An Afternoon with Author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Adult – Meet Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who resides in Qualla, NC. Clapsaddle authored the popular novel Even As We Breathe which 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.  

Even As We Breathe is about nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah who yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville’s luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. When the daughter of one of the residents goes missing, Cowney finds himself accused of abduction and murder.

Clapsaddle’s work has appeared in Yes! Magazine, Lit Hub, Smoky Mountain Living Magazine, South Writ Large 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 and serves on the board of trustees for the North Carolina Writers Network. Clapsaddle created Bird Words, LLC in 2022 and works as an independent contractor and consultant. Registration required.