Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature LeAnne Howe, with United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and poet Jennifer Foerster, will participate in an author event When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, which they edited. This event will take place on Zoom at 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CDT) and is sponsored by Magic City Books. Register for this free event here.
This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries. Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who represent the five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literatures and closes with emerging poets, ranging from Eleazar, a seventeenth-century Native student at Harvard, to Jake Skeets, a young Diné poet born in 1991, and including renowned writers such as Luci Tapahanso, Natalie Diaz, Layli Long Soldier, and Ray Young Bear. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature, without which no study of American poetry is complete.
This free virtual event will be moderated by Christina Burke Curator of Native American Art at Philbrook Museum and hosted on the Zoom platform.