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Tag Archives: Anna Lee Walters

2sDay Poems Does the Chicken Dance with RED HEN

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by BoneSpark Blog in 2sDay Poems

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Tags

2sDay Poems, African American poet, Anna Lee Walters, Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, Bone Light, But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise, Cave Canem, Circle Shape, Claudia Rankine, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Orlando White, poets of color, Red Hen Press, The Body Deformed by Tidal Forces

chickenRed Hen Press, a small literary press out of Los Angeles, is one of my favorite sources for poetry.  Their collections are expertly done with a wide representation of voices and styles.  Today’s selections come from two poets of color who brought out collections with RHP in 2009 and 2012.

 

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Orlando White is a Navajo poet ( Dine’ of the Naaneesht’ezhi Tabaahi and born for the Naakai Dine’e) with a BFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Brown University. Bone Light(Red Hen 2009) was his debut collection. index

CIRCLE SHAPE

Trace a circle on top of another. Both are alike but do not mean the same thing.
Divide zero by zero: both are not something on either side of its given place.
Listen to the clock without numbers, the sound of something not written on.
Write the letter O; see the straight-line curve one end into the other.
Use the color_________to fill in the black dot at the end of a thought.
Without empty form there would be no given fixed point: the center of zero.
The letter L bends white on paper. But the letter O lends itself to be bent by space.
The outline of a zero should roll off the paper after it is written.
The center of black: blank shaped like a circle. Do not think outside of this.

 

 

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Lillian-Yvonne Bertram , a former Cave Canem fellow and a graduate of the writing programs at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also brought our her debut collection with Red Hen. Her book But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise (Red Hen 2012) won RHP’s 2010 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, judged by Claudia Rankine.

index

 

The Body Deformed by Tidal Forces

Darkness still here, hunkered against the trees.
Spring so uneasy this year.
No matter morning’s boundary culling our bodies,
another romantic passage assaults us!
O limp future centered on this body!
In the model solar system, planets suspend & twirl
as if from a spider’s whirl.
The quantum in backpedal, in decline, spring so ungripping
this year. Bored mouth. Bored fingers.
The umpteenth day/night running like such—
truly, truly—this troubling with physics!
Not still winter, not yet anything.

O thuggish awakening.
All planets but this one were named after gods.

 

Follow @RedHenPress for updates on new publications

 

 

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Making the Case for “Modern” Native American Memoir with Recommended Reading List

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by BoneSpark Blog in C.A. Explains It All

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Allison Hedge Coke, american indian memoir, Anna Lee Walters, Bad Indians, Blonde Indian, Bloodlines, Books and Islands, Brando Skyhorse, Choctalking on Other Realities, contemporary native arts, Crazy Brave, David Treuer, Deborah A Miranda, Diane Wilson, Ernestine Hayes, Falling Into Place, Hattie Kauffman, Janet Campbell Hale, Joy Harjo, Lakota Woman, LeAnn Howe, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Maria Tallchief, Mary Crow Dog, Miss America, modern native american memoir, Muscogee Daughter, N. Scott Momaday, NDN culture, Prima Ballerina, recommended reading list, Rez Life, Robert Mirabal, Rock Ghost Willow Deer, Skeleton of a Bridge, Spirit Car, Susan Supernaw, Take This Man, Talking Indian, The Blue Jay's Dance, The Names, The Turquoise Ledge, The Woman Who Watches Over the World

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–from the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

Ours has been called “the age of memoir,” and particularly in America, the genre has been labeled “the central (literary) form of our time.” But at the same time that the publication of personal narratives has soared, critics and some readers have chastised its writers for being voyeuristic, self-indulgent or worse. Then there is the dreaded ‘nostalgic’ label, which still has at center stage, the author’s bright and shining face.

Native American or American Indian (NDN) cultures, on the other hand, value community over the individual and are deeply rooted in both the land and in a contiguous past and present. Readers who have soured on “standard” American memoir, might find storytellers from Indian Country’s broader landscapes a refreshing change.

If you want to dive into the sub-genre, I suggest that you start with N. Scott Momaday‘s The Names and then work your way through the following list according to interest:4186SXQ737L._SL110_

 

~RECOMMENDED READING LIST~

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1.  The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir by Leslie Marmon Silko

 

 

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2.  Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo

 

 

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3.  Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir by Deborah A. Miranda

 

 

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4.  Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich

 

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5.  The Blue Jay’s Dance by Louise Erdrich

 

 

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6.  The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir by Linda Hogan

 

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7.  Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter by Janet Campbell Hale

 

 

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8.  Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival (American Indian Lives) by Allison Hedge Coke

 

 

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9.  Muscogee Daughter: My Sojourn to the Miss America Pageant (American Indian Lives) by Susan Supernaw

 

 

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10.  Take This Man: A Memoir by Brando Skyhorse*

 

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11.  Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir (Sun Tracks) by Ernestine Hayes

 

 

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12.  Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief

 

 

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13.  Choctalking on Other Realities by LeAnne Howe

 

 

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14.  Talking Indian: Reflections on Survival and Writing by Anna Lee Walters

 

 

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15.  Skeleton of a Bridge by Robert Mirabal

 

 

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16.  FALLING INTO PLACE: A MEMOIR OF OVERCOMING by Hattie Kauffman

 

 

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17.  Rez Life by David Treuer

 

 

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18.  Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

 

 

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19.  Spirit Car: A Journey to a Dakota Past by Diane Wilson

 

 

To purchase all titles together or to view updates to the list CLICK through to LISTMANIA!

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