Mona Susan Power

Not to be confused with Susan Powers or Susan Kelly Power.

Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Dakota, born 1961) is a Native American author based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her debut novel, The Grass Dancer (1994), received the 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.

Mona Susan Power
Born	Susan Power[citation needed] 1961 (age 63–64) Chicago, Illinois[1]
Pen name	Mona Susan Power
Occupation	author, novelist
Language	English
Nationality	Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota,[1] American
Alma mater	Harvard University (BA[citation needed]), Harvard Law School (JD),[2] Iowa Writer's Workshop (MFA)[2]
Notable works	The Grass Dancer[3]
Notable awards	PEN/Hemingway Award (1995)[3] US Artists Fellowship[3]
Relatives	Susan Kelly Power, mother[4]
Website
www.monasusanpower.com

Early life

Power was born in Chicago, Illinois,^[3] and is a Yantonai Dakota enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota.^[4][5] Her mother, Susan Kelly Power, Gathering of Stormclouds Woman (Standing Rock Dakota, 1925–2022), was an activist who helped found the American Indian Center of Chicago.^[4] Susan's mother, Mona's grandmother, Josephine Gates Kelly was three-term tribal chairperson for the Stand Rock Sioux Tribe.^[4] Mona's great-grandmother was Nellie Two Bear Gates.^[6] She is a descendant of Sioux Chief Mato Nupa (Two Bears).^[7]

Power's father, Carleton Gilmore Power, a Euro-American from New England, worked in publishing as a salesman. One of his great-great-grandfathers was governor of New Hampshire.^[7] She heard stories that inspired her imagination from both sides.

Education

Power attended Chicago schools, then earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School.^[1]

In 1992 she entered the MFA program at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.^[2]

Writing career

After a short career in law, Power decided to become a writer. She worked as a technical writer and editor, reserving her creative writing for off hours.

Her 1994 debut novel, The Grass Dancer, has a complex plot about four generations of Native Americans, with action stretching from 1864 to 1986.

Power has written several other books as well. Her short fiction has been published in the Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Voice Literary Supplement, Ploughshares,^[8] Story, and The Best American Short Stories 1993. She teaches at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Power's most recent novel, A Council of Dolls, was released in 2023. The novel was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction.^[9][10]

Honors and awards

The Grass Dancer won the 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.^[3] Powers won a United States Artists Fellowship.^[3]

Bibliography

Books

• The Grass Dancer, Putnam, 1994.
• Strong Heart Society, Penguin, 1998.
• Roofwalker, Milkweed Editions, 2002.
• Sacred Wilderness, Michigan State University Press, 2014.
• A Council of Dolls, Mariner Books, 2023.

Short Stories

• “Dead Owls” in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (September, 19th, 2023)^[11]