Description
Poetry. California Interest. Native American Studies. Containing the work of 31 poets from 29 tribes, Red Indian Road West is the first poetry anthology encompassing the entire range of Native American experience in California. With more than 720,000 Native Americans, California has by far the largest Native American population of any state and perhaps the most diverse. There are currently more than one hundred American Indian tribes indigenous to California, as well as many Native Americans from tribes nationwide now residing in the state.
Contributors: Indira Allegra, Judi Brannan Armbruster, J.P. Dancing Bear, Nanette Bradley Deetz, E.K. Cooper, Roberta Reyes Cordero, Lucille Lang Day, Natalie Diaz, Carolyn Dunn, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Jewelle Gomez, Janice Gould, Alison Hart, John Hershman, Senna Heyatawin, Dave Holt, Frank LaPena, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, James Luna, Sal Martinez, Shaunna Oteka McCovey, Stephen Meadows, Deborah A. Miranda, Manny Moreno, Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez, Linda Noel, Wendy Rose, Sylvia Ross, Kurt Schweigman, Marlon Sherman, Kim Shuck, Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez
"RED INDIAN ROAD WEST is an assertion and a statement saying, 'We have always been here. You will never forget us. You cannot do so.' Indigenous people and their insistent passion. Traveling from inland hills to seashores. Their experiences in hot desert and hard mountain. Vital moments to viral moments like no other, but always within the present one. Karuk. Wintu. Konkow. Pomo. Miwok. Mohave. Chumash. Costanoan Esselen. Ohlone. And more. And more than we can name but which will always be remembered. And later on, the Lakota, Dakota, Cherokee, Wampanoag, and others, so our indigenous essence will always be momentous. Read, listen, hear, and be assured. Know again and always!"—Simon J. Ortiz
"An anthology is a community, each voice telling its story in this tribal gathering. RED INDIAN ROAD WEST is a pow wow of sorts. It takes many voices to tell the story of the Native spirit and experience. The voices often are uprooted, yet find place within language. There is camaraderie, wounding, anger, defiance, celebration and disclosure in these wolf songs of the heart."—Diane Glancy
Author Bio
Kurt Schweigman has published and performed as Luke Warm Water in the past. His poetry appears in Shedding Skins: Four Sioux Poets (Michigan State University Press, 2008). He has authored several chapbooks, one of which was awarded an Artists Embassy International Literary/Cultural Award (2013). Kurt was a featured poet at the prestigious Geraldine R. Dodge 12th Biennial Poetry Festival (2008) and was the first spoken-word poet to receive an Archibald Bush Foundation individual artist fellowship in literature (2005). He emerged on the poetry spoken-word scene in the late 1990s and has won Poetry Slam competitions across the United States and in Germany. He currently resides in Oakland, California. Kurt is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribe.
Lucille Lang Day has published ten poetry collections and chapbooks, including BECOMING AN ANCESTOR (Červena Barvá Press, 2015) and Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems (Blue Light, 2015), which received the 2014 Blue Light Poetry Award. Her first poetry collection, Self-Portrait with Hand Microscope, received the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. She is also the author of a children's book, Chain Letter, and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story, which received a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her poems, short stories, and essays have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. The founder and director of Scarlet Tanager Books, she holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and a PhD in science/mathematics education from the University of California, Berkeley. She is of Wampanoag, British, and Swiss/German descent.
Author City: OAKLAND, CA USA