Christopher Teuton, a historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, won a 2013 American Book Award for Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club (UNC Press, 2012). The book was co-written with Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess and Woody Hansen.
Teuton, a member of the Cherokee nation, is an associate professor of American studies, teaching indigenous textual and cultural studies within the American Indian studies curriculum. The American Book Award is granted annually by the Before Columbus Foundation to books judged to have made outstanding contributions to American literature.
Teuton’s book offers an intimate look at Western Cherokee life, beliefs and the art of storytelling through 40 interwoven stories, conversations and teachings. This is the first collection of traditional and contemporary Western Cherokee stories published in more than 40 years.
