Thomas King: Canada's Celebrated Author Shares Inspiration
By Natasha Netschay Davies

One of the biggest obstacles for Native writers is that North Americans have grown up on a particular kind of Indian in literature, according to King.

"You never know how big a market there's going to be in non-native North America for novels about Indians, especially if you're trying to do something different than the old cowboy and Indian routine or the historical western stuff," says King.

"There are many non-natives who have written about Indians, so you have this backdrop against which you have to write. If you move away from that backdrop, as a lot of native writers try to do, than it puts you on the fringe because people aren't used to seeing Indians in those roles; they're not used to seeing some of narrative strategies."

King notes that the stereotypical Indian gets repeated over and over again in different ways and varieties.

"Basically you still see that cliché Indian character pop up in books. You would think by now, non-natives or natives would be able to get around that but those images are pretty well burned into our minds," says King, citing the stoic, innocent, loner type; or the savage Indian type.

"It's disheartening in this day and age to have it repeated," says King. "The fact of the matter is publishing houses are only going to publish so many books a year by native writers that deal with native issues."

For aspiring writers seeking an audience, King suggests contacting native publishing houses that "look kindly" at their work. Another option is to solicit literary journals, native and non-native.

"Of course the other thing that may happen are native writers doing non-native material, and that's legitimate. Just because a person is native doesn't mean they have to write about native issues," says King.

"It's a slow process. Don't wait until 40 like I did," advises King, with a soft chuckle...