Awards

• Long-listed for ALA Carnegie Medal 2022
• Short-listed for Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award 2022
• Winner of Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award 2022

Overview

Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her ""poet-warrior"" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, and the messengers of a changing earth-owls heralding grief, resilient desert plants, and a smooth green snake curled up in surprise. She celebrates the influences that shaped her poetry, among them Audre Lorde, N. Scott Momaday, Walt Whitman, Muscogee stomp dance call-and-response, Navajo horse songs, rain, and sunrise. In absorbing, incantatory prose, Harjo grieves at the loss of her mother, reckons with the theft of her ancestral homeland, and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member. Moving fluidly between prose, song, and poetry, Harjo recounts a luminous journey of becoming, a spiritual map that will help us all find home. Poet Warrior sings with the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo.

Full Product Details

9780393248524

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Harjo is the first Native Poet Laureate of the United States. Her second memoir (after “Crazy Brave”) blends personal journey with cultural meaning, weaving in stories from her ancestors that shaped her growth as an artist and teacher. The result is as strong and lyric as her poetry."" -- 10 Books To Read in September - The Washington Post ""Blending poetry and prose, Harjo examines her childhood, her ancestors and her path to becoming the country’s first Native American poet laureate."" -- What To Read - The New York Times ""In this triumphant memoir, our three-term Poet Laureate lyrically fuses poetry and prose to capture her Creek Nation family... “I walk in and out of several worlds each day,” Harjo once wrote—and in Poet Warrior, she threads them all together masterfully."" -- Adrienne Westenfeld, The Best Books of Fall 2021 - Esquire ""Alternating between poetry and prose, Harjo meditates on the stories and songs she grew up with, her artistic and ancestral influences and how poetry informs and reflects her connection to her community and home. The result is a memoir that is soulful and celebratory."" -- 34 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021 - TIME Magazine

A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Harjo is the first Native Poet Laureate of the United States. Her second memoir (after Crazy Brave ) blends personal journey with cultural meaning, weaving in stories from her ancestors that shaped her growth as an artist and teacher. The result is as strong and lyric as her poetry. -- 10 Books To Read in September - The Washington Post Blending poetry and prose, Harjo examines her childhood, her ancestors and her path to becoming the country's first Native American poet laureate. -- What To Read - The New York Times In this triumphant memoir, our three-term Poet Laureate lyrically fuses poetry and prose to capture her Creek Nation family... I walk in and out of several worlds each day, Harjo once wrote-and in Poet Warrior, she threads them all together masterfully. -- Adrienne Westenfeld, The Best Books of Fall 2021 - Esquire Alternating between poetry and prose, Harjo meditates on the stories and songs she grew up with, her artistic and ancestral influences and how poetry informs and reflects her connection to her community and home. The result is a memoir that is soulful and celebratory. -- 34 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021 - TIME Magazine

Author Information

Joy Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She is the author of several poetry collections, memoirs, children’s books, and music albums. She is the recipient of many awards for her creative work, including a National Humanities Medal. She lives in Oklahoma.

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