First published 2022
Eric Gansworth grows up Onondaga among Tuscaroras, watching his siblings cycle through the front door of their home, leaving for school and jobs and returning again. He carries the weight of government boarding schools that tried to strip Native identity from generations before him. The word "Apple" follows him, a slur meaning red on the outside, white on the inside. Eric wants to become an artist, but he must navigate multiple worlds that pull him in different directions. His family's story becomes the story of Native communities everywhere, shaped by policies designed to erase their culture. Through verse, prose, and imagery, Eric transforms the slur that was meant to wound him. He turns it into something that speaks truth about identity, belonging, and survival.
Genres: american-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, native-american
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Onondaga
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
272 pages · Paperback · Lantern Paperbacks