#NationalPoetryMonth’16 Round-up (Day 13)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, Apparatus Magazine, Carole Stone, Elizabeth Acevedo, Elizabeth Koch, Found Poetry Review, Graywolf Press, Gretchen Marquette, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Indiana Humanities, Irish women poets, Kate Foley, Lagan Press, Leah Umansky, Lorna Shaugnessy, Mariah Wilson, Mark Strand, Mary Carroll Hackett, N. Scott Momaday, NotaLiteraryJournal, NPM16, Poem a Day, Poethead, Poetic Asides, poetry prompts, Poetry School, QuillsEdge Press, Tess Taylor, The City Quill, Winter Tangerine, women poets

DAY THIRTEEN of the best prompts, poems and news from your  #NaPoWriMo/#NPM16/#NaPoMo /#NationalPoetryMonth/#poemaday hashtags.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Fortune Cookie prompt”
NotaLiteraryJournal’s “List Poem in the Style of Camile Guthrie prompt”
Indiana Humanities’ “Family Holiday prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Last ___ prompt”
Poetry School’s “Animal Habitats prompt”
Mariah Wilson’s “Lament prompt”
QuillsEdge Press’ “Aubade to Yourself prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Phrases from Travel Websites prompt”
Mary Carroll-Hacket’s “Miracle of Birth prompt”
Lagan Press’ “Confronting Fears prompt”
Apparatus Mag’s “Reconciliation prompt”
Imaginary Garden’s “If These Walls Could Talk prompt”
The City Quill’s “What Makes You Anxious prompt”
Kate Foley’s “Going Back in Time prompt”
Elizabeth Koch’s “Instincts prompt”
Winter Tangerine’s “Bad Birthdays prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Mark Strand “Eating Poetry”
Gretchen Marquette “Doe”
Carole Stone “A Woman’s Face”
Leah Umansky “This is a Real Elegy”
Lorna Shaugnessy “Moving Like Anemones”
N. Scott Momaday “The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee”

Miscellaneous

Art Talk with Poet and 2016 Poetry Out Loud Host Elizabeth Acevedo (NEA)
Poems that Celebrate Life on the Farm: Tess Taylor’s Work&Days (NPR)
7 Playful Tactics to Get Kids Writing Poetry (Edutopia)
Four Voices Confront the Absence of Women in Irish Poetry

**Poets, if you would like to be featured in 2sDay Poems, have your collection reviewed, guest post in the Poetry Lab or blog on any of the Thoughts on Poetry topics, including Foremother Friday or Small Press Interviews, drop me a line at  bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.

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

Tags

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!