“Our heads were on the penny first, of course,"

October 30, 2018 4:37 PM

These Writers Are Launching A New Wave Of Native American Literature, Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed

With two highly anticipated books, Terese Marie Mailhot[@TereseMarieM] and Tommy Orange[@thommyorange] are part of a new generation of indigenous writers, trained in a program that rejects the standards of white academia.

The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico's Low Residency MFA Journal is Mud City

Her + her + her: Female Native authors for your reading list
11 new books by Native women you need to have in your life
10 Works From Indigenous Authors to Read Right Now



Tommy Orange and the New Native Renaissance

via It’s Not a Literary Renaissance When You’ve Been Telling Stories Since the Dawn of Time

posted by the man of twists and turns (7 comments total)

Speaking of indigenous authors, Tanya Tagaq's new book "Split Tooth" is incredibly good. I'm going to read Heart Berries as soon as I get the chance!
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:17 PM on October 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

That was an excellent piece and something I’d expect from a major nonfiction magazine like the Atlantic rather than Buzzfeed.

One thing: the article doesn’t go into to, but even though the MFA is relatively new, the IAIA is a much older organization that has been a center for arts learning since the 60s and has an amazing history.
posted by Miko at 5:37 AM on October 31, 2018

On the advice of a friend, I'm in the midst of Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America edited by Gloria Bird and Joy Harjo, which is making me remember why I hate anthologies (I want more!) while I'm simultaneously loving it (I want more!). Thank you for sharing this -- I'm looking forward to checking out their work, and the work of other Native authors mentioned here.
posted by lazuli at 8:26 AM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

I want more!

Check out Spider Woman's Granddaughters, edited by Paula Gunn Allen.
Everything Joy Harjo writes is wonderful. Heart-shatteringly, heart-reconstructingly wonderful.
Leslie Marmon Silko and Lee Maracle are also excellent.
posted by fraula at 12:28 PM on October 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

I loved how she talked about mentorship and the balance of engaged and supportive but not appropriative or lecherous. So much of how I think about power dynamics is rooted in these images of deliberately naive power which damages while claiming ignorance - like a Manic Pixie Abuser. It’s nice to recognize that this is an unhealthy dynamic and not an inevitability.

I also loved how she talked about making space for more people and having that space big enough for ambiguity and dissent but rooted in relationships. I want that. I want to make that in my own communities. I want that to become the norm.
posted by Deoridhe at 11:47 AM on November 1, 2018

IAIA was absolutely the most beautiful, most Native campus I've ever visited... and my dad and sister graduated from Haskell. I still visit and rep Haskell cuz my dad works there.

IAIA has something else going on. I want to study there, I'd like to teach there but I'm unqualified.

To say I'm disappointed that my son didn't go there to study animation... would be a huge understatement.
posted by blessedlyndie at 9:04 PM on November 2, 2018

Tanya Tagaq's new book "Split Tooth" is incredibly good

It's next in the queue after I get through Eden Robinson's Trickster Drift, which just came out.

It's the followup to Son of a Trickster. It's great, and so is her earlier novel Monkey Beach.

I want more!

I can't recommend Eden Robinson enough!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:08 AM on November 5, 2018