Recommended Reading: New Native Lit
We’re so excited to share this list featuring some of our favorite books by Native authors to come out in 2020, plus a few bonus picks that you can preorder for 2021! All these titles are #OwnVoices stories, histories, and poems from writers who are indigenous to North America, with the exception of a few that we’ve included at the end to highlight some examples of astounding graphic journalism that came out this year. Thanks so much for reading, and check out last year’s list for even more #NativeLit recommendations!
Buying and reading these books is a great way to show your support for Native voices! That said, it does not replace the ongoing efforts we, as settlers, must all commit to, if we wish to be true allies to indigenous communities, as they lead the fight for decolonization and repatriation. If you are based in NYC, consider showing your support by donating to and spreading awareness about the causes of the Lenni Lenape, Haudenosaunee, and Shinnecock peoples. We recommend learning more at The Manna-Hatta Fund, giving directly to The American Indian Community House, and taking action in support of Warriors of the Sunrise.
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
Once again, with great care and rigor, Natalie Diaz turns the pyramid of America’s self-defined, self-corrupted values on its head and collapses it. Here, space is given to desire, to queer intimacy and ‘othered’ appetites, and to loving the body—all the bodies, ecologial included—that we occupy with a ferocity that rivals the violences given to them. These poems are immensely tender, uncompromising, by turns sensual and cerebral, they explore all the ways giving and receiving love makes us known, make us both bestial and beautiful: “Like any desert, I learn myself by what’s desired of me— / and I am demoned by those desires.” Diaz grants permission to the lover, the reader, even herself, to honor our multitudes and view pleasure as a site of endless decolonizing possibilities. –Serena
For Joshua: An Ojibwe Father Teaches His Son by Richard Wagamese
In this candid, heartwarming memoir, Wagamese attempts to honor his role as an Ojibwe father by leaving his estranged son, Joshua, this book of teachings. With vulnerability and hard-earned wisdom, Wagamese details his life journey from his childhood in foster care to his adulthood struggle with alcoholism, incarceration, and both economic and spiritual poverty. The book centers around a four-day vision quest, detailing the author’s long and arduous, internal journey to self-discovery and self-acceptance. An intimate, thought-provoking book written for Joshua, yes, but also for all those who have felt lost or disconnected, and who seek guidance in their own search for truth, humility, and gratitude. –Serena
A History of Kindness by Linda Hogan
In A History of Kindness, colonial logics of time and space are refused in service to an indigenous imaginary rooted in ancestral knowledge and memory. Hogan’s poems are soulful, sublime, and sagacious, as they retrieve both earthly and spiritual elements back from the vernacular of violence and conquest. Here, you will find song, story, and prayer as Hogan—who is of the Chickasaw and Oglala Lakota people—honors her origins, proclaiming how one can only “pass on the people’s story by telling it. You keep it by giving it away...For children of this land, yesterday is as close as today.” At once ceremonial and mournful, Hogan’s words awaken us both to what is broken and what is holy, among and inside us. –Serena
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Reading this is like watching a Blackfeet Jordan Peele movie. I don’t normally read horror, but this book possesses all the alluring elements of a classic revenge thriller while exploring some of the themes you might expect in a literary fiction novel, such as cultural identity, family, and tradition. It’s been described as Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange, and I couldn’t agree more, it combines all the grit and gore of the former with the propulsive, character-driven suspense of the latter. A dark and surprisingly funny page-turner. –Serena
Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
It’s the summer of 1942 and WWII is well underway when 19-year-old Cowney Sequoyah decides to leave Qualla Boundary—a Cherokee reservation in North Carolina—to work as a ground crew member at a secluded, upscale inn where foreign diplomats are being detained as war prisoners. While there, he befriends Essie Stamper, a fellow Cherokee, and the two find refuge in a secret room that shields them, temporarily, from the discrimination they face outside. Things take a turn when a child goes missing, and Cowney becomes the prime suspect. What follows is a tender, compelling, and beautifully crafted coming-of-age story about family (both chosen and blood), secrecy, loss, and redemption. –Serena
Little Big Bully by Heid E. Erdrich
This bold, stirring collection by Ojibwe poet, Heid E. Erdrich, examines the relationship between language/utterance and power—both power, as it relates to domination and conquest, as well as power, as it relates to reclamation and resistance. The poems here are experimental and political, they interrogate various violences/violations against indigenous communities, expertly highlighting the connection between land abuses and bodily abuses, in particular, for Native women and girls. Erdrich also critiques various forms of Native erasure, including: colonial blood quantum laws, the silence around the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic, and the impulse to project “meanness” onto survivors who speak their truth. –Serena
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America edited by Sara Sinclair
This anthology from Haymarket’s Voice of Witness series features a diverse array of contemporary Indigenous stories, edited with great care and intention by oral historian and educator, Sara Sinclair. The stories here grapple with specific issues faced by Native nations in North America, where various land, water, and human rights protectors continue to defend against colonial theft and erasure, as perpetuated by settlers. At once inciting, indicting, and insightful—this collection is a must-read for supporters of indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and sustainability! But it’s also for anyone interested and invested in understanding the true history of North America, and what this history means for our current moment. –Serena
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
Alicia Elliot's debut is a collection of personal essays that shows how a person’s most intimate moments are not far removed from the legacies of North American colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. She is a brilliant and clear-eyed biracial Haudenosaunee writer. This book made me think deeply about the idea of Canada and the United States as separate countries. What difference is there when both have taken the exact same actions against its Indigenous communities? What is the border but a superficial divide that White people use to project their imagined relative goodness? –Danni
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Elatsoe can see the dead and it's up to her to solve her cousin's murder after he visits her in a dream. This book imaginatively blends Lipan Apache stories with classic fantasy tropes and is perfect for anyone looking for a fresh take on an archetypal paranormal mystery. –Shulokhana
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen
In this lyrical memoir, Toni Jensen probes the language of differentiating violence until it unravels, revealing the dense web of connections and overlap between them. Moving between the personal and the historical, the semantic and the concrete, the emotional and the physical, Carry shatters its subject matter to consider each element on its own, only then to weave them back together. An unsettling, urgent, and stunning new book. –Nika
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
This book blew me away, and it is genuinely difficult to express how much I think you should read it immediately. A History of My Brief Body combines theory, personal history, and poetry to explore the ever-present “history” of settler colonialism and its ongoing violence, queer identity, art, freedom, and decolonized love. Belcourt’s poetic sensibility permeates every word, molding language and form towards joy, care, and resistance. –Nika
Apple: (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth
Detailing Gansworth’s family history as indigenous peoples, Apple is an intimate and lyrical perspective on what it means to grow up outside of the white, mainstream spaces in America and reclaim your family heritage from generations of deliberate and violent attempts to erase it. Gansworth acts as a sort of historian for his family, as the youngest child he has pieced together years of collected scraps of memories, language, photographs, and stories left behind on the reservation, patchworking together a world that is at once wholly unique but also grounded in so many shared and communal experiences across so many cultures that have been terrorized by the American empire. Gansworth’s story is so important, and so deeply and intentionally told through poetry, photos, and original artwork, I highly recommend everyone spend some time sitting with and appreciating this book. –Colleen
Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N. Scott Momaday
Earth Keeper is half love letter to the land, half notes of mourning regarding human treatment of the earth. Interspersed between these are teachings from Dragonfly, a holy man, which celebrate the oral stories and traditions of the Kiowa culture. The combined result is a beautifully sincere collection about how humans interact with the land–how some cherish it while others abuse and steal it. –Lindsay
2021:
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
I love a book that weaves ancient myths into a contemporary tale, so I’m highly anticipating this new novel from National Book Award-finalist, Brandon Hobson! Told from alternating perspectives, this book follows various members of the Echota family—both living and dead—as they prepare to commemorate the tragic passing of their family member, Ray-Ray, whose death anniversary coincides with the Cherokee National Holiday. An evocative and ineffable story of grief, loss, family, and history. –Serena
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
When I heard this debut author wrote a YA book similar to the styles of Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) and Tommy Orange (There There) my book-brain lit up! Eighteen-year-old Daunis dreams of leaving her hometown Ojibwe reservation and studying medicine. Her hopes for a new life change when tragedy strikes. Boulley's immersive thriller reminds us of the hardships Native teens face, and explores modern culture vs. reservation life. Although it's labelled as a young adult novel, I recommend it for adults too. PREORDER FOR SPRING 2021! –Jacque
White Magic by Elissa Washuta
Startlingly original, clear-eyed, and captivating, the essays of White Magic negotiate desire–for life, meaning, love–and spirituality in the face of colonization. Elissa Washuta fearlessly cuts directly to the heart of things, blending history, personal stories, and pop culture for an affecting and powerful collection. –Nika
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
This is one of my most anticipated books for 2021! Told from multiple women from several generations of a Dakota family, Wilson explores community heritage, personal discovery, and the deep-seated strength carried on through our lineages against a backdrop of science and nature and connections to the land through cultivating plants. I love a multigenerational family saga, and books about nature, and learning more about indigenous experiences so this is a win on every level. Plus, this cover! Stunning. —Colleen
Graphic Non-Fiction
Paying the Land by Joe Sacco
True to form, Joe Sacco's Paying the Land is another powerful graphic telling of devastation and the assault on indigenous culture. What begins as a tale of the harmful effects of mining, pipelines, and corporate greed morphs into the history of the destruction of the Dene tribe. Sacco is one of the best at writing history books that just happen to be graphic. A very important and powerful read. –Nick
Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band by Christian Staebler, Sonia Paolini, and Thibault Balahy
This graphic history of an all-Native rock and roll band who jammed with Jimi Hendrix and influenced The Doors is about both this one band's story and the history of Native Americans in this country. It's a slice of American history that hasn't been told in this way before, and the illustration style is a great match for the 60s and 70s style, and shows how the Native civil rights movement existed simultaneously to the band's rise. –Emma
Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West by Lauren Redniss
Author of Radioactive, the illustrated biography of Marie and Pierre Curie, Lauren Redniss moves west with this graphic history of Oak Flat, sacred Apache lands in Arizona that sit atop one of the largest copper deposits in the country. While not own-voices, this is a sensitive and sobering journalistic piece about the realities colonial settler & imperialist practices have had on native lands and the communities connected to them. I love this book for the science, for the art, and for the tender reporting on the lives and stories around Oak Flat. –Colleen
