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Virtual Author Event – Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe and Jennifer Foerster
August 26, 2020 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Magic City Books is thrilled to welcome Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe and Jennifer Foerster, the editors of When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry for a virtual author event.
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. To register in advance visit: https://magiccitybooks.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zgL3toT8QLSbTc7uFT5JpQ
After registering you will receive a confirmation email with details about joining the event on Wednesday August 26 at 7:00 PM CDT.
You can purchase a copy of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through at Magic City Books starting August 25 or you can pre-order a copy here: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/when-the-light-of-the-world-was-subdued-our-songs-came-through-a-norton-anthology-of-native-nations-poetry/167
Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, including her most recent, the highly acclaimed American Sunrise (2019), and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015), which was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize and named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association. Her memoir, Crazy Brave, was awarded the PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Non Fiction and the American Book Award.
She has published two award-winning children’s books, several screenplays, anthologies, and collections of prose interviews, and three plays. She is Executive Editor of the recently released anthology When the Light of the World Was Subdued: a Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry. As a musician performing solo and with her band, the Arrow Dynamics, Harjo has produced five award-winning music albums including Winding Through the Milky Way, for which she was awarded a NAMMY for Best Female Artist of the year. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
LeAnne Howe, Choctaw, writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays. She is the Edison Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia. Howe is a United States Artists (USA) Ford Fellow as well as the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, an American Book Award, and an Oklahoma Book Award. She was also a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to Jordan. Her most recent collection of poetry is Savage Conversations (2019).
Jennifer Elise Foerster received her PhD in English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver and her MFA from the Vermont College of the Fine Arts, and is an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. Jennifer teaches in the IAIA Low Residency MFA Creative Writing Program and at The Rainier Writing Workshop. Jennifer is the author of two books of poetry, Leaving Tulsa (2013) and Bright Raft in the Afterweather (2018), both published by the University of Arizona Press. Foerster is of German, Dutch, and Mvskoke descent, is a member of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, and lives in San Francisco.
