Fishing for Myth

by Heid E. Erdrich

Poetry. Native American Studies. "In this delightful collection, Heid E. Erdrich reveals the mythic encounter beneath our daily lives. We see in a new light the boyfriend, the childhood game, the losses we endured, the dog we longed for, all given us again with rich and moving language. This collection comes into the heart like the first snow of winter and the blazing green of spring buds. It makes you take stock of your life and feel glad for it all."—Roberta Hill, author of Star Quilt

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Native American

70 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Heid E. Erdrich writes and publishes poetry and non-fiction. Her NEW book of poems, Cell Traffic, a new and selected from University of Arizona Press, IS NOW AVAILABLE. Please consider buying it from www.birchbarkbooks.com

Heid's most recent book of poems, National Monuments from Michigan State University Press, won the 2009 Minnesota Book Award. Heid Erdrich teaches writing workshops, often as a guest at various colleges and universities. Each year she leads the Turtle Mountain Writers Workshop on her home reservation in North Dakota. Heid also works with American Indian visual artists as a curator and arts advocate. Author of the play "Curiosities," she collaborates broadly on multi-discilinary performances of other artists as well.

Founder of Wiigwaas Press, along with her sister Louise Erdrich and poet James Cihlar, Heid continues to publish Ojibwe language books in an effort to assist in indigenous language revitalization work.

Reviews

[Carmyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of my affinity for story, myth, legend, fairy tale I particularly enjoyed this collection. Because Erdrich and I share a geographical heritage I could relate to and recognize images and ideas in her poems and that is one of the pleasures of poetry. The connections.

These are the ones I liked best of all:

True Myth (p13)
Origin of Poem (p14)
Sweeping Heaven (p17)
Breaking and Entering (p18)
One Girl (p22)
The Pond (p33)
Fat in America (p35)
Sweet Short (p40)
Sex in the Desert (p41)
Short Hand (p55)
The Widow's Grove (p64)

I am hope to read more of her work.

[Lori Stoltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that made me really fall in love with Heid's words. I adore you, Heid!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love her later poetry so much that this 1997 book seemed a bit ordinary. The flashes of brilliance are there, but National Monuments (2008) and Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media (2017) take it all the way.

[Jacqueline Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been a minute since a poetry collection genuinely gave me chills. The mythological world that Erdrich dives into is at once beautiful and disorienting. This collection does the work of creating stories out of our life experiences and it is wonderfully detailed.