Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry

by Joy Harjo (Editor), Carla D. Hayden (foreword), Library of Congress (Primary Contributor)

Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, has championed the voices of Native peoples past and present. Her signature laureate project gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into a national, fully digital map of story, sound, and space, celebrating their vital and unequivocal contributions to American poetry.


This companion anthology features each poem and poet from the project to offer readers a chance to hold the wealth of poems in their hands. With work from Natalie Diaz, Ray Young Bear, Craig Santos Perez, Sherwin Bitsui, Layli Long Soldier, among others, Living Nations, Living Words showcases, as Joy Harjo writes in her stirring introduction, “poetry [that] emerges from the soul of a community, the heart and lands of the people. In this country, poetry is rooted in the more than 500 living indigenous nations. Living Nations, Living Words is a representative offering.”

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Anthologies, Nonfiction, Native American, Native Americans, Social Justice

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2021

About the author

Bio Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She has released four award-winning CD's of original music and won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year. She performs nationally and internationally solo and with her band, The Arrow Dynamics. She has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, in venues in every major U.S. city and internationally. Most recently she performed We Were There When Jazz Was Invented at the Chan Centre at UBC in Vancouver, BC, and appeared at the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, which features guitarist Larry Mitchell premiered in Los Angeles in 2009, with recent performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, LaJolla Playhouse as part of the Native Voices at the Autry, and the University of British Columbia. Her seven books of poetry include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems and She Had Some Horses. Her awards include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She was recently awarded 2011 Artist of the Year from the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership Initiative, and a Rasmuson US Artists Fellowship. She is a founding board member and treasurer of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column Comings and Goings for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. Soul Talk, Song Language, Conversations with Joy Harjo was recently released from Wesleyan University Press. Crazy Brave, a memoir is her newest publication from W.W. Norton, and a new album of music is being produced by the drummer/producer Barrett Martin. She is at work on a new shows: We Were There When Jazz Was Invented, a musical story that proves southeastern indigenous tribes were part of the origins of American music. She lives in the Mvskoke Nation of Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Courtney Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

To say this was pure poetry doesn’t do it justice. I loved every bit of this. Even the intros were great. So many authentic voices and the poems were varied and incredible. Joy Harjo is incredible and great at being poet laureate. Definitely recommend. Read this for Houston Public Library’s native book challenge and this was the best one out of the sixteen.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing collection of poetry penned by Indigenous authors and edited by Joy Harjo, the US Poet Laureate. Like with any anthology, there are some I enjoyed more than others, but this was a delight to read. Make sure to check out the Library of Congress site compiled for this book, which features an interactive map of the poets featured along with readings of the poetry included.

[Katia M. Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harjo has brought together many distinct voices for her signature piece as 23rd US Poet Laureate. It's a project long overdue. There is a lot of pain and anguish within these pages, yet also pride, hope, strength, and joy. It's a beautiful and distinctive collection, complete with a photograph and brief bio of each contributor. I'll be looking out for some of the listed works of the contributors to buy.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: 4.5 STARS

Living Nations, Living Words is a great anthology if you are looking for poems that are brilliant but also give voice to many Indigenous poets on the idea of "home" and colonialism. Joy Harjo, editor and contributor to this collection, was the first Indigenous poet laureate of the United States. There are some well known writers/poets and some new to me (though many are new to me). I found this collection to be insightful and raw with emotion.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated this book as a companion piece to Joy Harjo’s online project of the same name. As a relative newcomer to poetry I often find it difficult to parse out the cadence an author is aiming for, especially if the layout of the poem is different. Listening to an author read their work while following along in the book made for an immersive experience. I highly recommend visiting the interactive version of this anthology online.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really neat collection. I loved the bios too.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Native American poetry compiled by Joy Harjo representing Native Americans from all over the country. These poems constitute a good lesson on the history of our indigenous peoples and their concerns.

[cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled into this thinking it was new book of Joy Harjo poems -- in fact, it is a new book of poems lovingly curated by Joy Harjo from Indigenous poets. Loved it just as much.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. Another excellent compilation edited by Joy Harjo. So happy to have these poems in my brain's reading history.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really moving variety of poetry from indigenous writers

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful anthology of poetry!

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really wonderful collection of contemporary Indigenous poetry, organized & treated with obvious care. I especially loved getting to see photos of the poets alongside their poems, & am looking forward to checking out the online component to this project. Thank you, Joy Harjo!

[Debra Lowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful anthology edited by Harjo. There are so many poets whose voices were new to me. Thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to those whom Harjo included.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ These are the stories that belong here,
that pushed up through this soil unfurling
as arrow-leaved balsamroot leaves and boulders
found in unusual places." Heather Cahoon

“One language
humming the words
down from the summer
the sprawling river are glorious…” Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya

Stunning, beautiful words of the indigenous people of my country. Of the land, really, of the spirit of it. I have no ancestors to teach me, but I love this land and these words, and am so grateful that they lend me the words and ideas and songs to start somewhere. I hope to never appropriate for my own, just to listen with an open heart, learn with an open mind, and revere and revel in the beauty and sorrow. Start here if you want to hear the alive poems with commentary: Living Nations, Living Words https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index...

The mapmaking represented by this anthology comes at a crucial time in history, a time in which the failures to acknowledge, listen to, and consider everyone when making the map of American memory has brought us to a reckoning.
Joy Harjo, Muscogee Nation, Poet Laureate of the United States.

When the undertow of these questions begins pulling you out to sea, remember: migration flows through our blood like the aerial roots of the banyan tree. Remember: our ancestors taught us how to carry our culture in the canoes of our bodies. Remember: our people, scattered like stars, form new constellations when we gather. Remember: home is not simply a house, village, or island; home is an archipelago of belonging.

Craig Santos Perez, a native CHamoru from the Pacific island of Guåhan (Guam).

Tomorrow, after we welcome home our beloved Living Beings
It will be as if they never left home or us, their many relatives
It will be as if they never left home or us
It will be as if they never left
It will be as if they never
It will be as if
It will be
It will be as if there were no yesterday
It will be tomorrow

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee)

Indigenous Physics: The Element Colonizatium
1. The elimination of a substance from a living organism follows complex chemical kinetics. For example, the biological half-life of water in a human being is 9 to 10 days, with adjustments for behavior and temperature. Obviously, the half-life of a substance depends upon the substance itself— measure for toxicity, fierceness, sheer venom.
The research at hand for us today, then, is clear: what is the half-life of Colonizatium? Does Colonizatium reduce to half its initial impact in 50 years? In 1000 years? At what point does Colonizatium become unstable? Is the half-life of Colonizatium constant over the lifetime of an exponentially decaying Indigenous body?
….
However, despite the probabilistic nature of the inquiry, this as-yet-undiscovered formula is thought to be paramount for our research into a chronological prediction of the Post-Colonial state. Recent studies indicate that the mixing of elements in unequal toxicities and immeasurable psycho-social dynamics may best be gauged not in mathematics or statistics or theoretical constructs, but in the three Indigenous elements Story, Dance, and Song.
…
Preliminary work that combines Dreaming with the three known elements reveals two astonishing facts: First) a post-Colonizatium status is, in fact, impossible to achieve. Second) Story, Dance, Song and Dreaming do not calculate nor predict the half-life of Colonizatium.
Rather, when applied to the Colonized subject, these four elements hasten the decay of Colonizatium, pull the heavy history into themselves, break it down the same way maize, mustard greens, pennycress, sunflowers, Blue sheep fescue, and canola transform heavy metals.
The same way water hyacinths suck up mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc, cesium, strontium-90, uranium and pesticides, the same way bladder campion accumulates copper, Indian mustard greens concentrate selenium, sulphur, chromium.
The same way willow, Salix viminalis, absorbs uranium and petrochemicals.
Deborah A. Miranda is both an enrolled member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation of the Greater Monterey Bay Area and of Chumash ancestry

These are the stories that belong here,
that pushed up through this soil unfurling
as arrow-leaved balsamroot leaves and boulders
found in unusual places.

How else does a thing enter this world
now so changed we struggle to hear
the shapes of a language that no longer fits every ear.

Each story word frag-

Ment moves
over hills the highest reaches of trees
without catching in memory.

But the crispness of Snlaq’éy of Kwĺncutn like fire
crackle the flick of sound a body remembers.

Heather Cahoon is an award-winning poet, artist, and policy scholar from the Flathead Reservation, where she is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Consider: we are made almost entirely of water and electricity.
So our vernacular of emotion employs surge wave
spark, impulse and current, the flood of salt or rush of crackling blue
pulse, of arcing rivulet. A measurement of with and without.

I believe in reincarnation in so much as I know
an ancestor passed tome the memory of
making oneself into a universe.
…
Here is what I can say: I am I.Warrior, I.Glacier, I. Photon,
I.Vine, I. Rivulet, I.Integer, I.Summoner,
I. Wave, I.Exhalation, I.
Prism, I. And culture bending through me.

Lehua M. Taitano is a queer CHamoru writer and interdisciplinary artist from Yigu, Guåhan (Guam)

These Rivers Remember

In these rivers, on these lakes
Bde - wa ’- kan - ton -wan saw the sky.
North of here lies Bdo - te ,
Center of the Earth. Through their songs,
the wind held onto visions.
We still help earth walk
her spiral way, feeling
the flow of rivers
and their memories of turning
and change.

These rivers remember their ancient names,
Ha - ha Wa’-kpa, where people moved
in harmony thousands of years
before trade became more valuable than lives.
In their songs, the wind held onto visions.
Let’s drop our burdens and rest. Let’s recognize
our need for awe. South of here, the rivers meet
and mingle. Bridges and roads, highway signs,
traffic ongoing. Sit where there’s a center
and a drum, feel the confluence
of energies enter our hearts
so their burning begins to matter.

This is Maka coka - ya kin,
The Center of the Earth.

Roberta Hill (also known as Roberta Hill Whiteman), Oneida, is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and scholar

When we were river people the sun made an alphabet of light struck trees…

Gordon Henry Jr., an enrolled citizen of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation, is a poet and fiction writer.

my brothers are mourning a loss they try to fix in finding home in another person, so they travel from reservation to city singing blues and 49 songs about love.
…
i pull my brothers from cars named after indians: navajo, cherokee, & tacoma. on a danger destined road my brothers are born longing for a way back from relocation & long walks across miles & miles & miles of removal. my brothers search for themselves in unhealthy addictions disguised as makeshift bandages.
…
my brothers stumble through back alleys looking for a love & laughter that was stolen from them like the land. and when their brown bodies try to find healing & love, other brown bodies cringe at their touch because like any good indian woman, our bodies are connected to an earth, still being raped by the pipelines forcibly laid down inside all that we hold sacred. and my brothers hold onto their colonial emotional baggage so tightly they think it’s gravity
…
so i pull my brothers from oceans believing they deserve the hurt so much they nearly drown themselves in it. and sometimes my brothers knife ancestral grieving onto their wrists, slits to remember the only time we are ever red, skinned is when blood flows from the open wounds america knifed onto our brown skin. self-love: apply pressure.
i pull my brothers from ashes. america tried to burn us not knowing we were already flame. & these will be the stories i tell my grandchildren when one day, they ask me—why being a good indian woman means we burn like phoenix repeatedly pulling our brothers.

Tanaya Winder is Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Southern Ute.

There are hidden places where the high waters fall in rainbowed silence sucked in through igneous stone pulsing the columnar dikes of earth’s vast waterworks spilling over soul’s sacred edge… Mahealani Perez-Wendt, Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian)

One language
humming the words
down from the summer
the sprawling river are glorious
color and the season
the vibrancy of the apricot
silhouetted against trees on the surface.

Fires burning
Think of the fall without your interior world
Remembering this gift from the stars

Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya (Comanche/Yuchi)
Resolution 2

I

Commend this land

And this land

Honor this land

Native this land

Peoples this land

For this land

The this land

Thousands this land

Of this land

Years this land

That this land

Years this land

That this land
They this land

Have this land

Stewarded this land

And this land

Protected this land this land this land this land

this
Layli Long Soldier, citizen of the Oglala Lakota.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any large poetry collection, Living Nations had some poems I really liked, some I didn’t love, and a ton that were good but maybe didn’t completely stand out.

Regardless, this is a great starting point for anyone interested in indigenous/Native American poetry. You’ve got some heavy hitters like Harjo herself, Louise Erdrich, Layli Longsoldier, and Natalie Diaz. But most of the other poets may be new to most folks so this is a great way to discover some new up and coming poets from around the country.

[Annie Yotova · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all started as a map: https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-a... - Joy Harjo decited to map the U.S. with Native Nations poets and poems. There was one condition - they had to be still living, showing the modern state of the art (one of the authors died while the project was in progress). The result was a selection of 47 poets, covering the map (including Alaska and all the Pacific islands (including Guam)) and showing the diversity of the genre. The map was built based on where a poet wanted to be shown - where their tribe is, where their tribe used to be or where the poet feels at home. Then the 47 poets recorded their poems, added commentary (available to listen to or as a transcript) about the poem, their connection to poetry and a lot more things in between and someone added short biographies. And the online project was complete.

Then came the anthology - the book that actually made me realize that this project existed. It reprints the 47 poems - and the biographies - bu leaves out the commentaries. And unlike a map where you can pick your own order through it, a book had to order the poems somehow. A few of the poems are bilingual, a few are in English but they are using so many native words that you need internet to figure out what happens if you do not speak the language (a couple of poems have translations in footnotes, most don't). The order appears to be geographical on the surface but if you read the introduction, you will realize that the map directions are used as a base for a topic - beginning and endings - and if you are still not sure, a Hawaiian poem in the middle section drives that home.

The poems are steeped into the cultures they are coming from - some of them retell legends, some of them talk about the reality of their people now; some go back in time into history, some seem to look forward. Coming from different cultures, they are discordant and different - there is no overall tradition that ties them together as happens with most anthologies - except for Earth, suffering and hope.

I did not like every single poem, I did not understand quite a few of them (for some the commentaries helped, for others, even that did not help much). Most are modern (with all the mess that comes from modern poetry) although there are a few traditional styles. A few of them sound like chants, a few are almost crossing into prose. Some are a few lines long, some are 18 pages (ok... only one is 18 pages). Some use the page to almost draw a picture with the positioning of the words, others allow the words to talk for themselves.

But what all of them end up is creating pictures and make you think and feel. And that's what good poetry does.

Even if the whole project was just this anthology, I would still have liked it. Add the online portions and it becomes a lot more.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living Nations, Living Words, edited by Joy Harjo (23rd U.S. Poet Laureate) is the kind of poetry anthology I wish I had had access to when I was starting college. It’s no surprise to those of us who follow new releases in Native literature that there have been a number of profoundly different anthologies over the last few years. Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers, New Poets of Native Nations, and Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations represent the kind of accessible anthologies many of us simply couldn’t have imagined when we sat in front of old Norton anthologies ten (okay twelve or so) years ago.

Living Nations opens up space for a wide range of Indigenous voices. Indigiqueer voices can be found within, as can Pasifika and Alaska Native writers, and elder writers. There are some of the most well-known names (Erdrich, Howe, Harjo, Tapahanso) and many who you may not know. There is a tendency perhaps for over representation from certain tribal nations. As a White Earth Ojibwe person, I wasn’t complaining but there were a lot of poets from our nation represented here.

The best part about this collection is that it’s a companion piece to Harjo’s Library Of Congress audio project, which means you can hear the poets reading their work and providing brief discussions that provide additional context for their pieces.

I haven’t been in love with a poetry anthology in a long time and this one feels tremendously important. If you’re looking for new Indigenous poets, pick up this book. If you want to see a diverse representation of craft among Indigenous writers, pick up this book. If you feel like poetry isn’t really your thing, pick up this book. This book is for everyone.

[Hollis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was solid. It's just a printed version of a project taken up by the editor as the U.S. Poet Laureate, so it's difficult to critique as a 'conventional' anthology. I appreciated reading through the collection, but I can't help but feel that most readers can probably turn elsewhere for a collection. Unfortunately, one poem per author is a rough rule to play by. I wish the individual pages dedicated to author headshot/bios had been cut down to make more room for additional selections, but this is no doubt an extension from the constraints required for the less than usual background informing this collection's structure. Speaking of, the presentation of three sections (Becoming/East, Center/North-South, Departure/West) remains an odd decision, given the replication of settler time and geographies, but, nonetheless, the mapping by way of TOC (table of contents) hardly provides much of a generative framing for the poems. Despite all the critiques, at the end of the day, it is best (for a simple reader, at least) to evaluate an anthology by way of the resonance of its selected materials. And I found much of interest here. Some favorites include: Lehua M. Taitano’s “Current, I,” Laura Da''s "The Rhetorical Feminine," Sy Hoahwah’s “Hall’s Acre,” Joan Naviyuk Kane’s “Rookeries,” Kim Shuck's "This River," B: William Bearheart's "Transplant: After Georgia O'Keeffe's Pelvis IV,1944," and Sherwin Bitsui's excerpts from Dissolve. Taken together, this brief volume provides a short introduction to contemporary Indigenous American poetry. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone well versed in the field, but it's solid as a brief survey.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

My true rating is closer to a 3.5 out of 5. I gave it a 4 because I think the breadth and importance of such a project deserves high praise, but the quality of the selections are pretty spotty.

As others have mentioned, this anthology came into being as it was originally a digital collection/mapping project by then U.S. poet laureate, Joy Harjo.

In just a couple hundred pages we are introduced to 47 distinct poet voices. This wide inclusion is both impressive and important, but also somewhat frustrating due to the brevity in selections from each poet.

The themes of this collection vary greatly, but echoing themes within are those of diaspora, loss, grief, pride, belonging, the power of place and language, and the tragic force of colonization, capitalism, and modernity.

Despite my deep appreciation for Harjo’s project and subsequent anthology, my rating is on the lower side simply because I did feel that there was some stark contrast between the quality of the selections. Some poems just did not hold their weight against others in the collection.

That said, some of the more memorable selections for me were “Indigenous Physics: the Element Colonizatium” by Deborah A. Miranda, “Notes from Coosa” by Jennifer Elise Foerster, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Indian” by Anita Endrezze, “Palominos Near Tuba City” by Denise Sweet, and “When We Were River People” by Gordon Henry Jr.

[Roger DeBlanck · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw Joy Harjo, one of my favorite contemporary poets, compiled and edited this collection with its focus on Native voices, I was immediately interested. But unlike the instant accessibility and stunning profundity that Harjo produces almost effortlessly like magic in her own poems, the poetry collected in this volume is underwhelming and lacking. So many pieces rambled on and were verbose to the point of losing my focus, or they came off as too simplistic, repetitious, and trite. A lot of the pieces felt improvisational, as though the content yearned on short notice to say something vital, but ended up uninspiring. As I slogged forward, I finally arrived midway through the volume at the best piece “Exile of Memory” which belongs to Harjo. She had me mesmerized, as her poems always do, so I’d much rather turn to the power and immediacy of her work, rather than have my mind wandering to engage with poems she collected that didn’t command my attention. I commend what Harjo is doing with this project of celebrating Native history and heritage through a diversity of poetic voices, but I didn’t find the work topnotch.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend reading this collection while listening to the authors read their work in this interactive Story Map. Readings, commentaries, and further information about the writers, their homelands, and their work are available through this resource. For a fuller experience of these words, particularly those in the languages of the First Peoples, this feature is essential.

Joy Harjo has put together a beautiful collection of voices across the modern-day United States, reminding us of the need to recognize the First Peoples as a culmination of diverse tribes, each with their own history and culture that deserves to be remembered. Each writer presents a unique style and perspective on Native identity, diaspora, history, and present-day struggles. I believe I will be re-reading and re-listening to many of these poems, revisiting these voices, over the years, as I learn more about First Peoples and their beautiful relationships with the land, and with one another.

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars — Lots of beautiful poems here. There’s a website that maps where each poem is located and describes the goal with this project, which is to map the United States with Native poets and shine a spotlight on a group that is often invisible or erased. Some of the poems that really stuck with me that you can read digitally: Indigenous Physics: The Element Colonizatium, daybreak, Advice to Myself, The Book of the Missing, Murdered and Indigenous - Chapter One, Postcolonial Love Poem, i gotta be Indian tomorrow, like any good indian woman , and Current, I.

[Tawny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite lines:
1. "Remember: our ancestors taught us how to carry our culture in the canoes of our bodies.
Remember: our people, scattered like stars, form new constellations when we gather.
Remember: home is not simply a house, village, or island; home is an archipelago of belonging" (16).
2. "Stars shine all day, forever, and we don't see them./Our souls, whether white or ndn or Other, shine even longer" (94).
3. "I chase poems down like wild mares into fenced corrals/I watch close calls with wisdom rear and kick/against the fences of good judgment./I used to think the skies brought them home,/thundering hooves and swollen bellies, ready to spark/and fire the dry bony floor, sulfuric aroma real as rain./But now, the horses of white lightning gallop toward me/afraid of nothing, they rush with an eye for hesitation/ready to brush up against my heart with their horse madness" (107).

[J R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read on Libby, Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry by Joy Harjo which has been on my reading list since May 4, 2021, when it was first published. Learned about this book after reading Harjo’s book, Poet Warrior back in 2021. I’ve read almost all of Harjo’s books and always enjoy her work.

This book includes forty-seven contemporary Native Nations poets, a sampling from many who write poetry in these times. Many of these American and world poets go back to the beginning of Native poetry.

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is the twenty-third Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and the first Native American poet to serve in the position. She is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently An American Sunrise, and the award-winning memoir Crazy Brave. In 2019, she was awarded the Jackson Prize and was elected as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Good read indeed

[Camille Dungy]

Those interested in Harjo’s writing should be sure not to miss the recent anthology collected as part of her signature laureate project. Harjo says, “Poetry doesn’t just emerge, it emerges from the soul of a community.” In Living Nations, Living Words, you’ll find poems by 50-some Indigenous American and Pacific Islander writers, including Ray Young Bear, Imaikalani Kalahele, Elise Paschen, Roberta Hill, Duane Niatum, Cedar Sigo, Henry Real Bird, Natalie Diaz, Mahealani Perez-Wendt, and Layli Long Soldier. The anthology, as well as the ground-breaking online project from which the anthology grew, reinforces the truth that “heritage is a living thing, and that there can be no heritage without land and the relationships that outline our kinship.”

Review published originally with Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/2021/11/nat...

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

A wonderful collection of poetry and a great starting place for those interested in reading more Indigenous authors. This book features poets from around the country with a diverse inclusion of styles, themes, and heritages and tribes represented. It provides a nice sampling from which readers can explore more from the poets they especially enjoyed.

Because of the outstanding diversity featured, there's a little something for everyone. Some of the poems really resonated with me while others weren't to my taste. But overall it was a satisfying collection.

My TBR has grown significantly after reading this book.

[RavenT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, served three terms as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, from 2019 to 2022. She chose as her laureate project to gather the work of contemporary Native poets into a fully digital map of story, sound, and geographic location, celebrating their contributions to American poetry. Each poem is read by the poet, who then explains the inspiration. Access to the map and sound files on the Library of congress website is free. This companion anthology features each poem and poet from the project and is helpful but not necessary for navigating the online project. Five stars for the combined experience.

https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-a...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/livin...

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living Nations, Living Words is an absolute treasure, the kind of book one buys to hang onto and to pull out regularly to read from. With the number of poets (and poems) included, it's not a text to read in a single sitting. Read the work of one or two of the included poets, let the sit with you, then move on to another in a few days. Savor this book in small bites.

This is an essential book for anyone who enjoys reading poetry, First Peoples/Native American literature, U.S. history, cultural studies. Five very bright stars!

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edeleiss; the opinions are my own.

[Carolyn Lipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant anthology. While every poem may not resonate with every reader, most readers will find the poems taken together give an overarching sense of indigenous culture and experiences viewed from individual poets' points of view. Some bring tears to the eye, others express anger and grief, while still others have touches of humor, and all open the eyes and heart to aspects of indigenous people's experience. Poets contributing to this anthology represent First Nations people from Pacific Islanders and Alaskan people to mainland US from the west, mid-west, and eastern portions of the country. I highly recommend this wonderful anthology.

[Aaron Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an anthology of poems by different authors who are Native American or indigenous.

The best way to describe this book is “loving and lamenting.” Each author expresses their joy as well as the pain they feel both personally and for their people group as a whole.

This is a great book to hear from another perspective and grow in sympathy toward indigenous peoples.

The poetry is moving, celebratory, and at times anger inducing when talking about the sorrowful history of how our country has treated the Native American community. Yet it’s not overly bleak as it has poetry that looks forward in hope and joy!