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Janet Campbell Hale

ジャネット・キャンベル・ヘール

Janet Campbell Hale

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1946-01-11 （Riverside, California, U.S.）
Died
2021-11-23 （Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, U.S.） age 75
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Coeur d'Alene reservation, Idaho → Riverside, California (birth) → Wapato, Washington (high school) → Santa Fe, New Mexico (Institute of American Indian Arts) → Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (later residence)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Professor
Active Years
1963-2021
Influenced By
Ernest Hemingway
Nominations
1985 Pulitzer Prize nomination (The Jailing of Cecelia Capture)

Education

Institute of American Indian Arts
Country: United States
Wapato High School
Country: United States

Awards

Vincent Price Poetry Competition
1963
Result: 受賞
New York Poetry Day award
1964
Result: 受賞
Pulitzer Prize (nominated)
1985
Work: The Jailing of Cecelia Capture
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: ノミネート

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Owl's Song

1974 Young adult novel

Tells the story of fourteen-year-old Billy White Hawk who leaves an Idaho reservation to live with his sister in California, confronting prejudice, family alcoholism, and finding support from an art teacher and a tribal elder who speaks of the owl's song as despair.

PrejudiceFamilyLoss

The Jailing of Cecelia Capture

1983 Novel

Centers on Cecelia Capture and explores the theme of 'capture' both literal and figurative, addressing cultural oppression, personal struggle, escape, and transformation.

CaptureIdentityWomen's experience

Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter

1993 Essays / Cultural criticism

Collection of essays discussing Native American experience, personal and family stories, poverty, abuse, and the condition of women, offering perspectives that invert common white narratives about Native peoples.

Native experienceCultural memoryWomen and society

Custer Lives in Humboldt County & Other Poems

1978 Poetry

Poems that question history, colonialism, and present Native perspectives in poetic form.

HistoryColonialismNative perspectives

Women on the Run

1999 Short stories / Fiction

Contains stories focusing on women, escape, and personal transformation.

WomenEscapeTransformation

Bibliography

  • The Owl's Song (1974)
  • Custer Lives in Humboldt County & Other Poems (1978)
  • The Jailing of Cecelia Capture (1983)
  • Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter (1993)
  • Women on the Run (1999)
  • Other poems, short stories, and contributions

Translations of Works

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Sparse, restrained proseDirect, minimalist expression
Recurring Motifs
Theme of captureIdentity and belongingPoverty and abuseWomen's perspectives

Health

  • COVID-19 (complications)
    2021
    Died in 2021 from complications associated with COVID-19.

Legacy

An important voice in Native American literature who portrayed Native experience, women's perspectives, poverty, and cultural oppression in a concise style. Her works are referenced in academia and education and have influenced later Native writers.

Archives

  • Library of Congress (catalog records)

In Popular Culture

  • Works sometimes adopted in university courses on Native American and American literature

Quotes

  • "There is little left of what once was. The time is coming when even this will be gone, taken away. And we will be no more. The time is coming when the owl's song will be for our race."
    Source: The Owl's Song (elder's speech) (1974)

Trivia

  • Won the Vincent Price Poetry Competition in 1963.
  • Known for The Owl's Song (1974) and the essay collection Bloodlines (1993).
  • The Jailing of Cecelia Capture was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1985.