In the Hands of the River

In the Hands of the RiverWhat can we do but seek nectar where it blooms, whispers the porous and questioning speaker of In the Hands of the River. With delicate precision, In the Hands of the River subverts traditional poetic forms to show how a childhood for a queer boy of both Cherokee and European heritage happens within and outside dominant narratives of Appalachia. This debut collection weaves ancestral and personal threads of trauma, reclamation, and survival into a

alternately criticized and championed by her contemporaries

then tortured and brainwashed into servitude) is determined to arrest Riordan for theft of resources and will stop at nothing to bring xir to the Madjideye

/ We come from place

She positions Native women as pivotal to how our nations

renewable energy

or simply citing hopes for the future

co-founder of the American Indian Movement

Ranging in tone from humorous to defiant to triumphant

My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story

The hills we climb along the way are the challenges we face and the responsibilities we accept

subsistence living

grew up speaking both English and Dakota