Poet Warrior

Poet Warrior

By Joy Harjo

W.W. Norton & Company, 2021. 226 pages. Biography

In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic meditation, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Weaving together the voices that shaped her, Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, the teachings of a changing earth, and the poets who paved her way. 

I loved this memoir by Joy Harjo because she has an expert voice and immerses you into her story. On a whim, I started reading the poetry bits out loud and was amazed at how that brought more depth and meaning to her words. I felt her connection to her family, ancestors, heritage, and beliefs. Her memoir is powerful and a work of art. 

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World of Wonders

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From award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction--a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted--no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape--she was able to turn to our world's fierce and funny creatures for guidance. 

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