In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we’ve compiled a reading list of fiction and nonfiction books by indigenous authors. The titles in this blog post are also featured in the current gallery display at the main branch, so stop by and check one out today!
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“This adaptation offers an Indigenous perspective of U.S. history. Beginning with an introduction and moving into the first chapter, which discusses the Indigenous peoples who populated the land and their domestication of corn before Europeans arrived, the narrative follows a chronological track . . . Dunbar-Ortiz’s narrative history is clear, and the adapters give readers ample evidence and perspective to help them to engage with the text. A highly informative book for libraries serving high school students.” —Hilary Writt, Sullivan University, Lexington, KY. School Library Journal, vol 65, issue 6, p59)
“New Poets of Native Nations gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power of new Native poetry. Heid E. Erdrich has selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 to highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are poems of great breadth―long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics―and the result is an essential anthology of some of the best poets writing now.” -Goodreads.com
“Latina and Indigenous American women who long to be seen—and see themselves—are the beating heart of the stories in Fajardo-Anstine’s rich and radiant debut. Many of their parents aren’t around, and the pleas of their elders to go to church once in a while are mostly ignored, but they lean on one another. Dead or dying loved ones people many of these tales; the dazzling title story launches with woozy velocity as a makeup artist heeds her grandmother’s wish that she beautify her dead cousin for funeral viewing. In “Sugar Babies,” a class assignment to parent a bag of sugar as if it’s a human baby makes a girl question what she’s inherited from her own young mother. After her release from prison, a woman tries to stop messing up and earns the respect of her young nephew in “Tomi.” “Galapago” finds a woman, forced by crime to leave her longtime home in a gentrifying neighborhood, feeling “ashamed that even in her old age, she wanted to live more than die.” Sharing her characters’ southern Colorado homelands, Fajardo-Anstine imbues her stories with a strong sense of place and the infinite unseen generations that coexist in even single moments.” — Annie Bostrom (Reviewed 4/1/2019) (Booklist, vol 115, number 15, p20)
Thanks for reading,
George, FTPL
