Joseph Bruchac (born October 16, 1942) is an American writer and storyteller based in New York.
He writes about Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American and Anglo-American lives and folklore. He has published poetry, novels, and short stories. Some of his notable works include the novel Dawn Land (1993) and its sequel, Long River (1995), both of which feature a young Abenaki man before European contact.
Early life and background
Bruchac was raised in Saratoga Springs, New York. He identifies as being of Abenaki, English, and Slovak ancestry. His grandfather, Jesse Bowman, identified as having Abenaki heritage. Joseph Bruchac is a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Vermont. His claims (and the organization's claims) to Abenaki identity have been contested by Abenaki First Nations leaders.
Education
Bruchac holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Cornell University, a master's degree in literature and creative writing from Syracuse, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the Union Institute of Ohio.
Writing
Bruchac is a writer and storyteller, who published more than 120 books. Much of his work explores Abenaki identity and Native storytelling. He began publishing in 1971 and has collaborated on eight books with his son Jim. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.
Coauthor with Michael J. Caduto of the Keepers of the Earth series, Bruchac's poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from Akwesasne Notes and The American Poetry Review to National Geographic Magazine and Parabola. He has edited a number of anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift.
As one of the founders of the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, he has helped Native American authors and authors who identify as being of Native descent get their work published. For more than five decades, he has been a part of Native American literary networks in the Northeast and across the continent, advocating for reciprocal relationships that connect writers, archives, and communities.
Personal life
Bruchac lives in Porter Corners, a hamlet in the town of Greenfield, New York. Bruchac is also a performing storyteller and musician. He plays several instruments, including the hand drum, Native American flute, and the double wooden flute, which produces two notes at the same time. He performs with his sister, Marge Bruchac, and his sons, Jim and Jesse, as part of The Dawnland Singers.
Bruchac volunteered as a teacher in Ghana for four years. For eight years, he directed a Skidmore College college program for inside a maximum security prison. With his late wife, Carol, he founded the Greenfield Review Literary Center and the Greenfield Review Press.
Bruchac was a varsity heavyweight wrestler at Cornell University. For more than three decades, he has also been a devoted student of the martial arts. He has studied various forms of T'ai chi, capoeira, kung fu wushu, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with numerous teachers.
His novel March Toward the Thunder features Native American men who enlisted in the American Civil War; it is based on the experiences of his great-grandfather, Louis Bowman. Joseph Bruchac has also written Code talker: A Book About the Navajo Marines.