Here First: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers - Paperback

by Arnold Krupat (Editor), Brian Swann (Editor)

Twenty-seven Native American writers describe their lives and art in this compelling collection.

When the editors Arnold Krupat and Brian Swann asked twenty-seven Native American writers to describe their lives in relation to their art, they received an extraordinary array of responses -- twenty-seven pieces of autobiographical remembrance united only by a common set of Native American heritages.

The writers, artists, poets, and academics represented here have recorded a memorable series of personal and family histories illuminated by verse and song, story, and narrative, all fed by the strong oral tradition of the indigenous peoples of this country. As Coming to Light, the collection of Native American writing edited by Brian Swann, demonstrated with literature, the Native American experience is broad and complex, and worth listening to closely.

Front Jacket

Here First is an important new collection of essays by Native American writers compiled by Arnold Krupat and Brian Swann, the editors of I Tell You Now: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers. In Here First, authors such as Sherman Alexie, Greg Sarris, and Elizabeth Woody tell the stories of their lives and their art. Each essay demonstrates the breadth of experience of twenty-seven individuals united in the creative expression of a Native American heritage. Each has a different relation to that heritage, and in describing it through personal and family history, with verse and in anecdotes, the writers give a strong image of the different cultures that have shaped them. This is living history and the kind of collective memoir that makes for fascinating and rewarding reading--one of the most vivid and diverse portraits of Native American culture available today.

Author Biography

Arnold Krupat is the author of several books, including The Turn to the Native: Studies in Criticism & Culture and the novel Woodsmen, or Thoreau and the Indians. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

Brian Swann has published a number of collections of poetry and fiction, including Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems and Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America. He teaches at the Cooper Union in New York City.