Description
Poetry. California Interest. Native American Studies. Imagined and real worlds intersect as lyric poet Denise Low dances between mortals and the dead, humans and animals, her European and Indigenous heritages. Real pandemics and wildfires set the stage as she illumines connections between the rational and intuitive. This former Poet Laureate of Kansas mourns the lost buffalo herds and celebrates the irresistible and beautiful material world of art, from Renaissance paintings to recent works by Nick Cave, Julie Buffalohead, and Peter Max. History is a living entity in the works: English lords court on teacups; a spirit woman walks Cimarron Breaks. Two hands and vestigial limbs—including wings—are tools for understanding the dualities of existence. Low’s rich work sings a healing song, knitting opposites together into a whole.
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