Ernestine Hayes

Creative Writing and Literary Arts

Nonfiction

 afeh@uaa.alaska.edu

Ernestine Hayes is a member of the Wolf House of the Kaagwaantaan Clan of the Lingit. Her book, Blonde Indian, an Alaska Native Memoir, won a 2007 American book Award, was a HAIL (Honoring Alaska Indigenous Literature) recipient, and was a finalist for the 2007 Kiriyama Prize and the 2007 PEN Creative Non-Fiction Award. She is the author of other published work in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Ernestine moderated and presented "Tlingit Literature" at the 2009 Tlingit Clan Conference. She presented "The Negotiation of Identity in Alaska Native Transitional Generations (Oral History in Written Work) at the American Anthropological Association Annual Conference November (Fall 2008). She was also a featured writer for University of Alaska Southeast's Journal, Tidal Echoes, where her poetry, nonfiction, and fiction appeared. Short Short was included in BellaOnline Literary Review "Eighteen Messages" (Fall 2008). Professor Hayes delivered a lecture, "What Shall We Do with Our Histories?" at the International Polar Year, Nome, Alaska (Spring 2009). Grandmother of four, she currently teaches at the University of Alaska Southeast Juneau campus.

The Story of the Town Bear & The Forest Bear, 2011

A uniquely Alaskan work, The Story of the Town Bear and the Forest Bear tells a timeless tale of the dangers of giving up something we love for the promise of an easy life.

Aanka Xoodzi ka Aasgutu Xoodzi Shkalneegi, 2011

Told in the Tlingit language. A uniquely Alaskan work, The Story of the Town Bear and the Forest Bear tells a timeless tale of the dangers of giving up something we love for the promise of an easy life.

Blonde Indian, 2006

Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women—many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty.