diversity spotlight thursday

You know the drill!

Created by Aimal, you can check out the rules here. Basically, every week you list

1. A diverse book you have read and enjoyed
2. A diverse book that has already been released but you have not read
3. A diverse book that has not yet been released

This week’s focus will be on indigenous voices – if you haven’t been over to Brendon’s (gamingforjustice’s) blog in the last few weeks, skeddaddle! (And then come back.) November is Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month – and with everything going on with Thanksgiving and Standing Rock, I thought it was an appropriate topic.

Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me focuses on native Hawaiian experiences and culture. Written by Lurline Wailana McGregor, an own voices author (and filmmaker!), this talks about many current issues in Hawai’i, including environmental disaster and the need to preserve indigenous cultures and experiences. My review will be up soon!

Blues Divine is a poetry collection by Storme Webber, a a Two-Spirit Aleut/Black/Choctaw writer. I would seriously recommend checking out her website, which is full of music, art, and research.

Blues Divine is at heart an ancestral mixtape and tribute. These poems have been creative salvations, signposts, people’s history and testimonies. Born into a crossing over place where Indigenous met African met Texan met Alaskan Native, sat down in a pre-Stonewall gay bar and discussed shadows and recovery… Inside is a journey of many intersections and switchbacks, fast running rivers and swamplands, as well as those sacred places where sun splits the sky wide open.

I found this insanely difficult. The closest I could get is Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor, which was published in October 2016. This is a collection of science-fiction short stories with a ‘contemporary First Nations’ outlook. Inspired by classic science fiction writers such as Ray Bradbury, this has the feel of 1950s pulp – and the politics of 2016 Indigenous peoples.

If you know of any upcoming literature being published by an indigenous author, please comment! And if you have also published a diversity spotlight Thursday, link away. My TBR really doesn’t need to be expanded, but eh. Christmas is coming!