Indigenous Authors to Get Into

This collection of eighteen contemporary and intersecting stories of tribal life is told from the perspective of young protagonists. It features tales from the Ojibwe, Cherokee, Cree, Choctaw, Cherokee, Navajo, and Abenaki nations, as well as others. Well-known and newer authors shine here in these stories of resilience, humor, and honoring the past.

Little Badger writes from the perspectives of an asexual Lipan Apache teen girl— similar to her novel Elatsoe— and a cottonmouth snake teen from the spirit world in her second YA novel. The two teens’ worlds collide after a catastrophic event on earth. Lipan Apache storytelling is woven around tales of environmental destruction in this coming-of-age story.

Here’s an interview with the author.

This often funny novel is out today and follows Ojibwe woman Tookie as she starts to get settled into her new life outside of prison. Having found solace in books during her sentence, Tookie still looks to books on the outside and finds herself working at the independently and Indigenous owned books store, Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. When the bookstore’s most annoying customer Flora dies with a book open next to her, not having had enough time to properly mark her place, no doubt, she continues to peruse the bookstore aisles as a ghost. In addition to Flora’s ghost, the characters throughout are haunted by George Floyd’s murder (especially as it happened in Minneapolis) and COVID. This novel sees to it that America has a reckoning with its ghosts, which were born of its violent past and present.

The bookstore setting is based on Erdrich’s actual bookstore Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. I bought Elatsoe online from them for the Insiders’ group read and received it very quickly if you’re looking to support an Indigenous owned bookstore.

This recently won the 2021 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. It follows four young Blackfeet men after their indiscretion of hunting elk on forbidden elders’ land. Unfortunately for them, one elk is unusually hard to kill and they find themselves changing roles from predator to prey. With this novel, Jones offers an exploration of generational trauma and justice.

Rebecca Roanhorse’s follow up to Black Sun, Fevered Star, is set to be released in April 2022. The cover is absolutely s t u n n i n g.

Deepa Mehta is set to direct an adaption of Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi.

Billy Porter To Direct ‘Camp’ For HBO Max And Warner Bros.

This post by Sarah Rahman gives an overview of Poet Laureates in the U.S. Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate, is mentioned here.

Kelly Jensen gives us the rundown on censorship news this week.

Danika Ellis dissects Matt Krause’s foolishness.

Danika, again, but with a palette cleanser in the form of some good bookish news, leading with how characters of color in U.K. kids’ books have quadrupled in the last four years.

One more palette cleanser: find out which 90s witch you are for a book recommendation