Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an opportunity to recognize the diversity and contributions of Native Americans throughout U.S. history, an alternative to the overly simplistic and mythologized narrative of Columbus Day. This year in particular, indigenous authors have published eclectic, riveting new literary works. From witty romantic comedies to gory thrillers to ultramodern poetry collections, the Native voices of today present an electrifying vision of literature’s future.
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
At long last, a new book by this powerhouse of Native American literature has arrived. After a three-year hiatus, Erdrich’s new novel ruminates on climate change, human legacy, economic inequality, and the tragedies of ordinary life. The story’s centerpiece is a hasty and presumably doomed wedding between free-spirited ex-goth-girl Kismet and jittery football hero Gary, and a vibrant cast of characters orbits the pair. Erdrich’s words glistens as she traces the couple’s fate, weaving a balanced tapestry of levity, tragedy, and humor.
The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket by Kinsale Drake
This shimmering debut poetry collection, selected by Jacqueline Allen Trimble for the National Poetry Series, encompasses what it means to be young, queer, and Native American in today’s world. Drake’s writing is vibrant and hyper-present, infused with the terroir of the Southwest. The collection’s lens of concern ranges from Internet culture to climate change’s effects to popular music. Kinsale Drake’s urgent, precise, and fierce poetic voice marks her as an author to watch.
The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
The United States government’s displacement of Native Americans has separated them not only from their land but from their own identities. Forcible relocation, with census-taking by colonizers, made it more difficult for Native Americans to trace their ancestry. In the present day, each tribe grapples with this violent legacy differently when defining eligibility for tribal enrollment. Some calculate blood quantum, others trace genealogy trees, and still others determine their own methods. in this groundbreaking blend of memoir and reportage. In this groundbreaking blend of memoir and reportage, Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz examines the cultural, sociological, and historical factors that can impact self-identification as Native in this groundbreaking blend of memoir and reportage.
The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava
The first Native American romantic comedy to be published by a major traditional publisher, The Truth According to Ember will hopefully inspire more representation in genre fiction. In this witty, drama-filled debut, Ember embellishes a few details on her resume—including her race, which she marks as Caucasian—and finds herself in a high-stakes corporate world. She’s immediately drawn to IT guy Danuwoa, the only other Native American in the office, and despite the strict HR department, they can’t help but fall for each other. As Ember’s white lies spiral out of control, this hilarious romp becomes more and more memorable.
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
The debut novel from acclaimed author of Night of the Living Rez asks hard-hitting questions about family ties, indigenous identity, and mental illness. Narrator Charles grew up on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation, but controversial blood quantum rules force him to leave after the sudden death of a family member. For decades, he watches from across the river as his daughter grows up unaware of his existence. One day, his daughter’s disappearance prompts Charles to reconsider the way he has handled this secret and others throughout his life. Poignant, arresting, and deeply human, this novel will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
The Paranormal Ranger: A Navajo Investigator’s Search for the Unexplained by Stanley Milford, Jr.
A book about cryptids for the skeptic-minded, The Paranormal Ranger draws on Stanley Milford’s years of experience as a Navajo ranger investigating mysterious happenings like skinwalker sightings and unidentified flying objects. Milford’s unique perspective as a law enforcement officer allows him to approach each scenario with logical reasoning while being open-minded to folkloric events. Along the way, he tells unforgettable stories and presents new evidence for the possible existence of supernatural forces.
Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina
Nick Medina blends coming-of-age drama and supernatural horror in his thrilling second novel. He showcases his range through two perspectives: in the present day, Noemi just wants to move off the reservation until her boyfriend’s suspicious death upends everything she thought she knew. Meanwhile, a generation earlier, her Uncle Louie grapples with his mother’s disappearance and other unexplainable phenomena. Louie’s return to the reservation sets off a chain of events that bring the pair closer to a mysterious folkloric evil. Medina’s atmospheric writing and impeccable pacing will leave your hair standing on end long after turning the final page.
Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium by Marcie R. Rendon
In her first full-length poetry collection, novelist and performer Marcie R. Rendon calls upon her White Earth Anishinaabe ancestors and composes poem-songs that resonate across past, present, and future. Rendon’s poems reflect upon the challenges that her reservation has faced and how these challenges will be projected forward onto future generations. Her poems also celebrate the blessings of nature and dedicate attention to the resplendent details of every day. With vivid sensory detail and rhythmic lyricism, Rendon faithfully depicts the concerns of today’s and tomorrow’s indigenous poets.
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
This unique twist on the horror-slasher genre takes the form of a confessional “memoir” written by main character Tolly Driver and addressed to his crush. Tolly, a teenage boy from West Texas, attends a house party that turns humiliating, sparking within him an all-consuming desire for revenge. The ‘80’s high school setting provides the perfect taste of nostalgia, and Stephen Graham Jones’s bloody, atmospheric writing supplies hair-raising suspense.
Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden by Teresa Peterson
Teresa Peterson offers an intimate guide to honoring Mother Earth throughout all four seasons in this expansive hybrid collection of prose and poetry. In tender, deliberate prose, Peterson shares her experience of blending her Christian faith with her Dakota background. Her stories, recipes, and advice provide inspiration for gardeners, cooks, writers, and anyone seeking a closer connection to nature.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
Tommy Orange needs no introduction. In this follow-up to his acclaimed first novel There There, Orange shepherds the reader across timelines, generations, and perspectives, armed with his signature narrative voice. He offers a clear-eyed, unsparing perspective on the legacy of American violence against Indigenous communities; hence, the novel becomes an incisive critique in addition to a sprawling epic. Some beloved characters from There There return, but Wandering Stars explores new plot avenues, making it accessible to a first-time Tommy Orange reader, too.
Exposure by Ramona Emerson
In this highly anticipated follow-up to Shutter, detective Rita Todacheene returns to face her most dangerous case yet. The thriller alternates between Rita’s perspective as she grapples with a newly discovered ability to see the ghosts of murder victims and the perspective of the serial killer she is tracking down. Tightly paced, with evocative description and a strong sense of voice, this is a novel you won’t be able to put down until the final word.
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle
In the 90s, attorneys for a Muscogee citizen appealed his death-row sentence on the basis that Oklahoma had no jurisdiction over a crime committed on “Indian country.” That murder case ended up in the Supreme Court where the decision could mean millions of acres of land would be returned to the Muscogee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee nations. In the lead-up to the 2020 ruling, Rebecca Nagle, a member of the Cherokee nation, turned to the past—carefully researching the forced displacement and loss of tribal lands in Oklahoma—to understand the legal battle that would have profound implication for the future of Native American sovereignty.
The Forgetters: Stories by Greg Sarris
Inspired by Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok creation stories, Greg Sarris’s collection plays with time and mythology. In the book, two crow sisters sit on the Sonoma Mountain and recount stories: stories of shapeshifters playing tricks, of Mexican farmworkers working the land, of love gone cold. The Forgetters is a 21st-century fable about the importance of remembering and honoring our history.
The Bone Picker: Native Stories, Alternate Histories by Devon A. Mihesuah
In this terrifying short story collection, monsters and deities from Choctaw folktales come alive, skulking in the shadows, waiting in the dark for their next prey. In one story, a professor, pretending to be Native to obtain tenure, discovers that his lie has horrifying consequences. In another, a farmer is a shapeshifting owl, disguised with ill intentions. In the scariest story, three children in the woods unwittingly stumble upon the bone-picker, a supernatural creature who feeds off rotting flesh with their long claws. Not for the faint-hearted, this is a book that will stay with you long after the final pages.
mother by m.s. RedCherries
m.s. RedCherries was adopted out of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and raised by non-Native parents and their debut uses poetry as a vessel to complicate questions of identity, race, and belonging. A poignant collection that isn’t afraid to shatter poetic conventions to create a new kind of storytelling.
Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Deborah Jackson Taffa was born in the California Yuma reservation and raised on and off in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation. Her grandparents were educated in government-backed boarding schools that systematically stripped Indigenous children of their culture and identity, while her parents believed that to secure their future, they had to sacrifice their land and their traditions. Her memoir Whiskey Tender expertly blends archival texts with family history into a searing meditation on the fallacy of the American dream and the cost of assimilation.