Beyond the Glittering World

This beautiful anthology of poetry and prose by contemporary Native American writers includes traditional motifs along with works of stark feminism and hopeful futurism. The poem “The Rhythm of Becoming” by Dominique Daye Hunter evokes the cadence of oral storytelling (one quatrain begins, “Ni:ska learns the old songs,” followed by the line “She learns the old songs,” which is then repeated twice). A.J. Eversole’s appealing and mischievous story “Dilasulo Walks” is narrated by a pair of moccasins on display in a Dallas museum. The moccasins have a conversation with a Native artist visiting the museum, with whom they agree that “art should be admired, but shoes should be worn,” prompting the artist to walk out with them on her feet. Arielle Twist laments violence against Indigenous women in the poem “In the beginning, it’s just you and me against the world,” in which a daughter worries about how “moms can go missing and die.” In Moniquill Blackgoose’s visionary “Sky Woman Rising: A Memoir,” a storyteller tells a group of children in the 2050s about how their people built the Sky New World, explaining that while many of them left Earth for the utopia, some stayed behind to “preserve and restore” their ancestral land, in the hope that someday they can all return. Readers will find a wide assortment of riches on offer here. (Nov.)