BUFFALO, NEW YORK – Canisius University Professor Eric Gansworth will mark the release of his newest novel, My Good Man, with a book reading, signing, and reception on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Grupp Fireside Lounge, located on the second floor of the Richard E. Winter ’42 Student Center. The event is free and open to the public, and the book will be available for purchase at that time.
My Good Man is a coming-of-age story about a young indigenous man, tackling issues of race, class and masculinity. Brian is a 20-something reporter who, as the only Indigenous writer in a small city newsroom, is assigned to stereotypical stories that homogenize the Tuscarora reservation community. But when a mysterious roadside assault lands a family friend in the hospital, Brian must revisit the complex life on the reservation where he was raised. The resulting narrative takes readers through Brian’s childhood and ‘slice of life’ stories on the reservation. More profound is how the book chronicles Brian’s attempt to balance himself between Haudenosaunee and American life, between the version of his story that would prize the individual over all else and the version of Brian that depends on the entire community’s survival.
My Good Man is Eric Gansworth’s fourth book for young people. It is preceded by Apple: Skin to the Core, an award-winning memoir in poems that reflects on Gansworth’s life growing up in an Onondaga family living among the Tuscaroras, and the history of Native peoples in the U.S.
Gansworth will also read from this book during November 3 event.
In Apple: Skin to the Core, Gansworth 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.”
The American Library Association selected Apple: Skin to the Core for its Michael L. Printz Honor in Young Adult Literature, and the National Book Foundation named Apple to its National Book Award Longlist for Young People’s Literature. Time Magazine selected it as one of the 10 Best YA and Children’s Books of 2020. The American Indian Library Association also chose it as the winner of its Youth Literature Award.
A professor of English at Canisius, Gansworth is the author of 12 previous books, including Extra Indians (American Book Award, New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Book of the Year), Mending Skins, (PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award), and A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function, which appeared on the National Book Critics Circle’s “Good Reads” list in 2008.
An enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation, Gansworth was born and raised on the Tuscarora Reservation in Niagara County, NY.
For more information on the book reading, signing, and reception, contact the Canisius University Office of Communications at (716) 888-2790.
Canisius University is one of 27 Catholic, Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.
