New Poets of Native Nations

by Heid E. Erdrich

Overview

A landmark anthology celebrating twenty-one Native poets first published in the twenty-first century

New Poets of Native Nations gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power of new Native poetry. Heid E. Erdrich has selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 to highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are poems of great breadth—long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics—and the result is an essential anthology of some of the best poets writing now.

Poets included are Tacey M. Atsitty, Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Laura Da’, Natalie Diaz, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Eric Gansworth, Gordon Henry, Jr., Sy Hoahwah, LeAnne Howe, Layli Long Soldier, Janet McAdams, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Margaret Noodin, dg okpik, Craig Santos Perez, Tommy Pico, Cedar Sigo, M. L. Smoker, Gwen Westerman, and Karenne Wood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555978099
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	460,957
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Heid E. Erdrich is the author of five collections of poetry, including Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media. She is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain, and lives and teaches in Minneapolis.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

TACEY M. ATSITTY

Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné, is Tsénahabilnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People) from Cove, Arizona. She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award in Creative Writing, Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and Philip Freund Prize. She holds bachelor's degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University.

Atsitty's first book is Rain Scald (2018).

Anasazi
LAYLI LONG SOLDIER

Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota poet, writer, and artist. She is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and she holds an MFA from Bard College. Long Soldier is a recipient of a 2015 Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry, a 2015 National Artist Fellowship from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, the 2018 PEN/ Jean Stein Award, and the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.

WHEREAS (2017) is Long Soldier's first collection of poetry.

38

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "New Poets Of Native Nations"
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Copyright © 2018 Heid E. Erdrich.
Excerpted by permission of GRAYWOLF PRESS.
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Table of Contents

Introduction Twenty-One Poets for the Twenty-First Century Heid E. Erdrich xi

Tacey M. Atsitty 3

Anasazi

Nightsong

Downpour

Paper Water

Elegy for Yucca Fruit Woman

Hole through the Rock

Layli Long Soldier 15

38

Whereas I Did Not Desire in Childhood

Whereas Resolution's an Act

Obligations 1

Obligations 2

Tommy Pico 29

From IRL

From Nature Poem

From Junk

Margaret Noodin 45

Waawiindamojig / The Promisers

Okanan / Bones

Winiiam Aagimeke / William Making Snowshoes

Agoozimakakiig Idiwag / What the Peepers Say

Jiikimaadizi / A Joyful Life

Mazinbii'amawaan / Sending Messages

Laura Da' 55

A Mighty Pulverizing Machine

The Haskell Marching Band

Passive Voice

Quarter Strain

Gwen Nell Westerman 65

Owotanna Sececa

Linear Process

Genetic Code

Quantum Theory

Dakota Homecoming

Theory Doesn't Live Here

Undivided Interest

Jennifer Elise Foerster 75

Leaving Tulsa

Pottery Lessons I

Birthmark

Chimera

Blood Moon Triptych

Canyon

Natalie Diaz 91

Dome Riddle

Other Small Thundering

American Arithmetic

The First Water Is the Body

Trevino L. Brings Plenty 107

For the Sake of Beauty

The Sound of It

Part Gravel, Part Water, All Indian

Blizzard South Dakota

Northeast Portland

Not Just Anybody Can Have One

Red-ish Brown-ish

Plasmic Kiln

Song Syntax Cycle

dg nanouk okpik 121

Warming

Her/My Arctic Corpse Whale

The Weight of the Arch Distributes the Girth of the Other

A Year Dot

Dog Moon Night at Noatak

She Travels

Julian Talamantez Brolaski 131

Blackwater Stole My Pronoun

In the Cut

What Do They Know of Suffering, Who Eat of Pineapples Yearround

As the Owl Augurs

Stonewall to Standing Rock

Horse Vision

The Bear and the Salmon

When It Rains It Pours

The Bear Was Born

Sy Hoahwah 145

Anchor-Screws of Culture

Toward Mount Scott

Ever Since I Can Remember

What Is Left

Before We Are Eaten

Glitter

Hinterlands

Hillbilly Leviathan

Craig Santos Perez 155

From Lisiensan Ga'lago

From The Legends of Juan Malo [a Malologue]

Ginen the Micronesian Kingfisher [I Sihek]

Ginen Tidelands [Latte Stone Park] [Hagåtña, Guåhan]

(First Trimester)

(Papa and Wakea)

(I Tinituhon)

Gordon Henry, Jr. 167

Simple Four Part Directions for Making Indian Lit

How Soon

Dear Sonny:

Among the Almost Decolonized

The Mute Scribe Recalls Some Talking Circle

Brandy Nalani McDougall 181

The Petroglyphs at Olowalu

On Cooking Captain Cook

Pele'aihonua

Papatuanuku

This Island on Which I Love You

Genesis

M. L. Smoker 193

Casualties

Crosscurrent

Equilibrium

We are the ones

Heart Butte, Montana

LeAnne Howe 203

A Duck's Tune

Finders Keepers: Aboriginal Responses to European Colonization

Ballast

Catafalque

Catafalque II

The Rope Seethes

Cedar Sigo 213

Now I'm a Woman

Thrones

Green Rainbow Song

Things to Do in Suquamish

Taken Care Of

Aquarelle

Light Unhuried, Unchained

Double Vision

Karenne Wood 227

Amoroleck's Words

My Standard Response

In Memory of Shame

Abracadabra, an Abcedarian

Bartolomé de las Casas, 1542

The Poet I Wish I Was

Eric Gansworth 239

Speaking through Our Nations' Teeth

It Goes Something Like This

Repatriating Ourselves

Snagging the Eye from Curtis

A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function

… Bee

Janet McAdams 253

The Hands of the Taino

Leaving the Old Gods

Ghazal of Body

From "The Collectors"

Tiger on the Shoulder

Hunters, Gatherers

Earthling

Author Notes 269

Editor's Acknowledgments 279

Permissions 281

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/18/2018
Erdrich (Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media), an Ojibwe writer and scholar, goes some way toward rectifying a noticeable dearth of anthologies of contemporary Native poets with this essential volume. To do this, Erdrich selected 21 writers of varying backgrounds and statures who published their first collections in the 21st century, which she describes as “an era of witness, of coming into voice, an era of change and of political and cultural resurgence.” Given that there are 573 recognized Native nations across America, the volume is far from comprehensive, yet it demonstrates the remarkable breadth of formal styles and substantive concerns among even this small cohort of Native writers. Several of the poets here have garnered recognition in wider literary circles, including Cedar Sigo, Layli Long Soldier, and Tommy Pico, and others—such as dg nanouk okpik, Brandy Nalani McDougall, and Eric Gansworth—deserve greater attention. Through this first anthology of Native poets since 1988, Erdrich offers readers a path into a “brilliantly lit dimension” that has long been obscured by colonialism in the worlds of academia and cultural production. (July)

Publishers Weekly

A wonderful introduction to the diverse landscape of native voices.”—The Washington Post

“This collection is a breathtaking, wide-ranging work of art. . . . It is a modern classic.”—BuzzFeed

“A revelatory anthology.”—BBC Culture

“[New Poets of Native Nations] is distinctly contemporary in its urgency, diversity and vibrancy.”—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“This book is a wonderful, needed, vital breath of air. . . . New Poets of Native Nations is a wonderfully conceived collection, full of exciting juxtapositions, rich language and a fine equipoise between generosity and restraint. It’s safe to say New Poets of Native Nations is an essential read.”—Paste Magazine

“The artists collected in New Poets of Native Nations occupy a powerful role culturally, and a book like this, at this moment, acts as a looking-glass for white-dominated culture. As challenges to the status quo of global capital, environmental degradation, and underserved communities rise in pitch, the perspectives held by these poets offer vital reading.”—3:AM Magazine

“A gorgeous volume of poetry.”—The Coil

“[A] marvelous and much needed new anthology.”—Shelf Awareness

“Essential. . . . Through this first anthology of US Native poets since 1988, Erdrich offers readers a path into a ‘brilliantly lit dimension’ that has long been obscured by colonialism in the worlds of academia and cultural production.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An immensely important anthology that belongs in every library.”—Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher