Austen Brauker

Austen Brauker is a tribal member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians located in Manistee Michigan. He currently works for the Tribal Court at the Justice Center as a Peacemaker and Probation Officer. His job involves using traditional healing practices to perform dispute resolutions by restoring balance and using communication to reach agreements between conflicting parties. "HOMUNCULUS" A screenplay by Austen Brauker Grand Prize Winner of the 2011 Oregon Film Festival, Best Overall Screenplay (All Categories). Best Horror Screenplay, Love Unlimited International Film Festival. Official Finalist, Hollywood Screenplay Contest. Official Finalist, Newport International Film Festival, Wales. Semi-finalist, PAGE Awards Screenplay Competition. Currently: Official Finalist, Semi-finalist and Quarter-finalist, STORY PROS Screenplay Contest. Currently: Fifth Round Winner, Movie Script Contest - The Golden Brad Awards Honorable Mention: 2011 Chicago Screenwriters Network Contest and 2011 Great Lakes International Film Festival. Screenplay, "White Buffalo" was picked up in 2011 for production by Wild Horse Films, through Inktip. Both “Homunculus” and “White Buffalo” have received positive coverage feedback from several sources. Honorable Mention Award for Live Script Reading Performance, Beyond Baroque Theater, Love Unlimited Film Festival, Venice Ca. Dark Matter Magazine, Best Fiction Writer Award 2011. Hardcopy Published Work: Voices on the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now, ISBN: 978-0-9840179-0-4 The Zharmae Anthology: Ends of Man, Paperback, ISBN: 978-1-937365-00-4 Mega Era: Issue #27 Perfect Paperback, ASIN: B002ACNFC6 Dark Matter Magazine, 2009, 2010, 2011. 2011 Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Writing Anthology The Copperfield Review Motley Press: Vol. One, Issue Two Motley Press: Issue Four Aquill Relle: Magazine Four 221 B Magazine: Summer Issue 2011 E-zine Articles Indict Circle: Issue #25 The Taking of Wings: Lulu Online Publications: The Cortland Review, Author Me- Editor, Anthologies Online- Featured Author, ABC Tales- Cherry Picked Author, Writers Pub, Nice Stories, VerbSap, One of Us Creative Writing, We Read, Poets and Writers Speakeasy, Fantasy Writers, The Online Writer, Suite 101, Every Poet Showcase, E-Zine Articles, The Free Library, Post Articles, Writer’s Relief, We Book , My Book Live, Smashwords, Author’s Den, Booksie, Free Stories Center, Writing.Com ,Writer’s net , Writer’s Café Austen is the author of two full length fiction novels, several theatrical plays, much poetry and regular newspaper articles at three separate publications in Michigan. Two of his short plays, “Crocophile” and “Look What the Cat Dragged In,” have been produced by West Shore College, where he has also was published in Dark Matter, as best fiction writer for 2008. His work has won several writing competitions and is posted at various places on the internet, on writer’s sites and bookselling sources. He has been printed in numerous hard copy anthologies. Austen currently works as a Peacemaker/Probation Officer at the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Justice Center and as an artist, painting murals, like the well known piece at the entrance of the Willows restaurant at the Little River Casino and Resort. He has been commissioned by the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools to create eight 5’x5’ stained glass windows for two of their elementary schools. He creates many different traditional native crafts and various other forms of visual art. His work was used by the National Congress of the American Indian for the N.C.A.I. conference logo in 2011 and the original hangs at their embassy in Washington D.C. Austen is a long time musician and has performed regularly since he started playing music over twenty eight years ago. Austen plays many different styles of music on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, banjo, bass guitar, lap steel and slide blues. He plays the Native American flute and sings with a traditional Odawa drum group in Manistee, Michigan. He recently scored the soundtrack for an educational sturgeon documentary that was filmed locally, spotlighting the L.R.B.O.I. sturgeon rearing program. He has numerous CD’s of different styles of original music, most of it available online. Austen is a tribal member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. He hunts and fishes as an expression of tribal sovereignty and to feed his family, physically and spiritually. In 2011 he was the first L.R.B.O.I. tribal member in recent recorded history to harvest a lake sturgeon, caught on hook and line, weighing 108 lbs. and measuring 6 ft. 1 in. (Which he shared with the tribe.) In 2009 he was gifted with an 8 pt. bull elk.(Which he shared with the tribe.) At 17 yrs. old, he brought home a 350 lb. black bear. He shares these special gifts with elders and other tribal members whenever possible. For Austen, hunting provides a direct connection to nature, builds deep reverence and respect, and ties him directly to the web of life. He is an advocate of spiritual unity among all of earth’s peoples and seeks to focus on our similarities as brothers and sisters, rather than arbitrary and divisive differences, hoping for acceptance and sharing as we evolve together in our collective world consciousness, as human beings. Austen is married to his beautiful love and best friend, his wife Victoria.