Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America

"A collection of important, eloquent, and often mesmerizing writings by American Indian Women. . . . A profoundly moving statement of resilience and renewal."―San Francisco Chronicle

This long-awaited anthology celebrates the experience of Native American women and is at once an important contribution to our literature and an historical document. It is the most comprehensive anthology of its kind to collect poetry, fiction, prayer, and memoir from Native American women. Over eighty writers are represented from nearly fifty nations, including such nationally known writers as Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lee Maracle, Janet Campbell Hale, and Luci Tapahonso; others ― Wilma Mankiller, Winona LaDuke, and Bea Medicine ― who are known primarily for their contributions to tribal communities; and some who are published here for the first time in this landmark volume.

Gloria Bird lives in Nespelem, Washington.

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States and is a recipient of the Poetry Society of America’s 2024 Frost Medal, Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, and was recently honored with a National Humanities Medal.