Almost Ashore

Gerald Vizenor is Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of more than twenty books on native histories, critical studies, and literature, including The People Named the Chippewa: Narrative Histories, and Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. Vizenor received the American Book Award for Griever: An American Monkey King in China, and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association in 2005. His most recent books include Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence, two novels, Chancers, and Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57, two books of haiku, Cranes Alight, and Raising the Moon Vines, and a narrative poem, Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point. Vizenor is series editor of “American Indian Literature and Critical Studies” for the University of Oklahoma Press, and, with Diane Glancy, series editor of “Native Storiers: A Series of American Narratives” for the University of Nebraska Press.

Word-touchstones and iconic symbols of his tribal ancestry (birch, blue, spruce, crane, cat, dance, cruel, stories, tease – to name a few) are layered within the poems throughout the book, resonating with a lifetime of Vizenor’s obsessions. Vizenor’s poetry is worth reading for his poetic mastery of the image, sonic integrity and precise lines, and because this compassionate trickster has the transformative capacity to enlighten.

• Crane DancersHaiku ScenesNatural Duty