Geri Gutwein

Geri Mendoza Gutwein, Ph.D., (Lakota, Mexican-American)

professor emerita of English at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College taught English, creative writing, and Native American Literature there for many years. While at HACC, she was the director of the Wildwood Writers’ Festival. A National Endowment for the Humanities Teaching Development Fellowship recipient, her work focused on the integration of Native American literature, music, and art. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared in the Connecticut Review, Fledgling Rag, and other journals. She is the author of three chapbooks of poetry: Every Orbit of the Circle, The Story She Told, and an An Utterance of Small Truths. She is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She lives in the sacred Black Hills in Spearfish, South Dakota.

I grew up in a family of storytellers, which I believe played a significant role in my love of a good story and my love of language. In a tribute prose poem to my maternal grandmother I wrote, “Her hands and arms floated as she conducted her way through a story. Netted hair escaped in strands and wisped above her. I watched her wrinkles curl and stretch their way around words and smiles.” If it hadn’t been for my grandmother’s stories about her life and the lives of her mother and children, I would have never learned my family history. My mother was a wonderful storyteller in her own right. My brothers, sisters, and I loved her stories. She described her experiences in mission boarding school and summers along the Moreau River in vivid detail. We learned about her sister who died of tuberculosis contracted at the mission school through my mother’s stories. Her stories were sad, joyous, and sometimes spooky (we loved the spooky ones).

I know that becoming a poet was informed by the rich language environment created by my grandmother, mother, and other storytellers in my family. My poetry is a reflection of the influence they had on me. They made me realize the importance of story to inform my sense of self. For that I am forever grateful.