Coyote the Trickster

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Taught by Sean D

Sean taught in West Africa through the Peace Corps and in NYC public schools before recently becoming a student himself again. While earning a creative writing MFA, he is building a clavichord at a snail's pace and plotting more travel. As well as plotting story plots. 

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Coyote who juggles his eyeballs. Coyote who thinks he can fly. Coyote who sleeps with his daughter, who dies again and again, who defeats the monsters, who creates the People. Among Native American trickster figures, he is the best known. His stories appear in many Native American folklore traditions, but he also continues to appear in contemporary literature by both Native and non-Native authors, who rightly find him irresistible.

While we can find many motifs and reoccurring traits, he is a complex character and attempting to define him is... well, tricky. Foolish? Adventurous? Bawdy? Powerful? We will look at some of these definitions and descriptions, as well as traditional and contemporary stories and poems involving Coyote.

Participants will be emailed a packet of several short tales beforehand which are optional but recommended reading.

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