Wednesday, November 30, 2005
John Rustywire of Dinetah
I want to write a few words about a writer I really admire. His name is John Rustywire and he is a Navajo. He writes what might be called Fictionalized Reality about his country and his people.
Rustywire isn’t a polished writer, but he produces story after story after story. Vignettes about life in Dinehtah. He’s about as far from the fancy stories of Tony Hillerman as he can be, even though they probably live within a few hundred miles of each other. For one thing, most of Rustywire’s stories are quite short: a few hundred words. But they convey the essence of life in that hard beautiful country and among those who inhabit it.
For my money (which isn’t much) John Rustywire is one of the three or five or six best writers in the language today. Go to www.Rustywire.com and find out that one I’m saying is true.
Rustywire isn’t a polished writer, but he produces story after story after story. Vignettes about life in Dinehtah. He’s about as far from the fancy stories of Tony Hillerman as he can be, even though they probably live within a few hundred miles of each other. For one thing, most of Rustywire’s stories are quite short: a few hundred words. But they convey the essence of life in that hard beautiful country and among those who inhabit it.
For my money (which isn’t much) John Rustywire is one of the three or five or six best writers in the language today. Go to www.Rustywire.com and find out that one I’m saying is true.
