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POET WARRIOR

Joy Harjo

A Memoir

A timely memoir from Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Poet Warrior offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life.
In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic meditation, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Weaving together the voices that shaped her, Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, the teachings of a changing earth, and the poets who paved her way. She explores her grief at the loss of her mother and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member. Moving fluidly among prose, song, and poetry, Poet Warrior is a luminous journey of becoming that sings with all the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo. Joy Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of nine poetry collections, most recently An American Sunrise, and a memoir, Crazy Brave. Named Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019, she lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is a Tulsa Artist Fellow.
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Published 2021-09-07 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

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The three-term (and first Native American) poet laureate shares the story of her trailblazing life and art in a luminous hybrid memoir that moves gracefully between poetry and prose. Read more...

Joy Harjo is more than a poet, painter, and musician; she is a spiritual being aware of the meaning of everything we see as well as the things around us that are usually invisible. And Poet Warrior is an invitation to open our eyes and see it all with her. Read more...

Catalan: Lletras Impresa Editores ;French: Editions Globe ; Italian: Ibis Edizioni, Passigli Editori ; Spanish: Valparaiso Ediciones

Author Interview: 'Poet Warrior' Joy Harjo Wants Native Peoples To Be Seen As Human Read more...

interview and profile - Joy Harjo's Lifelong Obsession With Stories ... Read more...

n a combination of prose, poetry, and song, Harjo weaves together the stories and voices of her ancestors and family. It's a beautifully constructed tale of grief, nourishment, and bravery. Read more...

Author coverage on Oprah Daily's The Wisdom Corner Read more...

This mesmerizing story is a pleasure to get lost in.

Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, bares her soul in this follow-up to 2012's Crazy Brave. Harjo examines how she fully embraced her literary identity, through recollections of ancestors and family, poetry and music she devoured as a child, and the natural world. Harjo's poems are lyrical, vivid, and lush - qualities which translate to her prose.

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's new book, Poet Warrior, takes readers through the author's personal journey. Pulling from disparate sources of inspiration, including Navajo traditions and the works of Audre Lorde, Poet Warrior is one of this year's must-read memoirs. Read more...

A gorgeous, compassionate memoir from one of America's greatest living writers.

... Poet Warrior is a wise book and an inviting one. While some writers might fetishize otherworldly experiences as mystical, it's their ordinariness in Harjo's memoir that drew me in. They gave her strength to follow words. "Writing was my portal to grace," she writes, "an opening in which I could hear my ancestors speaking, in which I knew we were cared for no matter my inadequacies or failings." Read more...

Poet Warrior, an exuberant, thoughtful memoir, a bookend companion to her magnificent Crazy Brave, sings of a life moving toward wisdom. In a powerful mix of poetry and prose, infused with a grace of memory, a gift of dream and vision, Joy Harjo walks us through a landscape of individual and collective suffering, the ways of justice and injustice, and the legacies of power and conflict, while at once listening carefully to what can be learned through empathy, connection, belonging, gratefulness, and humor. Read more...

Joy Harjo's Poet Warrior is a lyrical, heartfelt celebration of life, music, poetry, and personal history. At once a memoir and an exploration of the literature, events, and music that shaped Harjo's work, this is a perfect book for those craving beauty and hope. Read more...