New poets of Native nations

Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Indigenous storytelling and poetry have flourished for millennia in the Americas, yet few U.S. residents can name a single native poet. Editor Erdrich (Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media, 2017) recenters this issue by narrowing the focus of this masterfully curated collection to Twenty-One Poets for the Twenty-First Century, as her generous, elucidating introduction explains. Several names, such as Layli Long Soldier, Craig Santos Perez, and Natalie Diaz, will stand out for fans of contemporary poetry. Jennifer Elise Foerster paints tactile and visionary images (the sky a belt of blue and white beadwork). Others, like dg okpik, draw on unusual experiences (She and I make a bladder bag to draw water from the ice trench). Even the contributor bios take a different approach, forgoing long lists of achievements and awards; instead, each poet recounts his or her lineage, relationship to a native tongue (if any), writers they regard as mentors, and other native poets they recommend. In this way, Erdrich extends the scope of the collection. An immensely important anthology that belongs in every library.--Báez, Diego Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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