Inspired by When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, an Anthology of Native Nations Poetry.
Late last fall, United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo along with LeAnne Howe and Jennifer Elise Foerster edited a new groundbreaking anthology of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 Indigenous nations, in a comprehensive Native poetry anthology. This landmark anthology celebrates the Indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries.
One of the contributors, Tacey M. Atsitty and one of the editors, LeAnne Howe, will read from their own poetry and highlight the writings of other emerging Indigenous poets. This reading will be followed by a moderated conversation where audience members can also ask their own questions.
Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné, is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta’neeszahnii (Tangle People). Her maternal grandfather is Tábąąhí (Water Edge People) and her paternal grandfather is Hashk’áánhadzóhí (Yucca Fruit Strung-Out-In-A-Line People) from Cove, AZ.
She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. She holds bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018).
She is the poetry judge for Eggtooth Editions chapbook contest, director of the Navajo Film Festival, a member of the Board of Directors for Lightscatter Press, a member of the Advisory Council for Brigham Young University’s Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and member of the Advisory Board for the Intermountain All-Women Hoop Dance Competition. She is a PhD student in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University. She lives in Peru with her husband.
Poet, fiction writer, filmmaker, and playwright LeAnne Howe is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Howe’s lyrical poems engage Native American life. She is the author of the poetry collection Evidence of Red: Poems and Prose, which won the Oklahoma Book Award. Her novels include Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story and Shell Shaker, which won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. The French translation of Shell Shaker, entitled Equinoxes Rouge, was a finalist for the 2004 Prix Médicis Etranger. Howe’s scholarly articles have appeared in Pre-removal Choctaw History: Exploring New Paths, Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective, and Foundations of First Peoples’ Sovereignty: History, Culture, and Education. Howe’s honors include a Fulbright Scholarship to Jordan as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has also received the Writer of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers as well as a grant from the Iowa Arts Council.