Just as a basket’s purpose determines its materials, weave, and
shape, so too is the purpose of the essay related to its material,
weave, and shape. Editors Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton ground
this anthology of essays by Native writers in the formal art of
basket weaving. Using weaving techniques such as coiling and plaiting
as organizing themes, the editors have curated an exciting collection
of imaginative, world-making lyric essays by twenty-seven
contemporary Native writers from tribal nations across Turtle Island
into a well-crafted basket.
Shapes of Native
Nonfiction features a dynamic combination of established and
emerging Native writers, including Stephen Graham Jones, Deborah
Miranda, Terese Marie Mailhot, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Eden Robinson, and
Kim TallBear. Their ambitious, creative, and visionary work with
genre and form demonstrate the slippery, shape-changing possibilities
of Native stories. Considered together, they offer responses to
broader questions of materiality, orality, spatiality, and
temporality that continue to animate the study and practice of
distinct Native literary traditions in North America.