The multi-award-winning children’s book “Fry Bread” uses powerful verse to tell an evocative story of family, history, culture and traditions.
In the Round, the region’s premier speaker series featuring Native American and Indigenous creatives, returns to Bowling Green State University, featuring a lecture and joint activity with the Wood County District Public Library.
On March 24 at 5:30 p.m., In the Round welcomes Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal, author and illustrator of “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story” for a free public lecture in Olscamp Hall Room 101. Parking is available in Lot N.
Noble Maillard and Martinez-Neal also will speak in the atrium of the Wood County District Public Library, 251 N. Main St., March 25 at 10 a.m.
The multi-award-winning children’s book “Fry Bread” uses powerful verse to tell an evocative story of family, history, culture and traditions. The picture book depicts an intergenerational group of Native American family members and friends as they come together to make fry bread. On the surface a simple food requiring minimal ingredients to create the fried dough, frybread has a complex history involving both pain and perseverance and is seen by some Indigenous peoples as a symbol of Native unity and pride.
Noble Maillard is a professor and journalist who lives with his family on the 13th floor of a 115-year-old bank in the heart of Manhattan. He is a regular writer for the New York Times and has interviewed politicians, writers, tribal leaders and movie stars. His debut children’s book, “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story,” won the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal and was a 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner. Originally from Oklahoma, he is a member of the Seminole Nation, Mekusukey band.
Martinez-Neal is the recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for “Alma and How She Got Her Name” (Candlewick Press), her debut picture book as author-illustrator. She is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and recipient of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal for “Fry Bread: A Native American Story” (Roaring Brook) and the 2018 Pura Belpré Medal for Illustration for “La Princesa and the Pea” (Putnam). Martinez-Neal was named to the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honor list in 2014 and was awarded the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase Grand Prize in 2012. She was born in Lima, Peru, and lives in Connecticut with her husband, three children and two dogs.
In the Round, a speaker series featuring Native American and Indigenous creatives seeks to render visible to the BGSU and local communities the artistry, activism and presence of contemporary Native American and Indigenous artists. This series is an extension of the BGSU Land Acknowledgment, which provides a foundation upon which the University can build purposeful and sustained practices that seek to decolonize the institution.
This fall, In the Round will welcome filmmaker, photographer, graphic designer and WGA screenwriter Ryan RedCorn to campus for a free lecture on Sept. 8 at 5:30 p.m. RedCorn currently is a writer on the award-winning FX series, “Reservation Dogs,” which is a Hollywood rarity with its all-Indigenous writer’s room, crew and regular cast members.
