Wilson, Diane 1954-

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Wilson, Diane 1954-

PERSONAL:

Born 1954; married Jim Denomie (an artist); children: Jodi; Cheryl, Sheila, Cody (stepchildren). Hobbies and other interests: Gardening.

ADDRESSES:

Home—MN. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Creative nonfiction writer. Minnesota Literature, editor, 2002-04; The Artist's Voice, founder and editor; works as an arts administrator, Shafer, MN.

MEMBER:

SASE: The Write Place.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Jerome Travel and Study grant, a research grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, and two residencies at Norcroft Writers' Retreat, all for Spirit Car: Journey of a Dakota Past.

WRITINGS:

Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past, Borealis Books (St. Paul, MN), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the American Indian Quarterly, Reader, View from the Loft, Wolf Head Quarterly, Minnesota Women's Press, and Pioneer Press.

SIDELIGHTS:

Diane Wilson first began to contemplate writing a book when she decided to write about her mother's history and to investigate the family background as part of the Dakota tribe. Wilson's mother had been reluctant to talk much about her childhood, a painful time that included the experience of being abandoned for two years at a mission boarding school. Much of Wilson's research was thwarted, as a result, but she did succeed in tracing Dakota history in general, and more specifically the background of others like herself, which enabled her to imagine her own family history, as it might have been, back to the Dakota War of 1862. In Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past, Wilson offers readers an account of that war and its aftermath, which led the Dakota tribe to a government-designated camp in Minnesota. Wilson explains her interest in the time in an interview with Twin Cities Daily Planet Online, remarking: "When I was raising my own daughter that story became more and more curious to me because I couldn't fathom leaving a child behind, no matter what. And since I knew my grandparents were good people, then it seemed that this era must have been so different that I couldn't understand that story without knowing the full context." Library Journal reviewer Joyce Sparrow praised the book for its "lovely writing, solid research, and moving content."