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Elise Paschen's Blood Wolf Moon Book Launch
Apr
10

Elise Paschen's Blood Wolf Moon Book Launch

Celebrate Elise Paschen’s book release for Blood Wolf Moon and Poetry guest editor Esther Belin’s special March issue on Diné Poetics. Osage artists June Carpenter and Lydia Cheshewalla will also give artist talks.The presentation will be followed by a reception. 

POWER LINES FROM THE POETS:

“ 𐓧𐓪 ̄ 𐓡𐓪 ̋ 𐓱𐓘 lǫǫhóohtą We thunder

𐓡𐓣 ̋ híi while our teeth

𐓣́𐓟 íe talk.”

—Elise Paschen, 𐓷𐓘𐓧𐓟́𐓺𐓟/Waléze/Stationery

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Online – Let’s Animate! Poetry Craft Talk and Workshop with Heid E. Erdrich
Apr
16

Online – Let’s Animate! Poetry Craft Talk and Workshop with Heid E. Erdrich

Join the Minnesota Humanities Center for an engaging and interactive online poetry craft talk and workshop! Featuring her most recent collection, “Verb Animate,” this workshop will be led by esteemed writer and the first poet laureate of the City of Minneapolis, Heid E. Erdrich.

In this session, participants will dip into creative activities using poems and prompts from “Verb Animate.” Heid will also read poems from this collection and share more about its creation; each poem included arose from a collaborative act with another poet or artist. Whether you are a seasoned poet or just beginning, don’t miss this opportunity to write and learn more about community centered, collaborative poetry.

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Feb
27

Kimberly Blaeser at Milkweed Books celebrating Creature Conserve

Milkweed Editions in conjunction with the University of Minnesota Press present Creature Conservation hosted by Claire Wahmanholm, featuring Charles Baxter, Kimberly Blaeser, and Sean Hill.

The event will feature readings from the new collection Creature Needs: Writers Respond to the Science of Animal Conservation out with University of Minnesota Press out on January 21. Claire Wahmanholm will then host a panel that centers on craft and art activism for creature conservation.

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Kinsale Drake book launch at Milkweed Books with Heid E. Erdrich
Nov
14

Kinsale Drake book launch at Milkweed Books with Heid E. Erdrich

IN PERSON: KINSALE DRAKE BOOK LAUNCH WITH HEID E. ERDRICH

Please join us as we welcome debut poet KINSALEDRAKE to Milkweed Books to read from her collection The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket. She will be joined by Minneapolis Poet Laureate HEID E. ERDRICH. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket traverses the Southwest landscape, exploring intricate relationships between Native peoples and the natural world, land, pop culture, twentieth-century music, and multi-generational representations. Oscillating between musical influences, including the repercussions of ethno-musicology, and the present/past/future, the collection rewrites and re-rights what it means to be Indigenous, queer, and even formerly-emo in the…

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Oct
12

Owamni/Falls Festival come Build-a-Poem with Heid!

Owámni: Falling Water Festival, a celebration of indigenous Minnesota cultures. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, October 12, 2024 at Mill Ruins Park and Water Works Park.

Owámni is what the Dakota called the area at St. Anthony Falls. It means, “whirling or falling water” in the Dakota language, making it an appropriate name for this festival along the Mississippi River.

This free, family-friendly event is co-presented by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board and the St Anthony Falls Heritage Board to celebrate indigenous Minnesota culture with music, art, food, and more!

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Oct
10
to Oct 12

Kimberly Blaeser - Reading, Panel, & Workshop; “Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference”

Kimberly Blaeser - Reading, Panel, &Workshop; “Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference,” Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ

  • Thursday, October 10, 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm: Reading

  • Friday, October 11, 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm: Indigenous Narratives Now Panel (with Sherwin Bitsui, Debra Magpie Earling, and Deborah Taffa)

  • Saturday, October 12, 10:30 am - 11:45 am: Workshop, “Please Ban this Poem: Writing in a Time of Censorship”

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The James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets: Readings with Esther Belin, Kara Briggs, and Kateri Menominee
Sep
28

The James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets: Readings with Esther Belin, Kara Briggs, and Kateri Menominee

Join Esther Belin and the 2024 James Welch Prize winning poets Kara Briggs and Kateri Menominee for an in-person reading and celebration of their work. Presented in partnership with Poetry Northwest and In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets). Barrier-free entry for all

About the winners:

Kara Briggs, a citizen of the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, descended Yakama Nation, is a poet, journalist and author who lives north of Seattle. Her forthcoming book Rivers in my Veins from St. Julian Press is her first poetry collection. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Art. As an undergraduate she studied abroad with Irish poets in Ireland. She was a national columnist for ICT and investigative journalist at The Oregonian. She is a former president of the Native American Journalists Association. Her poetry is lyrical and gives readers a view on the deep connections tribes have to their lands and waters. She writes in poetic forms, particularly Japanese forms of haiku and haibun. She also writes in the rhythms of social dance songs from her tribes. Deep in her work is a tribal political perspective that seeks to elevate the reader’s understanding of contemporary Native peoples. She serves as vice president of Ecotrust, where she leads work with tribes across the West Coast. 

Kateri Menominee writes from the smokey anchorage of Gnoozhekaning. She listens to Lofi Legend of Zelda playlists and plays Fallout.

About the judge:

2024 judge Esther Belin (Diné) is among the myriad of indigenous peoples on the planet to survive in urbanized areas. She is a graduate from the following institutions: UC Berkeley, IAIA, Antioch University. She considers the following locations her homeland: LA, Durango, Diné bike’yah. Her writing and art grows from an is an offering to the collective humanity, bila’ ashdla’ii. Esther is the author of two poetry books and coeditor of The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature. Belin’s visual art combines a variety of disciplines and works to reframe the mythical primitivism often associated with Indigenous cultures. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the four corners. Belin is a member of Saad Bee Hózhǫ́:Diné Writers’ Collective, and teaches in the Native American and Indigenous Studies department at Fort Lewis College and in the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

About the Prize:

Poetry Northwest’s James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets is awarded for two outstanding poems, each written by an Indigenous U.S. poet. The prize is named for Blackfeet and Gros Ventre writer James Welch, whose early poems were featured in Poetry Northwest and who went on to become one of the region’s most important writers.

Finalists selected by poets from the board and advisory committee of In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets) with the editors of Poetry Northwest:

Mary Leauna Christensen  |  Kinsale Drake  |  Max Early  |  Chris Hoshnic  |  Ibe Liebenberg  |  Casandra Lopez  |  Malia Maxwell  |  Michael Wasson

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