Description
Poetry. Native American Studies. "The natural elements are honored and reclaimed in all their vital glory in Denise Low's SHADOW LIGHT. Water, land, wind, and language rise up and dazzle. Low splinters syntax and line to signal presence, absence, spirit, and light. These are also elegiac poems for a father, sister, and grandparents, and gloss the history and resilience of the Lenape, Cherokee, Cheyenne, and Kiowa people. Low translates nature into human song and back again. This is a riveting and urgent collection by an accomplished poet, who courts a hummingbird so that we may witness it 'bullet dive' and open a portal into another world."—Hadara Bar-Nadav
"Denise Low's SHADOW LIGHT extends her poetics to the realm of natural magic: Lyric embedded with Story. History embedded with Myth. English challenged with Native languages. Imagery enriched with Sound. Pop Culture meshed with ritual Culture. The built Environment genuflecting to the natural Environment. SHADOW LIGHT is masterful poetry by an accomplished poet; this is poetry I wish I had written myself."—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
"Denise Low's SHADOW LIGHT deals with sight, appearances, and apparitions. Shades slide through layers of history, layers of earth, sidewise in a single line, 'peripheral twilight / black-and-white lexicon / flicker flit freeze.' Low conveys liminal perceptions by leaving enough unsaid. In these painterly poems, physical features emanate tones and patterns. SHADOW LIGHT is brilliant—don't miss it."—Joseph Harrington
"SHADOW LIGHT is a sweep of polarities—life / death, past / present, upheaval / peace. This spot-on writing casts variegated light on our world—flycatchers, curlew, little people, opossum—and other travelers of day and night."—Diane Glancy
Author Bio
Denise Low, the second Kansas Poet Laureate, is award- winning author of over 30 books of prose and poetry. She blogs, reviews, and co- publishes Mammoth Publications, which specializes in Indigenous American authors. Forward Reviews writes of her memoir The Turtle's Beating Heart: One Family's Story of Lenape Survival: "An accomplished poet, Low's well-honed prose flows with lyric intensity." In American Book Review David Carlson wrote of her JACKALOPE (Red Mountain Press): "an engaging and humorous read, one that reveals a great deal about the parallel, contemporary Native America that exists and thrives." Other recent books are SHADOW LIGHT (Red Mountain Press, 2018), MÉLANGE BLOCK (Red Mountain Press); Casino Bestiary: Poems (Spartan Press), Ghost Stories of the New West (Woodley, Kansas Notable Book and The Circle -Best Native American Books); and NATURAL THEOLOGIES: ESSAYS (The Backwaters Press).
She teaches professional workshops nationally as well as classes for Baker University's School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She founded the Creative Writing program at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she taught for 27 years. Low is past board president of the national Associated Writers and Writing Programs, and she currently is a contributing editor to the Writer's Chronicle. Her MFA is from Wichita State University and PhD is from the University of Kansas. A fifth-generation Kansan, she has British Isles, German, and Delaware (Lenape/Munsee) and other heritages.
Author City: LAWRENCE, KS USA