Shapes of Native nonfiction : collected essays by contemporary writers
Title:
Shapes of Native nonfiction : collected essays by contemporary writers
Author:
Washuta, Elissa, editor.
ISBN:
9780295745756
Physical Description:
266 pages ; 23 cm
Contents:
Exquisite vessels / Contemporary creative writing and ancient oral tradition / Letter to a just-starting-out Indian writer-and maybe to myself / Funny, you don't look like (my preconceived ideas of) an essay / Nizhoní dóó 'a'ani' dóó até'él'í dóó ayoo'o'oni (beauty & memory & abuse & love) / Fairy tales, trauma, writing into dissociation / Sasha LaPointe -- Tuolumne / I know I'll go / Little mountain woman / Fear to forget & fear to forgive : or an attempt at writing a travel essay / Fertility rites / AND SO I ANAL DOUCHE WHILE KESHA'S "PRAYING" PLAYS FROM MY IPHONE ON REPEAT / The Great Elk / Real romantic / The trickster surfs the floods / The way of wounds / To the man who gave me cancer / Self-portrait with parts missing and/or smeared / Critical poly 100s / Pain scale treaties / Caribou people / Part one : redeeming the English language (acquisition) series / Apocalypse logic / Women in the Fracklands : on water, land, bodies, and Standing Rock / Goodbye Once upon a time / I am chopping ivory or bone / Blood running / A mind spread out on the ground
Abstract:
"For many the phrase 'Native nonfiction' inspires thoughts of the past, of timeless oral history transcriptions and dry 19th century autobiographies. In Shapes of Native Nonfiction, Washuta and Warburton explode this perspective by showcasing 22 contemporary Native writers and their provocative approaches to form. While exploring familiar legacies of personal and collective trauma and violence, these writers push, pull and break the conventional essay structure to overhaul the dominant cultural narrative that romanticize Native lives, yet deny Native emotional response. Organized into four sections inspired by different aspects of and strategies for basket weaving (Technique, Coiling, Plaiting, Twining) the essays presented here demonstrate how Native writers manipulate the shape of creative nonfiction to offer incisive observations, critiques and commentary on our political, social and cultural world. The result is an engaging anthology that introduces a variety of audiences to the true range of Native nonfiction work"--Provided by publisher.
