Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. Photo by Arizona State University Department of Archives and Special Collections
Local Native authors featured at festival
By Brandon Ecoffey
LCT editor RAPID CITY—Local students and books lovers will be presented with a unique opportunity to hear from two talented local Native authors at this year’s South Dakota Festival of Books. In its thirteenth year, the South Dakota Festival of Book will feature the works of prominent scholar Elizabeth Cook-Lynn as well as the work of independent Lakota author Dana Lone Elk. Cook-Lynn, an enrolled citizen of the Crow Creek Sioux Nation, is widely considered to be one the more prominent Native American academics and a long outspoken voice on issues pertaining to tribal sovereignty and nationhood. At the festival her latest work, a novella titled, That Guy Wolf Dancing
, will be featured alongside others.
Also at this year’s festival Dana Lone Elk will have her book, Pointing With Lips: A Week in The Life of a Rez Chick
, featured by the festival. She says that the invite will give her an opportunity to be inspired by other writers.
Dana Lone Elk
“What I want to get put of the book festival is inspiration. I'm not a traditional author with a publishing house behind me, so I'm stoked to be invited and apart of it with so many great authors,” said Lone Elk. “Plus, I'm going to sneak away and study the history of Deadwood as much as possible. I can not wait to see the structures and streets that historical characters such as Bullock, Hickok, Utter, Swearengen and Calamity Jane once inhabited.” The book is Lone Elk’s first novel but she has been a contributor to The Guardian, Lakota Country Times, and LastRealIndians.com in the past. Lone Elk who is an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Nation from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation but now living in Minnesota released Pointing with Lips in 2014 to critical acclaim says that a sequel is in the works. “My sequel will for sure be out before Christmas. The name of it is Sincere and it will go faster once the editing and revising process goes faster,” said Lone Elk. (Contact Brandon Ecoffey at editor@lakotacountrytimes.com) Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.
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