SPEAK TO ME WORDS: ESSAYS ON CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN INDIAN POETRY, 
EDITED BY DEAN RADER & JANICE GOULD

Although Indigenous American poetry is widely read and discussed, few resources have been available that focus on it critically. This book is the first collection of essays on the genre,Speak to Me Words is a stimulating blend of classic articles and original pieces that reflect the energy of modern American Indian literary studies. Highlighting various aspects of poetry written by American Indians since the 1960s, it is a wide-ranging collection that balances the insights of Natives and non-Natives, men and women, old and new voices. Included here are such landmark articles as "Answering the Deer" by Paula Gunn Allen, "Herbs of Healing" by Carter Revard, and "Song, Poetry and Language—Expression and Perception" by Simon Ortiz—all pieces that have shaped how we think about Native poetry.

The well-written essays . . . offer a variety of critical and theoretical approaches from scholars and scholar/poets, with a unique intertexuality arising from some contributors analyzing the poetic works of other writers in the volume. . . . This volume shifts the focus in formal studies of American Indian poetics to the people as they are now and their hopes for healing in the future.   —Great Plains Quarterly

• Read a review of Speak To Me Words in Studies in American Indian Literatures vol. 17.1, 2006.

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