English professor Sandra Muse IsaacsEnglish professor Sandra Muse Isaacs is one of six finalists for the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Prize.

Prof’s book a finalist for literary prize

A 2019 book by English professor and alumna Sandra Muse Isaacs (BA 2000, MA 2002), entitled Eastern Cherokee Stories: A Living Oral Tradition and its Cultural Continuance, has been chosen as one of six finalists for the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Prize. The award is presented by the Western North Carolina Historical Association and was first awarded 65 years ago.

Dr. Muse Isaac’s book is the first published by Oklahoma University Press to focus on the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.

“This is truly an honour to be named as a finalist,” says Muse Isaacs. “But the biggest honour in writing this book on Cherokee oral tradition is working with our storytellers and learning more about my own culture, as a diasporic Giduwah woman.”

A gifted storyteller in her own right, in the Winter 2021 semester Muse Isaacs will be teaching a graduate seminar on Indigenous oral tradition. She will also teach a third-year Indigenous literature course called “Humour as Healing.”

The winner of Thomas Wolfe Literary Prize will be announced Dec. 16 during a virtual ceremony.

—Susan McKee