Shapes of Native nonfiction : collected essays by contemporary writers

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For many the phrase "Native nonfiction" inspires thoughts of the past, of timeless oral history transcriptions and dry 19th century autobiographies. In this book, Washuta and Warburton explode this perspective by showcasing 22 contemporary Indigenous 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 romanticizes Indigenous lives, yet denies Indigenous 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 Indigenous writers manipulate the shape of creative nonfiction to offer incisive observations, critiques and commentary on our political, social and cultural world.

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Summary Note

For many the phrase "Native nonfiction" inspires thoughts of the past, of timeless oral history transcriptions and dry 19th century autobiographies. In this book, Washuta and Warburton explode this perspective by showcasing 22 contemporary Indigenous 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 romanticizes Indigenous lives, yet denies Indigenous 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 Indigenous writers manipulate the shape of creative nonfiction to offer incisive observations, critiques and commentary on our political, social and cultural world.

Content Note

Introduction:Exquisite vessels / Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton -- Technique. Contemporary creative writing and ancient oral tradition / Ernestine Hayes -- Letter to a just-starting-out Indian writer - and maybe to myself / Stephen Graham Jones -- Funny, you don't look like (my preconceived ideas of) an essay / Chip Livingston -- Nizhoní dóó 'a'ani' dóó até'él'í dóó ayoo'o'oni (beauty & memory & abuse & love) / Bojan Louis -- Fairy tales, trauma, writing into dissociation / Sasha LaPointe -- Coiling. Tuolumne / Deborah A. Miranda -- I know I'll go / Terese Marie Mailhot -- Little mountain woman / Terese Marie Mailhot -- Fear to forget & fear to forgive: or an attempt at writing a travel essay / Bojan Louis -- Fertility rites / Tiffany Midge -- AND SO I ANAL DOUCHE WHILE KESHA'S "PRAYING" PLAYS FROM MY IPHONE ON REPEAT / Billy-Ray Belcourt -- The Great Elk / Ruby Hansen Murray -- Plaiting. Real romantic / Eden Robinson -- The trickster surfs the floods / Natanya Ann Pulley -- The way of wounds / Natanya Ann Pulley -- To the man who gave me cancer / Adrienne Keene -- Self-portrait with parts missing and/or smeared / Michael Wasson -- Critical poly 100s / Kim Tallbear -- Twining. Pain scale treaties / Laura Da' -- Caribou people / Siku Allooloo -- Part one: redeeming the English language (acquisition) series / Tiffany Midge -- Apocalypse logic / Elissa Washuta -- Women in the Fracklands: on water, land, bodies, and Standing Rock / Toni Jensen -- Goodbye Once upon a time / Byron F. Aspaas -- I am chopping ivory or bone / Joan Naviyuk Kane -- Blood running / Sasha LaPointe -- A mind spread out on the ground / Alicia Elliott.