Breathing the Monster Alive — Eric Gansworth

Poetry. Native American Studies. BREATHING THE MONSTER ALIVE is a multi-disciplinary meditation on faith, exploring cultural needs for a belief in the unseen, through the idiosyncrasies of the individual eye. The poems, essays, and paintings in this collection embrace the broad figure of Sasquatch/Bigfoot, and in particular, the Fouke Monster, as manifested in the unlikeliest document of faith, a low budget early `70s horror film, The Legend of Boggy Creek. The embrace of faith is wherever you find it, from roots in indigenous belief to the haunting and shrinking wilderness of this continent, and finally, here, to the flickering images across a drive-in movie screen. Eric Gansworth, (Onondaga), was born and raised at the Tuscarora Indian Nation in Western New York. His novels, Indian Summers, Smoke Dancing, Mending Skins, and collection of poetry, Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon, feature paintings as integral parts of their narratives. "Eric Gansworth turns the tables on pop portrayal of something far older in human consciousness. He braves up to face this beast by traveling cross-country to the very site of initial childhood intrigue. Investigating how far humankind will go to prove the elusive, he encounters the larger monsters we invariably face. Listening to loons or more than meager things in the night are welcome curiosities in contrast. Touching on taboo takes guts. Breathing the Monster Alive takes taboo to task"--Allison Hedge Coke.