#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 25)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, AGNI, Apparatus Magazine, Elean Ni Chulleanain, Flashbang Writing Studio, Galway Kinnell, Kristen Tracy, Li-Young Lee, Louise Erdrich, lunch poems, Marilyn Robertson, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, pink ink press, Ploughshares, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Stories& Slams, the language inside, Wild Violet, William Butler Yeats, women poets, Write About Now

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY-FIVE of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

The Language Inside’s “Fantasies of Running Away after Maxine Kumin”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Journalistic Observer prompt”
Negative Capability Press’ “Dreaming in the Still of Night prompt”
Write About Now’s “Make-up poems”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Sea Poems”
Stories& Slams’ “Spring Haikus”
Wild Violet’s “V is for Viewpoint prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Clerihew prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “Dream within a Dream prompt”
Mslexia’s “Spam mail into Poem prompt”
30dpc “Imagery of Spring prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Eiléan Ní Chulleanáin| “Incipt Hodie”
Li-Young Lee| “This Hour and What is Dead”
Louise Erdrich| “Windigo”
Marilyn Robertson| “On Reading a Poem by Phillis Levin”
William Butler Yeats| “When You Are Old”
Galway Kinnell| “Oatmeal” (w/ audio)
Kristen Tracey| “Hanging Up”

Miscellaneous

7 British Poets Read from Ploughshares’ Transatlantic Issue (video)
Lunch Poems: Luis Rodriguez

Sunday Sentence #27

Tags

David Abrams, Louise Erdrich, Native American authors, Sunday Sentence, The Master Butchers Singing Club, Women writers

 

My weekly contribution to David Abrams’ “Sunday Sentence” project in which participants share the best sentence read during the past week “out of context and without commentary.”

When he woke in Germany in late November of the year 1918, he was only a few centimeters away from becoming French on Clemenceau and Wilson’s redrawn map, a fact that mattered nothing compared to what there might be to eat.

SOURCE: Ojibwe writer Louise Erdrich‘s novel The Master Butchers Singing Club

 

 

Sunday Sentence #19

Tags

Louise Erdrich, Native American writers, Sunday Sentence, The Birchbark House, Women writers

 

My weekly contribution to David Abrams’ “Sunday Sentence” project in which participants share the best sentence read during the past week “out of context and without commentary.”

The only person left alive on the island was a baby girl.

SOURCE: Louise Erdrich‘s novel The Birchbark House (Book One of the series)

 

 

 

Get Your Story On (6 Short Reads from Cyberspace)

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Destiny, Elizabeth McCracken, Free Fruit for Young Widows, free short stories, Louise Erdrich, Nathan Englander, North Country, Roxane Gay, Short Reads, Sister Godzilla, The Atlantic, The House of the Two Three Legged Dogs, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Zoetrope

The Cyberworld is reaching out, demanding that you plug into these free reads from your favorite writerly folks:

 

At The Altantic:
Sister Godzilla & Destiny
by Louise Erdrich

 

 

At Zoetrope:
The House of the Two Three-Legged Dogs
by Elizabeth McCracken

 

 

At The New Yorker:
Free Fruit for Young Widows & What We Talk About When We Talk about Anne Frank
by Nathan Englander

 

At Byliner:
North Country 
by Roxane Gay

 

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

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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

–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:

 

~RECOMMENDED READING LIST~

 

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

 

 

 

2.  Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

5.  The Blue Jay’s Dance by Louise Erdrich

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

13.  Choctalking on Other Realities by LeAnne Howe

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

15.  Skeleton of a Bridge by Robert Mirabal

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

17.  Rez Life by David Treuer

 

 

 

18.  Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

 

 

 

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!

NDNs with Pens

Tags

Adrian C. Louis, Allison Hedge Coke, American Indian, Deborah A Miranda, Ernestine Hayes, Frances Washburn, Greg Sarris, IAIA MFA, James Welch, Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan, Louise Erdrich, Luci Tapahonso, N. Scott Momaday, Native American, NDN writers, NDNs with Pens, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Ofelia Zepeda, Sherman Alexie, Simon J Ortiz, Susan Power

Native American, American Indian, Indigenous, NDN. Many labels have been applied to tribal nations as far flung as Alaska and New Mexico. Once marginalized , many of these groups are now getting a second look with entire university programs devoted to the study of their literature.  As I work on my own project steeped in Tlingit legends, I am reminded of those who came before.  Here is an essential reading list of Native writers:

1. The Way to Rainy Mountain and In the Bear’s House by N. Scott Momaday

2. Love Medicine and Original Fire by Louise Erdrich   [*Buy signed copies direct from Erdrich at Birchbark Books]

3. Skins by Adrian C. Louis

4. Storyteller by Leslie Marmon Silko

5. Men on the Moon and Woven Stone by Simon J. Ortiz

6. Ocean Power:Poems from the Desert and Where Clouds are Formed by Ofelia Zepeda

7. Riding the Earthboy 40 by James Welch

8. Mean Spirit and The Book of Medicines by Linda Hogan

9. One Stick Song and Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie (*anything you pick up by him is bound to be good)

10.  She Had Some Horses and Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

11. Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris

12. A Radiant Curve by Luci Tapahonso

13. Roofwalker by Susan Power

14. Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda

15. Life Woven with Song by Nora Marks Dauenhauer

16. Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes

17. The Sacred White Turkey by Frances Washburn

18.  Dog Road Woman by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

*Find the complete list on Amazon here.*

And for those of you who are interested, the IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) now offers an MFA In Creative Writing.  Note that Sherman Alexie and Susan Power are on staff!