NEWS FROM ANNA
FISSURE: A LIFE BETWEEN CULTURES
My serialized essay collection, Fissure: A Life Between Cultures, launched with its first installment on Monday, January 8, 2024 on this website. Fissure is a memoir in twelve essays, five of which have been published in literary journals, one in an anthology. One of the essays, "Naturalization," was notable in Best American Essays 2014. Serialization starts with the Author's Note
The collection explores my lived experience of bicultural belonging and identity, the role of language in identity, the effects of colonization in post-colonial Dinétah (Navajo Country), and more. Stories and reflection look into my settler heritage as the child of evangelical missionaries in the Navajo Nation, continuing through my later work in Diné bilingual-bicultural education, probing how colonization has been part of systemic racism in the US and the debt I may owe to the Indigenous culture that continues to play a part in my life.
Segments post on Mondays and Fridays under the "Fissure" tab in the Menu. There is a Table of Contents tab to help you keep the entries in order in case you miss any or to get you started if you join late. There will always be brief (a sentence or two) newsletter notification of each new installment if you subscribe.
FISSURE: CHAPTER VI, INSTALLMENT 1
The first installment of "Naturalization," Chapter VI in Fissure: A Life Between Cultures has posted to my website. It is the second essay in Part II with its focus on a search for identity, which has continued into my adulthood. It tells about how an interracial partnership left an imprint on my interactions with my Black college students. You can read, comment, and share at https://www.annaredsand.com/blog/posts/44187