West, Naida

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WEST, Naida

PERSONAL:

Born in ID; married; children: three. Education: University of California at Berkeley, B.A., 1963; California State University at Sacramento, M.A.; University of California at Davis, Ph.D., 1979. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis.

ADDRESSES:

Home—CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Bridge House Books, P.O. Box 809, Rancho Murieta, CA 95683. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Worked variously as a potato picker, babysitter, house cleaner, waitress, seamstress, secretary, interpreter, telephone operator, researcher, teacher, and lobbyist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best Fiction/Drama, Small Publishers Association award, 2000, for Eye of the Bear.

WRITINGS:

Leadership with a Feminine Cast, R and E Research Associates (San Francisco, CA), 1976.

River of Red Gold, Bridge House Books (Rancho Murieta, CA), 1996.

Eye of the Bear: A History Novel of Early California, Bridge House Books (Rancho Murieta, CA), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Naida West has won acclaim for her historical novels based during the California gold rush. Her first novel, River of Red Gold, was heavily researched and based on actual events and historical figures from California during the gold rush, 1844 through 1853. The story's primary figure is an Indian woman named Howchia, a member of the Miwok tribe that lived in the Sacramento River Valley until miners came to destroy the land. Western American Literature reviewer Barbara Howard Meldrum wrote that River of Red Gold is a "fascinating, gripping story that is firmly rooted in historical research." Roger Voight of the Bloomsbury Review agreed and called River of Red Gold a "superb novel" that only uses fiction when historical documents are unavailable. Voight wrote that River of Red Gold tells the story of the "American holocaust" where tribes were killed to extinction and their land was brutally destroyed. Meldrum referred to the novel as a "multicultural, multiethnic" story. Although the novel follows several historical figures, some white, Indian, and Spanish, ultimately, River of Red Gold is a "devestating, wrenchingly tragic story" about the extermination of the Miwok Indians of the Sacramento River Valley, according to Meldrum.

West's second novel to be based on California history is Eye of the Bear, which won the Small Publisher's Award for Best Fiction/Drama.