A version of this piece first appeared on the First Peoples blog. From the introduction by Natasha Varner: “First Peoples editors and authors participated in a publishing roundtable at the fifth annual meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, which convened last week in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. First Peoples author Rose Stremlau sat on the panel and spoke about her experience with the dissertation revision process. Stremlau–whose book, Sustaining the Cherokee Family: Kinship and the Allotment of an Indigenous Nation, was published by UNC Press in 2011–spoke candidly about some of the challenges of the revision process and the necessity of trusting your editor and peer reviewers. She also asserted that engagement with Indigenous research communities should shift from the current paradigm of ‘bringing research back’ to the community to one of continual engagement throughout the entire research and revision process. Stremlau’s comments were so thought-provoking and helpful for the audience at NAISA that we decided to reproduce them in full here.”
I wrote these comments for the first-timers, the authors working on their first manuscript. I am open about my struggles as a writer because it was the honesty of other authors – some in person, others in print – that helped me to understand that writing a book is one of those life experiences that can make or break you. We all know scholars for whom the creative process is traumatic and, therefore, they are not productive and, generally, are unpleasant to be around. I refuse to be one of them.
Recent Comments