BENEDEK, Emily

PERSONAL: Born in Boston, MA; married Jonathan Zhukovsky, September 14, 1997; children: Noa Arielle, another daughter. Education: Harvard University, 1980. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Schocken Books, 201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Journalist. WFAA-Channel Eight, Dallas, TX, producer; Dallas Observer, Dallas, TX, managing editor.

WRITINGS:

The Wind Won't Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, Knopf (New York, NY), 1992.

Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A NavajoWoman's Journey, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

Through the Unknown , Remembered Gate: A SpiritualJourney, Schocken Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Washington Post, and Redbook.

SIDELIGHTS: Emily Benedek's first book, The Wind Won't Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, was published in 1992. It documents the land dispute which has existed between the Navajo and Hopi for centuries, but worsened in the 1970s and 1980s when hundreds of Navajos were relocated. Benedek gives a detailed look at the particulars of the dispute as well as personal accounts of how the dispute has affected the two tribes. Malcolm Jones, Jr. stated in his review for Newsweek, "Rigorously researched and written with muckraking zeal, The Wind Won't Know Me is full of discomfiting truths about the bullying that results when cultures collide." He also observed, "Through no fault of her own, Benedek's fascinating book lacks an ending." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called it "a vivid, exhaustive analysis—attuned to personalities as well as issues—of yet another disgrace involving Native Americans." Sharlotte Neely of the American Indian Quarterly wrote, "Benedek gives a face to the suffering of Navajo Indians threatened with removal from the lands on which they have lived for generations."

In 1995, Benedek published her next book, Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman's Journey. While researching her first book she met Ella Bedonie, a Navajo woman struggling to hold her family and culture together. Forced to attend a government boarding school where she was unfairly punished for trying to maintain Navajo culture, Bedonie attended college and married a man who was killed shortly after in Vietnam. Left a widow with a small child, Bedonie returned to the reservation and consented to an arranged marriage. There she faced many of the land dispute problems discussed in Benedek's first book, and consequently left with her husband to build a house in suburbia with the help of government relocation payments. Her problems only worsened however, when her son joined a gang and nearly died and she was diagnosed with cancer, whereupon she moved her family back to the reservation. Through all this Bedonie struggled to find a balance between her own traditions and culture and the inescapable American culture. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked, "Benedek evokes Navajo society, customs and a cosmos in which the gods are nearby and life is imbued with purpose." William deBuys of the New York Times found, "What emerges is a loving yet unblinking portrait of an entire family as it journeys between and through two worlds, the Indian and the white."

In 2001, Benedek chose to turn to her own spiritual and cultural struggles for her next book. In the early 1990s Benedek moved to Dallas to be with her boyfriend and start a new job as producer for WFAA-Channel Eight. After suffering disappointments in her relationship and job, Benedek awoke one morning unable to see. The temporary loss of sight was later attributed to lyme disease, but Benedek wondered if this loss was symbolic of her loss of vision and clarity in her own life. Benedek, born Jewish but raised in a secular household, began attending Jewish mysticism classes and Saturday services. She became enthralled with Orthodox Judaism, though she disagreed with its treatment of women. She found a psychoanalyst who helped her answer many of her questions of spirituality. She moved back to New York, visited Israel, and met and married her husband. This struggle is documented in her third book, Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate: A Spiritual Journey. She took the title from the T. S. Eliot poem "Four Quartets." Benedek explained this title in her interview on the Schocken Books Web site, "In addition to feeling I had walked through a door and found a treasure beyond imaging—the texts—I also realized that the treasure was mine and had been waiting all my life for me to discover." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found that "for the most part she simply lists and explains the rituals of her newfound community, making her story seem more like a tour-bus ride than a spiritual journey." Marianne Orme of Library Journal commented, "Readers will appreciate Benedek's honest presentation of questions and doubts, although some readers may struggle with the transliterated terms she uses." Sheila Shoup of School Library Journal suggested, "Readers will find solace in seeing that even in the midst of personal hardship it is possible to find the way to one's own spiritual home." Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Health wrote, "This engaging and richly nuanced spiritual memoir is beautifully written, taking in its embrace the author's honest and zigzagging encounter with her Jewish roots."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Indian Quarterly, spring, 1995, Sharlotte Neely, review of The Wind Won't Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute, p. 292.

Booklist, April 1, 2001, George Cohen, review of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate: A Spiritual Journey, p. 1432.

Dallas Observer, September 4, 2001, Patrick Williams, "Once Was Blind."

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1992, review of The WindWon't Know Me, p. 1225.

Library Journal, March 15, 2001, Marianne Orme, review of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate, p. 88.

Newsweek, November 23, 1992, Malcolm Jones, Jr., "Range Wars," pp. 81-82.

New York Times Book Review, October 22, 1995, William deBuys, "Cultural Divide," p. 39.

Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2001, review of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate, p. 80; June 19, 1995, review of Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman's Journey, p. 43.

Radcliffe Quarterly, fall, 2001, review of Through theUnknown, Remembered Gate.

School Library Journal, October, 2001, Sheila Shoup, review of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate, p. 197.

ONLINE

Schocken Books,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (October 26, 2001), "A Conversation with Emily Benedek Author of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate."

Spirituality and Health,http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/ (October 26, 2001), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, review of Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate.*