A snapshot of our time

First Peoples table

“English is tribalized,” says poet Esther Belin. “It is one of our languages. We’re recreating it within our own language,” she told attendees during the 2010 Native American Literature Symposium, held last week in New Mexico. Belin’s comments were made during just one of many well-attended panels touching on cinema, fiction, poetry, and performance.

At the First Peoples table, books by Simon Ortiz and Luci Tapahonso (both from UA Press), as well as Thomas King (UMN Press) and Celia Naylor (UNC Press) garnered strong interest from visitors.

Author Jennifer Denetdale with UA Press editor Patti Hartmann

Several press authors were in attendance, including Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Esther Belin, Simon Ortiz, Evelina Zuni Lucero, and Dean Rader. While Daniel Heath Justice, Thomas King, and Craig Womack weren’t able to attend, they were still a strong presence, their writings providing important frameworks for many panel discussions.

The packed room for the poetry reading by contributors to Sentence 7

Dean Rader chaired a popular session on a special issue of the journal Sentence, featuring contemporary American Indian prose poems. Contributors, including LeAnne Howe, Esther Belin, Sara Marie Ortiz, and Molly McGlennen, gave readings of their new work for a packed and enthusiastic room.

Finally, keynote speaker and film director Chris Eyre fueled conversations on film and literature that pervaded the three-day conference. “My job as a filmmaker is to make the story to lift off the page,” he said. He added, “There’s something about Native material that has a purpose.”

Hear, hear!