Barbara Duncan
Barbara R. Duncan has a Ph.D. in folklore and works as the Education Director at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Her earlier book, Living Stories of the Cherokee, received the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award and Storytelling World Award. The Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook, co-authored with Brett Riggs, received the Preserve American Presidential Award and the Willie B. Parker Peace History Award. Both books were published by UNC Press. Duncan’s first book of poetry, Crossing Cowee Mountain, was published in 2008 by New Native Press. She recently co-edited Culture, Crisis & Conflict: Cherokee British Relations, a book of scholarly essays published by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Duncan also collected and edited 26 stories told by Cherokee storytellers entitled Origins of the Milky Way and Other Living Stories of the Cherokee, released by UNC Press in 2009. In 2008, The North Carolina Folklore Society awarded Duncan the Brown Hudson Award for her contributions to North Carolina Folklife. In addition to being a writer, scholar and educator, Duncan is a singer and songwriter. She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina.
