Dr. ISAAC J. EMrick
Isaac lives in Oakland, California with his wife and an unseemly library of books, art supplies and percussion equipment. He was born into a military family and moved a few times before starting school in Maryland. He hoped to emigrate to Australia after High school but instead started university much closer to home in the mountains of West Virginia. He studied anthropology and music to fuel his research in Australian Aboriginal repatriation. After graduation, he studied in Australia for too short a time but had to return to the US.
As a poor soon-to-be graduate student, he rode a Greyhound bus for three and half days from LA back to Morgantown, West Virginia. An odd trip, but it was the one that hatched the hair-brained idea to study West Virginia Native history. He began his masters research focused on Southern WV archaeology and history much to the chagrin of so many who, even still, think that the state was nothing more than a common hunting ground. He fell in love with the mountains and even married a woman from those steep valleys. He defended his thesis in 2005 and the appetite for digging further had gripped him for good.
Glutton for punishment, Isaac realized he had to get his PhD. This realization came after regaling classes of seventh graders with Census statistics about West Virginia for days on end. So, he delved back into southern West Virginia Native American history with renewed passion. After nearly fifteen years, he defended his dissertation Maopewa iati bi: Takai Tonqyayun Monyton, “To abandon so beautiful a Dwelling”: Indians of the Kanawha-New River Valley, 1500-1755.
His family moved to California in 2017 where he continues his Appalachian-based research. As an educator, he has devoted himself to presenting indigenous perspectives in the classroom and public spaces. This novel is the first major step towards that effort.
When not writing or teaching, Isaac kayaks along the Pacific coast looking for cute furry sea animals to watch. Beyond writing, his work continues to include a wide range of arts. He practices his Australian, African, and Irish instruments regularly when he can at drum circles and cèilidh. He also doodles constantly. The illustrations for each chapter are his attempts to show the indigenous world from their perspective as much is possible.
Isaac believes that “History is a lifestyle” and lives by that model in all things. He tries to be an example of a good ally, advocate, and amplifier of indigenous voices.
