When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through

A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry

18 September 2020

Description

The first historically comprehensive Native poetry anthology, without which no study of American poetry is complete.

United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into one momentous volume. 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 organised sections. Each section begins with a poem from the massive libraries of oral literatures and closes with emerging poets, ranging from Eleazar, a seventeenth-century Native student at Harvard, to Jake Skeets, a young Dinéh poet born in 1991, and including renowned writers such as Natalie Diaz, Tommy Pico, Layli Long Soldier and Ray Young Bear. In When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, Harjo offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature.

Reviews

"When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through is nothing less than a landmark anthology of Native Nations Poetry... The poets in this anthology are artists, historians, and keepers of the truths of their heritage, their people, and their lands. These poems are testament to their personal journeys and this collection is transcendent in its authority and eternal power." — Lew Whittington, New York Journal of Books

"...When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry... give[s] a sense of the depth of marginalised voices." — Paul Perry, The Best Books of 2020: Poetry, The Irish Independent

Awards

Winner — Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award, 2021

Also By: Joy Harjo View all by author...

  • Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years

    Joy Harjo, Sandra Cisneros

    Hardback, 2022

    A magnificent selection of fifty poems to celebrate three-term US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s fifty years as a poet.
  • Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years

    Joy Harjo, Sandra Cisneros

    E Book, 2022

    A magnificent selection of fifty poems to celebrate three-term US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s fifty years as a poet.
  • Poet Warrior: A Memoir

    Joy Harjo

    Paperback, 2022

    Three-term poet laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life
  • Poet Warrior: A Memoir

    Joy Harjo

    Hardback, 2021

    US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life.
  • Poet Warrior: A Memoir

    Joy Harjo

    E Book, 2021

    Three-term poet laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life

Paperback

9780393356809

155 x 236 mm • 496 pages

£15.99

Add to Basket

Ebook

9780393356816

Powered by Glassboxx

£15.99

Add to Basket