[Jennifer Reeser]

A very good, new piece, written in the wake of these sexual misconduct allegations. This writer is Cherokee. The word, Wado, at the end -- it translates to the Cherokee equivalent of "Thank you." I quote:

"...Indigenous peoples are right now searching for the next great Native literary voice...it’s time for a new generation of Native writers to come to the fore...people to take the place of writers like Sherman (Alexie) and Louise (Erdrich). That second generation hadn’t quite come along yet. It’s time for some new voices, new perspectives and a new generation taking that agenda and moving it forward. "

https://www.hcn.org/articles/indian-...sherman-alexie

[Cally Conan-Davies]

Hi Jenn!

Do you know of Natanya Pulley? Here's her website . . .

. . . and here's an example of her work

She is now a fabulous member of the English Department at Colorado College. She is warm and wise and funny and weird, and bringing lots of gifts to the teaching/learning table.

[Mark Blaeuer]

Jennifer,

I don't know whether she's considered popular, as Alexie has been, but you mentioned how few Native formalists there are, and I thought Elise Paschen ought to be in the discussion. She was in A Formal Feeling Comes, if memory serves. Her work stands on its own, but she's also noteworthy for being the daughter of Maria Tallchief.

Mark

[Jennifer Reeser]

Chrissy, what a gorgeous site that is, and what a funny lady! I see Indianz.com published her attack on Johnny Depp, too, for playing Tonto.

Her essay on cooking made me smile, as did her bio, describing her as a prose writer with "....occasional outbreaks of poetry."

Thanks very much. The name was completely new to me.

Mark, I am grateful for your mention of Paschen. It's been years since I read Annie's anthology, and I'm thinking I should re-read it, soon.

Many thanks to you both.

Jennifer

[John Riley]

Thanks for the link, Cally. I will read more of her work.

[Jennifer Reeser]

It seems now safe to say that the #metoo Movement has moved into the literary world -- and not only in the U.S., but globally:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nati...51_243740.html

"If a female poet rejects sexual misconduct by male colleagues, they really get revenge," Choi said. "They are usually in a powerful position, like an editor at a major publisher or a literary magazine. What they do is to stop asking her for works or reviewing them. They completely ignore her and that begins destroying her career."

Yes, basically. The man says, "Starve." Then moves on to the willing female.

When the Weinstein thing broke, I remarked immediately to my husband, "I wonder how many powerful men in the literary world are now down on their knees, praying this doesn't spread."

J

[John Riley]

There are at least 5,000 years of frustration built up. He better get off his knees and start running.

[Julie Steiner]

I wonder if we really need more literary giants, period.

Isn't the notion of literary giants actually the source of the problem?

Maybe if we stopped idolizing a small group of people and giving them ridiculous amounts of power and glory, those people would stop thinking they're gods, to whom the rules of basic human decency do not apply.

Then again, democracy is such a bother. Too many choices. It's much easier to anoint a handful of kings and queens to tell us what we ought to think. We only have so much time and attention, so we appreciate it when a few people control who gets the spotlight and who remains an unnoticed nobody.

Also, having literary giants gives me the convenience of tokenism. I only have so much time and attention, so it's nice to cut down the amount I need to spend evaluating writers from minority communities. If I've read a few works by Literary Giants A and B from Group X, I can be reasonably sure that that's the only work from that group that I need to bother reading for at least another decade, because Literary Giants A and B have been officially ordained the only writers from that group who matter. They will be given all the interviews and conference invitations and publications, because anyone else from Group X is, by definition, second-tier, and I'm only interested in the top-tier people. Relying on brand recognition makes things so much simpler for everyone.

[Cally Conan-Davies]

Another voice that really sings to me is Layli Long Soldier, whose poety book WHEREAS is published by Graywolf Press, and received this review in the New York Times.

You can read one of the strong poems in her collection, called 38, HERE.

And another at the Poetry Foundation website HERE.

[Jennifer Reeser]

Long Soldier will have you in tears, five minutes into her reading, before she has begun a single line of poetry. The power of her personality is overwhelming.

J