Mountain Heritage Series: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Even As We Breathe

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and resides in Qualla, NC, with her husband, Evan, and sons Ross and Charlie. She holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary.

Her debut novel, Even As We Breathe, was released by the University Press of Kentucky in 2020, a finalist for the Weatherford Award and named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020. In 2021, it received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. Her first novel manuscript, Going to Water, is the winner of the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium (2012) and a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction (2014). Clapsaddle’s work has appeared in Yes! Magazine, Lit Hub, Salvation South, South Writ Large, Our State Magazine, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure Magazine, and The Atlantic.

After serving as executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Annette returned to teaching at Swain County High School for over a dozen years. She is the former co-editor of the Journal of Cherokee Studies, serves on the Board of Directors for the Museum of the Cherokee People, and is the President of the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Writers Network. Clapsaddle established Bird Words, LLC in 2022 and works as an independent contractor and consultant. In 2023, in partnership with the Museum of the Cherokee People, Clapsaddle launched Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series that seeks to bring indigenous writers to the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee, NC) to work with aspiring writers.

Clapsaddle will present her novel Even As We Breathe and discuss her research and the challenges of writing historical fiction.

Event Details
Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library- Meeting Room

Details: Free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Call the library at (828) 743-0215 to reserve your seat. Books will be available to purchase at the event

This event is a collaboration between the Cashiers Historical Society and the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library. It is part of the Cashiers Historical Society’s Mountain Heritage Series and Native American programming.