] She is a descendant of Sioux Chief Mato Nupa (Two Bears).[7]
Power's father, Carleton Gilmore Power, a European-American from New England, worked in publishing as a salesman. One of his great-great-grandfathers was Governor of New Hampshire.[7]
Education
editPower earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School.[8][9]
In 1992 she received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[2]
Career
editPower's 1994 debut novel, The Grass Dancer, follows four generations of Native Americans, with the plot stretching from 1864 to 1986. She released the collection Roofwalker in 2002 and the novel Sacred Wilderness in 2014. Power's novel A Council of Dolls was released in 2023. The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction.[10][11]
Her short fiction has been published in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Voice Literary Supplement, Ploughshares,[12] Story, and The Best American Short Stories 1993.
She is a professor emeritus at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[13]
Honors and awards
editThe Grass Dancer won the 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.[3]
Powers won a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006.[3][14]
In 2024, A Council of Dolls won a Minnesota Book Award in the Novel & Short Story category.[15]
Bibliography
editBooks
edit- The Grass Dancer, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1994.
- Strong Heart Society, Penguin Books, 1998.
- Roofwalker, Milkweed Editions, 2002.
- Sacred Wilderness, Michigan State University Press, 2014.
- A Council of Dolls, Mariner Books, 2023.
Short stories
edit- “Dead Owls” in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023)[16]
References
edit- ↑ "Mona Susan Power". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- 1 2 3 Moseley, Caroline (1997-03-10). "Grass Dancer evokes past, present". Princeton Weekly Bulletin. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Mona Susan Power". The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 Rickert, Levi (3 November 2022). "Chicago Native American Community Loses Susan Kelly at 97". Native News Online. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
- ↑ "Susan Power". Milkweed Editions. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
- ↑ Ahlberg Yohe, Jill; Greeves, Teri; Power, Susan (2019). "Nellie Two Bears Gates: Chronicling History through Beadwork". Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Art.
- 1 2 Carlson, Mara; Dedinsky, Angi; Duesterhoeft, Jolyn; Oslos, Shari (2004). "Susan Power". Voices from the Gaps. University of Minnesota.
- ↑ Reed, Rachel (2024-09-30). "'I'm All About Hope'". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- ↑ Singh, Rachna. "Interview: Mona Susan Power". The Wise Owl. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- ↑ Nguyen, Sophia (September 15, 2023). "All the books longlisted for the National Book Awards this year". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ↑ "The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction". The New Yorker. September 15, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ↑ "Mona Susan Power". Ploughshares. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- ↑ "MN Writers Series: A Council Of Dolls". East Side Area Business Association. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- ↑ "Susan Power". United States Artists. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
- ↑ Erickson, Joey (2024-05-09). "Minnesota Book Awards 2024 Winners Announced". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Retrieved 2026-03-28.
- ↑ "Never Whistle at Night: 9780593468463". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
Further reading
edit- Shapiro, Dani (1994-08-08). "Spirit in the Sky: Talking With Susan Power". People Weekly. Vol. 42, no. 6. pp. 21–22.
- Wright, Neil H. (1995). "Visitors from the Spirit Path: Tribal Magic in Susan Power's The Grass Dancer". Kentucky Philological Review. 10: 39–43.
- Gleichert-Bothner, Amy (1996). Changeable Parts: History and Contemporary American Women Writers (Thesis). Pittsburgh University.
- Kratzert, Mona; Richey, Debora (1998-03-01). "Native American literature: expanding the canon". Collection Building. 17 (1): 4–15. doi:10.1108/01604959810368947. ISSN 0160-4953.
- Walter, Roland (1999). "Pan-American (Re) Visions: Magical Realism and Amerindian Cultures in Susan Power's 'The Grass Dancer,' Gioconda Belli's 'La Mujer Habitada,' Linda Hogan's 'Power,' and Mario Vargas Llosa's 'El Hablador'". American Studies International. 37 (3): 63–80.
External links
edit- Susan Power at the Native American Writers Project
- Susan Power in Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota