Synopses & Reviews
Editor and poet Allison Hedge Coke assembles this multilingual collection of Indigenous American poetry, joining voices old and new in songs of witness and reclamation. Unprecedented in scope,
Sing gathers more than eighty poets from across the Americas, covering territory that stretches from Alaska to Chile, and features familiar names like Sherwin Bitsui, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Lee Maracle, and Simon Ortiz alongside international poets—both emerging and acclaimed—from regions underrepresented in anthologies.
They write from disparate zones and parallel experience, from lands of mounded earthwork long-since paved, from lands of ancient ball courts and the first great cities on the continents, from places of cold, from places of volcanic loam, from zones of erased history and ongoing armed conflict, where “postcolonial” is not an academic concept but a lived reality. As befits a volume of such geographical inclusivity, many poems here appear in multiple languages, translated by fellow poets and writers like Juan Felipe Herrera and Cristina Eisenberg.
Hedge Cokes thematic organization of the poems gives them an added resonance and continuity, and readers will appreciate the story of the genesis of this project related in Hedge Cokes deeply felt introduction, which details her experiences as an invited performer at several international poetry festivals. Sing is a journey compelled by the exploration of kinship and the desire for songs that open “pathways of return.”
Review
“Many of the poems in this ambitious collection remind us why we read poetry at all—to be returned to the elemental, to relish the beauty of repetition and variation, and to hear the cries of singular voices, here marginalized because of their native culture but also because of the daring announcement of their individuality” —Billy Collins
Review
"This collection is an entrance into that part of 'America' without which there no real America and not even a real United States. It is a bravura collection, a long needed Anthology 'of those antediluvian descendants of the Western hemisphere.'" —Amiri Baraka
Review
"Allison Hedge Coke has assembled a multilingual feast of songs, bringing together established and emerging indigenous poets in South, Central, and North America. With poems presented in their original languages, this anthology is a groundbreaking collection." —Arthur Sze, author of The Ginkgo Light
Review
"In what can only be called a historical anthology of indigenous poets from the Americas, Allison Hedge Coke has given us a stunning gift that is splendid because of the brilliance of the individual and eclectic poems collected, but richer for the coherent collective song that the anthology represents. This is a big fat book of endless pleasures that helps us to re-imagine America!" —Kwame Dawes, Editor of Prairie Schooner
Review
"What a diverse feast of poetry! Indigenous poets from Peru, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Canada as well as the United States serve up delicious unforgettable poems. A good number of the poems are composed in indigenous languages which make this collection especially valuable." —Leslie Marmon Silko
Review
“Many of the poems in this ambitious collection remind us why we read poetry at all—to be returned to the elemental, to relish the beauty of repetition and variation, and to hear the cries of singular voices, here marginalized because of their native culture but also because of the daring announcement of their individuality” —Billy Collins
"This dynamic and useful anthology not only is groundbreaking, but also forces those in poetic circles of power to rethink what poetry is about, how we are influenced by what is published and what is not, and how the true meaning of poetry comes from taking powerful artistic action to ensure that the road of poetry in our lives takes a new turn." —The Bloomsbury Review
Review
and#8220;Anyone with any interest in American Indian literature or indigenous literature of any kind will treasure this innovative book. Siobhan Senier and her learned contributors show us a New England and an America that have been here all along without most Americans suspecting it.and#8221;and#8212;Robert Dale Parker, author of
The Invention of Native American Literatureand#160;
Review
and#8220;Dawnland Voices is a collection of writing that is as bright as the morning sun. Itand#8217;s an amazingly comprehensive collection of the literary work of dozens of indigenous authors from an often overlooked part of Native America, the long-embattled Northeast. . . . The reading public needs to be awakened to the continued existence and the cultural heritage of our peoples, as well as the literary excellence of our many authors. No book that I know of does a better job of that than this brilliantly edited anthology.and#8221;and#8212;Joseph Bruchac, author of Our Stories Remember
Review
"David Moore has spent his career studying Native American literature; That Dream Shall Have a Name distills many years of teaching, reading, and thinking. A signal contribution to Native American scholarship, it shines with wisdom, poignancy, and hope."—O. Alan Weltzien, Western American Literature
Review
andquot;[Dawnland Voices is] a significant contribution to Native American and indigenous studies and to US literature.andquot;andmdash;S. K. Bernardin, CHOICE
Synopsis
A multilingual collection of Indigenous American poetry, joining voices old and new in songs of witness and reclamation. Unprecedented in scope, Sing gathers more than eighty poets from across the Americas, covering territory that stretches from Alaska to Chile, and features familiar names like Sherwin Bitsui, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Lee Maracle, and Simon Ortiz alongside international poets--both emerging and acclaimed--from regions underrepresented in anthologies.
Synopsis
Dawnland Voices calls attention to the little-known but extraordinarily rich literary traditions of New Englandand#8217;s Native Americans. This pathbreaking anthology includes both classic and contemporary literary works from ten New England indigenous nations: the Abenaki, Maliseet, Miand#8217;kmaq, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot,and#160;Schaghticoke, and Wampanoag.
and#160;Through literary collaboration and recovery, Siobhan Senier and Native tribal historians and scholars have crafted a unique volume covering a variety of genres and historical periods. From the earliest petroglyphs and petitions to contemporary stories and hip-hop poetry, this volume highlights the diversity and strength of New England Native literary traditions. Dawnland Voices introduces readers to the compelling and unique literary heritage in New England, banishing the misconception that and#8220;realand#8221; Indians and their traditions vanished from that region centuries ago.
and#160;
Synopsis
The founding idea of “America” has been based largely on the expected sweeping away of Native Americans to make room for EuroAmericans and their cultures. In this authoritative study, David L. Moore examines the works of five well-known Native American writers and their efforts, beginning in the colonial period, to redefine an “America” and “American identity” that includes Native Americans.
That Dream Shall Have a Name focuses on the writing of Pequot Methodist minister William Apess in the 1830s; on Northern Paiute activist Sarah Winnemucca in the 1880s; on Salish/Métis novelist, historian, and activist DArcy McNickle in the 1930s; and on Laguna poet and novelist Leslie Marmon Silko and on Spokane poet, novelist, humorist, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, both in the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Moore studies these five writers stories about the conflicted topics of sovereignty, community, identity, and authenticity—always tinged with irony and often with humor. He shows how Native Americans have tried from the beginning to shape an American narrative closer to its own ideals, one that does not include the death and destruction of their peoples. This compelling work offers keen insights into the relationships between Native and American identity and politics in a way that is both accessible to newcomers and compelling to those already familiar with these fields of study.
About the Author
Allison Hedge Coke currently holds the Reynolds Chair at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. She is the American Book Award winning author of several volumes of poetry and creative nonfiction, including Blood Run, a volume leading the pathway to preserving a traditional sacred site, Off-Season City Pipe, a cultural labor edition, and Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer, a landscape and cultural ethos memoir. Her edited literary collections include Effigies: An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing, Pacific Rim, 2009.