Planting a Flag
In that old ground
Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. I am happy to give a particular nod of welcome to all the new subscribers – and there are many of you! – both folks who have signed on for free and those of you who have chosen to engage with a paid subscription. It means everything, especially as these weeks as poet laureate are beginning to unfold in earnest. Various programs and cobbled-together grants (as I understand it anyway, the word “grant” makes me nauseous) are seeing to cover most of my expenses but they’re running a month or so behind, which is leading to some belt tightening. Nonetheless, so far it’s been great and the experience has already been profound. That also means that if you’ve been considering a paid subscription, now is a better time than ever! I am very grateful for all of you. And remember that paid or not, you get the same content. I never paywall this stuff and I don’t intend to. That’s a terrible way to pitch a paid subscription – “Give me money, you’ll get nothing extra for it!” – but I believe people who value my writing also understand the concept that paying for something you value and can afford is a kind of mutual aid. The rewards come from the universe, not from anything additional you’ll get here.
This edition of the newsletter is of a sort that comes around now and then, which is mostly a round-up of events, things I’m doing, etc. I’ve got a bunch of essays in the hopper and will be getting to more substantive posts again soon. I like to separate out this promotional stuff because I feel like if I hang them entirely off the end of “regular” posts it makes those too long and eyeball fatigue leads to potential disinterest. This newslettering business is fraught with peril! I appreciate your patience….
Tonight, Missoula, Tonight!
I’ve mentioned this event before but I feel like I’ve done a terrible job letting people know about it. When my selection as the next Montana Poet Laureate was announced back in August, we – my friends at the library and I – immediately started planning for a celebration but, as you might imagine, it took a couple months to align our schedules. The library is a busy place and so am I. In addition to events I had booked prior to the announcement – readings, conferences, Little Shell talks, etc. – I started adding on new events as part of the Poet Laureate program. I’ve been in front of people (mostly middle school and high school students) in Fort Benton, Kalispell, Great Falls, Lincoln, Poplar, and Circle already … with trips to Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Wibaux, Billings, and Miles City in the near future. So that’s why it’s taken so long to get to this event.
HERE are some details. I will be joined by the remarkable poet Corrie Williamson. There will be snacks. Mostly there will be poetry and storytelling and good people. This is a big deal to me and I hope if you are in the Missoula area you might consider showing up. Bring more friends!
It’s also worth noting that I think my friends from Bear Scratch Press are going to be on hand selling broadsides of this beautiful rendition of one of my poems, “Comet.” I’m pretty stoked about that. They’re good-sized too, maybe in the vicinity of 12x18 or so, maybe? And when they’re gone, they’re gone!
Big Book News!
My friends, it’s official: my next book, Becoming Little Shell: Returning Home to the Landless Indians of Montana1, is in the hands of a copyeditor. The art department at my publisher, Milkweed Editions, and I have already begun exchanging treatments for the cover. I will have that available to share by Christmas, if not Thanksgiving. Isn’t that exciting? An official release date will be coming soon, also by year’s end, I suspect; it’s going to be in the summer some time. I’ve been emailing with the managing editor to answer questions related to all the details contributing to that. What that also means is once there’s a release date I can start hassling EVERY ONE OF YOU about pre-orders. I bet you can hardly wait….
All this said, there’s still a decent amount of work to be done but it’s production work, not the hair pulling and fist shaking and tears wiping and despair sauntering and all the other things that comprise the creative part of writing a book. What a trip it’s been and I’m over the moon to be in this position. It’s funny how I started this newsletter originally to be a side companion to the writing of this book but it kind of drifted away from that … now I can foresee the two things drifting closer together again, at least for a spell. I also love just how many more people are along for the ride too.
Subliminal Out!
The new Fred&Dan Zine 2 - SUBLIMINAL is out. They asked me if I’d be interested in submitting a poem for it and I was happy to do so. All proceeds go to a great cause. Please consider ordering a copy! It’s grassroots and lovely and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to be a part of it. My poem is a little ragged and I’ve already edited it a couple more times but I also love that. Poems are living, breathing, changing things!
The Daily Yonder
I met my friend Claire Carlson a few years ago when she was a student at the University of Montana. She has since moved on and is in the early stages of what looks like a burgeoning career of her own. She’s a wonderful writer! She interviewed me for her column at The Daily Yonder a few weeks ago, and HERE is the result. This is an excerpt on the distinction between identifying as a “Storyteller” vs. “Poet”:
To me, it’s not any different. I’m trying to bring an Indigenous perspective to it. And our stories predate writing anything down. So that doesn’t make them any worse than stuff that has survived for a couple thousand years because it was written down. That doesn’t mean that Gilgamesh or Beowulf are better stories than anything we were telling, we just weren’t a written culture and who knows what great things have been lost to time. But we also still have these great stories that have been handed down across generations to retell, creation stories and trickster stories and all those things. And to me, that is what everything is and everything else is a result of that.
So I’m just saying I’m planting a flag here in that old ground on that tiny little mountain that used to be enormous but is still here. And I just choose not to make any distinctions.
An Evening of Poetry and Artmaking
I’m going to be back in the Flathead in a couple weeks and I am doing this event with the Flathead Valley Community College. It should be fun! You have to RSVP and seats are filling up fast, I’m told, so don’t sit on this one if you’re in the area….
Miigwech, my friends for hanging in there with me! I appreciate you….
I’m often asked if the book is poetry. It is not, it’s nonfiction. But I’m also focusing on a poetry manuscript that I hope to have out in book form before my poet laureate term is up.
"The library is a busy place and so am I." I love the visual of this. Chris La Tray. Not a person. Not an animal. A PLACE.
The worst thing about your “events roundup” posts is that all the events are in Montana, and it makes me sad that I can’t go to them!