Ernestine Hayes

Ernestine Hayes (born 1945 Juneau, Alaska) is a Native American (Tlingit) memoirist.

Life

Ernestine Hayes was raised in Juneau, and from the age of fifteen lived in California. She moved back to Alaska when she was 40 years old, and at the age of 55, she graduated from the University of Alaska Southeast, magna cum laude. In 2003, she graduated from University of Alaska Anchorage as Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts. She currently teaches at University of Alaska Southeast and is associated faculty for the University of Alaska Anchorage low-residence MFA program. Hayes is an active promoter of Native rights and culture, and decolonization. Despite this, she does not speak Tlingit herself. For just over a year, she wrote a column, "Edge of the Village", for the Juneau Empire.

Awards

• 2002 Alaska Native Writer Award Anchorage Daily News Fiction
• 2006 Native America Calling October Book of the Month
• 2007 Kiriyama Prize finalist for Blonde Indian, An Alaska Native Memoir
• 2007 PEN-USA non-fiction award finalist
• 2007 American Book Award.
• 2007 HAIL (Honoring Alaska Indigenous Literature) Award
• 2014 Alaska Literary Award
• 2015 Rasmuson Artist, Djerassi Artist Residency
• 2015 AWARE Woman of Distinction

Reviews

Blonde Indian is the memoir of Tlingit writer and story-teller Ernestine Hayes. Because of Hayes' fair hair, her grandmother sang out to her "Blonde Indian, blonde Indian" as Hayes danced along.

Book Review Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir
Author:Becca Gercken, Studies in American Indian Literature
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/studies_in_american_indian_literatures/v021/21.2.gercken.html
Book Review Observatory Books, Dee Longenbaugh http://www.observatorybooks.com/Blonde_Indian.htm

External links

• "Winter in Lingit Aani Brings Magpies and Ravens"
• "Hayes Wins American Book Award for her Memoir, 'Blonde Indian'"
• "Children's Book Aims to Save Dying Alaska Language"
• [1]