Brian Swann is a professor of English at Cooper Union in New York City. He recently edited Voices from Four Directions: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of the North Americas (Nebraska 2004). Arnold Krupat is a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College. His books include The Turn to the Native, available in a Bison Books edition, and Red Matters: Native American Studies.

"An important addition to the library of Native American autobiography and a valuable contribution to literary scholarship."—World Literature Today "I do not know of any book quite like this one. Not only does it gather eighteen eloquent autobiographical essays in one place—a rarity in itself—but they are the life stories of some very significant Native American writers. The combination is unique. . . . On many levels, then, this is a book both enlightening and necessary."—Washington Post Book World "Rings with an urgency and honesty that promises to go far in setting the record straight about Native American experience in non-Indian dominated America."—Bloomsbury Review "Like the cultures from which its many contributors come, this is a protean book—diverse, rich, and revealing at every turn. . . . For those who have yet to come into the literature of contemporary Native American writers, these inclusions offer a taste of what greater richness lies beyond."—Western Historical Quarterly