United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into one momentous volume. This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries.

Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors who represent the five geographically organised sections. Each section begins with a poem from the massive libraries of oral literatures and closes with emerging poets, ranging from Eleazar, a seventeenth-century Native student at Harvard, to Jake Skeets, a young Dineh poet born in 1991, and including renowned writers such as Natalie Diaz, Tommy Pico, Layli Long Soldier and Ray Young Bear. In When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, Harjo offers the extraordinary sweep of Native literature.

About the Author
Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of nine poetry collections and two memoirs, most recently Poet Warrior. The recipient of the 2023 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, and the 2017 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, she lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. LeAnne Howe is the author, most recently, of Savage Conversations. She teaches at the University of Georgia - Athens. Jennifer Elise Foerster is the author of Bright Raft in the Afterweather. She lives in California.

Reviews
"When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through is nothing less than a landmark anthology of Native Nations Poetry... The poets in this anthology are artists, historians, and keepers of the truths of their heritage, their people, and their lands. These poems are testament to their personal journeys and this collection is transcendent in its authority and eternal power." -- Lew Whittington - New York Journal of Books
"...When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry... give[s] a sense of the depth of marginalised voices." -- Paul Perry, The Best Books of 2020: Poetry - The Irish Independent


Awards
Winner of Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award 2021.



Book Information
ISBN 9780393356809
Author Joy Harjo
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 589g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 155mm * 38mm