Positively Uncivilized

MAY 26, 2026: SILVER WINNER IN THE 17—MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS CATEGORY OF THE 2026 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS.

From an Indigenous perspective, Positively Uncivilized examines the impact of human inhabitants on the planet earth. Alongside personal accounts of the deterioration of salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest and the loss of Indigenous history, the twelve essays in this collection emphasize the necessity of community to overcome the damage done by human socioeconomic and political systems designed to isolate and shame those vulnerable to those unfair systems.

Rena Priest’s Positively Uncivilized is a necessary read. Priest writes with lyrical curiosity, sharp resistance, and immense tenderness. This is an essay collection rooted in storytelling—singing forth with gratitude, community, indigenous futures, and entangled relation. As Priest insists: “Stories are powerful.”
—Jane Wong, author of Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

Priest reflects on the traditional ecological knowledge of her ancestors, details the destructive history of the “fish wars” between her people and extraction industries, and recounts the heartbreaking journey of Tokitae and the beautiful lessons that Orcas impart to their human kin. She vividly reminds us how precious our natural world is, giving voice to the beings that have sustained us for millennia.
—Tiffany Midge author of Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s