Book Review: Speak to Me Words: Essays on Contemporary American Indian Poetry

Authors

Kimberly Roppolo, University of Lethbridge

Date of this Version

2004

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 24:3 (Summer 2004). Copyright © 2004 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

While Speak to Me Words: Essays on Contemporary American Indian Poetry is written primarily for literary scholars, it does offer content useful for those in other areas of Native Studies and for those particularly involved with the study of Great Plains cultures. The editors' introduction sets up expectations that these essays will address aspects of American Indian poetry from both Native and non-Native perspectives and will avoid the study of texts preceding the American Indian Literary Renaissance (that is, texts prior to 1968 and commonly written about by scholars such as Kroeber, Rothenberg, and Bierhorst). Contemporary writing is the focus rather than ritual oral traditions.