Gerald Vizenor
Author of The Heirs of Columbus
About the Author
Gerald Vizenor is Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and a professor emeritus of American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or editor of more than thirty books, including Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence, Manifest show more Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance, and Native Storiers: Five Selections, all published by the University of Nebraska Press show less
Works by Gerald Vizenor
Narrative Chance: Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series) (1989) 42 copies
Summer in the Spring: Anishinaabe Lyric Poems and Stories (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series) (1981) 37 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020) — Contributor — 372 copies, 4 reviews
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection (1997) — Contributor — 302 copies, 5 reviews
Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction (2012) — Author — 217 copies, 3 reviews
Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories (1991) — Contributor — 217 copies, 2 reviews
Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture (1994) — Contributor — 110 copies, 5 reviews
Songs from This Earth on Turtle's Back: Contemporary American Indian Poetry (1983) — Contributor — 73 copies
I Tell You Now: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers (1987) — Contributor — 61 copies, 1 review
Nothing But the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature (2000) — Contributor — 54 copies, 2 reviews
Earth Power Coming: Short Fiction in Native American Literature (1983) — Contributor — 37 copies, 1 review
The Lightning Within: An Anthology of Contemporary American Indian Fiction (1991) — Contributor — 32 copies
Without Discovery: A Native Response to Columbus (Turning Point Series) (1992) — Contributor — 17 copies
Buried Roots and Indestructible Seeds: The Survival Of American Indian Life In Story, History, and Spirit (1993) — Contributor — 16 copies
True West: Authenticity and the American West (Postwestern Horizons) (2004) — Contributor — 16 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1934-10-22
- Gender
- male
- Education
- New York University
Harvard University
University of Minnesota - Occupations
- writer
Director of Native American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
human rights activist - Organizations
- University of California, Berkeley
- Awards and honors
- Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award (2005)
- Nationality
- Anishinaabe Nation
- Birthplace
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Places of residence
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Map Location
- USA
Members
Reviews
A lyrical telling of a bizarre moment in U.S. military history. Reported as "the last Indian war" by contemporary newspapers, in October 1898 an infantry company was dispatched to Sugar Point to retrieve an elderly medicine man who had escaped being apprehended by a marshal after refusing to testify in court.
This massive overreaction led to a standoff on Bear Island that exploded into a firefight after a soldier accidentally discharged his weapon. Vastly outnumbered by the army, the band of show more warriors routed their enemies in one day.
The poem covers recounts the events with a mournful and sparse beauty. The author is able to expose the pattern of injustice against the native people while not glorifying the senseless loss that war always engenders.
The dead and injured soldiers are each named and humanized and the whole disaster cast as a senseless tragedy.
This was an educational and moving read that will stay with me. show less
This massive overreaction led to a standoff on Bear Island that exploded into a firefight after a soldier accidentally discharged his weapon. Vastly outnumbered by the army, the band of show more warriors routed their enemies in one day.
The poem covers recounts the events with a mournful and sparse beauty. The author is able to expose the pattern of injustice against the native people while not glorifying the senseless loss that war always engenders.
The dead and injured soldiers are each named and humanized and the whole disaster cast as a senseless tragedy.
This was an educational and moving read that will stay with me. show less
This collection twinkles with life, flickers in the breeze and is lively with chattering birds. Reading through, I found a theme in the repetition of the word "tease." It appears in many verses and draws my attention to the clipped lines and playful observations.
The lines speak to a deep history of colonization and pain. But the beauty of nature shines through, conveying the rich nuance of existence. Although frequently longer than haiku, the author evokes the power of that form to evoke an show more extremely specific place and moment, which then evaporates leaving the reader gasping.
Favorite Poems: Family Photograph, Raising the Flag, Winter Camp, Snow Crowns, September Light, Tyranny of Moths, Camp Grounds, Homewood Hospital, Paper Plane show less
The lines speak to a deep history of colonization and pain. But the beauty of nature shines through, conveying the rich nuance of existence. Although frequently longer than haiku, the author evokes the power of that form to evoke an show more extremely specific place and moment, which then evaporates leaving the reader gasping.
Favorite Poems: Family Photograph, Raising the Flag, Winter Camp, Snow Crowns, September Light, Tyranny of Moths, Camp Grounds, Homewood Hospital, Paper Plane show less
I would love to say that Vizenor turns genre on its head, forging a mystical exhilarating hybrid between fiction and nonfiction; that he, unlike other post-whatever writers, always considers how to use fewer words as opposed to succumbing to logorrhea; and how he eviscerates and transvalues everything you thought you knew about native americans. But I'm not going to say that.I'm going to say that the secret ecstatic nonlogical spot deep within my neural system that I thought no one else knew show more about, that holy unnameable spot that I thought no one else could touch, he touches it it and makes it glow blue like the hands of the healers that populate his works. Thank you Gerald Vizenor for making me feel so weird. show less
Appropriately enough Vizenor's most acclaimed book is the one I enjoyed the least. The satire of the Chinese bureaucracy was a bit been there done that for me. Other sections took place wholly within shamanistic dreamspace and I had no idea what he was getting at. I haven't read a lot of the sources that were his touchstones. Perhaps that would have illuminated things a bit. I would love to know what Chinese scholars and Chinese readers thought of this book.There is still nothing like him show more though: boundless, bizarre, confrontational and sometimes hilarious. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 60
- Also by
- 26
- Members
- 1,097
- Popularity
- #23,415
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 15
- ISBNs
- 118
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
