Buffalo, NY-
English and Creative Writing Professor Eric Gansworth is known for tackling racial stereotypes in his published fiction and poetry. The trend continues in his newest book, Apple: Skin to the Core, which was recently nominated for The New Yorker’s 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
In Apple, Gansworth reflects on his life growing up in an Onondaga family but living among the Tuscaroras and Native people in the U.S. He shares personal stories about the damaging effects of government boarding schools; of a boy who watched his siblings leave and return only to leave again; and of a young man fighting to be an artist in multiple worlds.
In sharing his journey, Gansworth addresses deeply offensive racial stereotypes including “apple,” a slur common in Native communities, which means “red on the outside and white on the inside.”
Apple: Skin to the Core is Gansworth’s 12th book and third young adult novel.
