NATIVE VOICES: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS POETRY, CRAFT, AND CONVERSATIONS
Edited by CMarie Fuhrman & Dean Rader
“Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations should be on your shelf, your reading list, or your syllabus — or even all three.”-P. Joshua Laskey, The Literary Review
“Native Voices invites us to immerse ourselves in the poems and essays of forty-four contemporary indigenous poets. Essays regarding writers who have influenced them add both background and gravitas.” --Mary Ellen Talley in Crab Creek Review
"CMarie Fuhrman’s and Dean Rader’s new contribution to literary studies, Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations, is a wonderful, vast, and eye-opening anthology containing the work of forty-four Indigenous American poets. One of its strengths is its wide-ranging repertoire, culling the best poets from different regions, styles, topics, and time periods. The widely-read Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Linda Hogan are here, as well new vital voices like Sherwin Bitsui, Craig Santos Perez, and Jennifer Foerster, as well as others writers who might be a discovery to some. " --Jennifer Key, Broadsided Press
In this groundbreaking anthology of Indigenous poetry and prose, Native poems, stories, and essays are informed with a knowledge of both what has been lost and what is being restored. It presents a diverse collection of stories told by Indigenous writers about themselves, their histories, and their present. It is a celebration of culture and the possibilities of language, in conversation with those poets and storytellers who have paved the way. A truly synergetic collection of contemporary and early Native voices. Native is more than a book of poems. Inside the covers are generations of poetry bound together with conversations about craft and poetry. This book teaches history and social science through poetry and conversations about poetry.
Not only does this anthology reproduce the poetry of 44 poets, but it also provides a craft essay authored by the poet--most of which were written especially for this book. The wide range of poets represented includes important figures like Leslie Marmon Silko and Carter Revard; the middle generation of poets like Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe, and Louise Erdrich; and hip younger poets like Sherwin Bitsui, Layli Long Soldier, Jennifer Foerster, Orlando White, Laura Da’, Cedar Sigo, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski.
Rather than assuming contemporary Indigenous poetry is folklore or “culture,” Native Voices asks readers and writers to look at these poems as art. The poems in Native Voices exhibit superb talent and unrivaled vision. They reflect both traditional and cutting edge uses of language, line break, white space, fragmentation, repetition, and elision. These are true artists at the peak of their craft. This is not to say the poems are value free. On the contrary. However, these poems don’t just address history or land or ceremony; they also take on colonialism, poverty, land rights, Indigenous genocide, sexuality, and cultural loss. Some of the poems are angry. Some are funny. Some are hard to understand. Some are easy to understand. Some ask you to rethink history. Some remake history.
Read an interview with Fuhrman and Rader in Poetry International
Read an interview with Fuhrman and Rader in Kenyon Review
Teachers can download a free lesson plan for Native Voices here
Listen to an interview with Dean for the podcast Poetry Spoken Here
Read a fantastic interview with CMarie here
“Native Voices invites us to immerse ourselves in the poems and essays of forty-four contemporary indigenous poets. Essays regarding writers who have influenced them add both background and gravitas.” --Mary Ellen Talley in Crab Creek Review
"CMarie Fuhrman’s and Dean Rader’s new contribution to literary studies, Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations, is a wonderful, vast, and eye-opening anthology containing the work of forty-four Indigenous American poets. One of its strengths is its wide-ranging repertoire, culling the best poets from different regions, styles, topics, and time periods. The widely-read Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Linda Hogan are here, as well new vital voices like Sherwin Bitsui, Craig Santos Perez, and Jennifer Foerster, as well as others writers who might be a discovery to some. " --Jennifer Key, Broadsided Press
In this groundbreaking anthology of Indigenous poetry and prose, Native poems, stories, and essays are informed with a knowledge of both what has been lost and what is being restored. It presents a diverse collection of stories told by Indigenous writers about themselves, their histories, and their present. It is a celebration of culture and the possibilities of language, in conversation with those poets and storytellers who have paved the way. A truly synergetic collection of contemporary and early Native voices. Native is more than a book of poems. Inside the covers are generations of poetry bound together with conversations about craft and poetry. This book teaches history and social science through poetry and conversations about poetry.
Not only does this anthology reproduce the poetry of 44 poets, but it also provides a craft essay authored by the poet--most of which were written especially for this book. The wide range of poets represented includes important figures like Leslie Marmon Silko and Carter Revard; the middle generation of poets like Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe, and Louise Erdrich; and hip younger poets like Sherwin Bitsui, Layli Long Soldier, Jennifer Foerster, Orlando White, Laura Da’, Cedar Sigo, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski.
Rather than assuming contemporary Indigenous poetry is folklore or “culture,” Native Voices asks readers and writers to look at these poems as art. The poems in Native Voices exhibit superb talent and unrivaled vision. They reflect both traditional and cutting edge uses of language, line break, white space, fragmentation, repetition, and elision. These are true artists at the peak of their craft. This is not to say the poems are value free. On the contrary. However, these poems don’t just address history or land or ceremony; they also take on colonialism, poverty, land rights, Indigenous genocide, sexuality, and cultural loss. Some of the poems are angry. Some are funny. Some are hard to understand. Some are easy to understand. Some ask you to rethink history. Some remake history.
Read an interview with Fuhrman and Rader in Poetry International
Read an interview with Fuhrman and Rader in Kenyon Review
Teachers can download a free lesson plan for Native Voices here
Listen to an interview with Dean for the podcast Poetry Spoken Here
Read a fantastic interview with CMarie here