Kamella Cruz (Ohkay Owingeh) ’22 and ’24, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Department.

Truman Capote was born on September 24, 1924—one hundred years ago. Capote died in 1984, just as the famed author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood was turning sixty.

The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) has been receiving Truman Capote Literary Trust funding for our Creative Writing Scholarships since 1996. This support has now exceeded $1M.

On Thursday, September 26, 2024, IAIA will hold a Truman Capote Centennial Celebration in the CLE Commons from 4:00– 5:30 pm. Serena J. Rodriguez ’20 and ‘22, Visiting Faculty in the Creative Writing Department, Kamella Cruz (Ohkay Owingeh) ’22 and ’24, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Department, and Carmen Wiley (Mvskoke Creek), BFA Creative Writing student and writer, are spearheading the event, which will include readings of Capote’s writings by students who have received a Capote Scholarship. Also in attendance will be Louise Schwartz, Truman Capote Trustee. Schwartz is also a writer in her own right as well as a trustee of the estate, which is funded by royalties, media sales, and licenses.

“As we celebrate the legacy of Truman Capote on this centennial anniversary, we are deeply grateful for the lasting impact his literary trust has had on our Creative Writing program and its students, inspiring a new generation of Indigenous storytellers at IAIA,” said IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation).

Carmen Wiley, a Capote Scholar and a Junior in Creative Writing will be one of the readers. “It is a huge honor to be included in this group of people,” she says. Wiley says that since being named a Capote Scholar, she has been inspired to dive even deeper into his work. “He was a great American writer,” she says. Wiley’s emphasis is poetry and creative non-fiction, a category that Capote spearheaded with his 1965 groundbreaking reportage in In Cold Blood.

Capote himself said about learning to write, “Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.”

After the reading, there will be a Tres Leches birthday cake for Capote, as well as chips, salsa guacamole, and agua fresca. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact IAIA Communications Director Jason S. Ordaz at jason.ordaz@iaia.edu.

About Truman Capote

Truman Capote (born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans) was a literary pioneer whose impact on American literature remains unparallelled, revolutionizing the genre of true crime (In Cold Blood) and elevating the art of the novella. After his parents’ divorce, he was sent to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. It was here he would meet his lifelong friend, the author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). Capote rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Among his celebrated works are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory, and In Cold Blood, widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Twice awarded the O. Henry Short Story Prize, Capote was also the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters Creative Writing Award and an Edgar Award. He died on August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.  He was also the subject of the recent FX series, Capote and the Swans, which brought his work to the attention of a new generation of readers.