November is National Native American Heritage Month. It is not only a time to acknowledge the tremendous contributions that Native Americans have made to our world, but it is also a time to acknowledge the atrocities and injustices that Native nations have suffered through the centuries.
Among the many contributions early Americans have made to our country is through the arts, including novels and poetry. In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, here are 10 books by Native authors to immediately add to your tbr.
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My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones On the surface, My Heart Is a Chainsaw is a story of murder in a small town in America. but beneath her pounding heart is a scathing critique of American colonialism, indigenous displacement, gentrification, and a harrowing portrait of a broken young woman who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. /p>
louise erdrich’s phrase in her latest novel, erdrich asks what we owe to the living, to the dead, to the reader and to the book. the phrase is set in a small independent bookstore (owned in real life by erdrich herself) that she is haunted by her most annoying customer who died in the store. taking place from Nov. 2019 to November 2020, erdrich’s book examines everything that happens in minnealpolis during a year of pain, wonder, isolation and furious reckoning.
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little big bully by heid e. erdrich sister of louise erdrich, poet heid is a renowned native poet. her latest book little big bully starts with a question about a collection and makes us wonder: how did we get to this? The collection of poems is a response, offering personal myths, American and Native American contexts, and allegories fueled by women’s resistance to narcassits, stalkers, and harrasers. the poems are personal and immediate, cultural and political.
the firekeeper’s daughter by angeline boulley selected as a book club pick by reese witherspoon x hello sunshine, the firekeeper’s daughter is a groundbreaking young adult thriller about a Native American teenager who must root out corruption in her community. This stunning debut was an instant New York Times bestseller and was named one of Time magazine’s all-time bestseller.
Brandon Hobson’s Outcasts Steeped in Cherokee myth and history, The Outcasts is a novel about a divided family dealing with the tragic death of their son long ago. Hobson, a National Book Award Finalist, seamlessly blends the real and the spiritual to excavate the deep reverberations of trauma: a meditation on family, grief, home, and the power of stories on both the personal and ancestral levels.
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family’s struggle to preserve their way of life and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, Wilson tells a beautiful story of awakening, of remembering our original relationship with the seeds and, through them, with our ancestors.
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A Serpent Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger In A Serpent Falls to Earth, Darcie Little Badger draws on traditional Lipan Apache narrative structure to weave a unforgettable story of monsters, magic and family. nina is a lipan girl in our world. Oli is a cottonmouth boy, from the land of spirits and monsters. Nina and Oli have no idea that the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth and a strange illness that befalls Oli’s best friend will bring their worlds together in a way they haven’t in centuries.
apple (skin to core) by eric gansworth the term “apple” is an insult in native communities, indicating that someone is “red on the outside, white on the inside.” In Apple (Skin to the Core), author Gansworth tells his story, his family’s story, and the story of natives around the world. from the horrible legacy of government boarding schools, to a boy who sees his siblings leave and come back and leave again, to a young man struggling to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. he breaks down that insult and reclaims it in verse, prose, and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.
postcolonial love poem by natalie diaz winner of the 2021 pulitzer prize for poetry, postcolonial love poem is an anthem of desire against erasure. In his second collection of poetry, Deiz writes of language and land, enemies and lovers, demanding that each be loved. Through his poems, the wounds inflicted by America on an indigenous people are allowed to blossom into delight and tenderness.
winter counts by david heska wanbli weiden, a groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of the heroin flow. winter counts is a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisted, shifting story that’s as deeply rendered as it is exciting.
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