Top native american authors
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By Chad Valdez (Diné, CS Writer in Residence)
Storytelling is an Indigenous way of knowing. Stories are vehicles for passing down knowledge that contains history, wisdom, lessons, moral guides, and more. It is a way to keep the community strong. I grew up surrounded in stories but it took some time before I learned how to listen to them. Once I did, I realized how encompassed we are in them. We can find stories in every facet of our lives, but books are one of the strongest avenues to finding exceptional and engrossing ones. The authors listed below, and most Indigenous writers, understand this deeply. The circular nature of understanding that comes with storytelling is present in each of these. The books present are my recommendations and have all been published since the beginning of the last Native American Heritage Month in November of 2022. These are new stories from both established authors and those who are making their debut. It is important to support Indigenous lite
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One of the best parts about making this list of must-read First Nations and Native American authors is that I could have just as easily picked ten entirely different authors to highlight. Contemporary Indigenous literature in North America is currently overflowing with stories of all kinds. Whether you’re into memoir, history, lighthearted YA, fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, family dramas, horror — well, you get the idea. There’s far more Indigenous lit and far more Native American authors than I could ever cover in just one list.
I’ve limited this list to living Native American authors, and I’ve focused on authors with deep backlists. I have included some Indigenous Canadian writers as well. The United States is just one part of North America, and there are so many brilliant Indigenous authors from all over the continent, writing across so many different genres! These ten are just a few of the many must-read Native American authors working today, including s
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40 Best Native American Authors to Read in 2024
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Blog – Posted on Friday, Feb 26
Prior to 1968, only nine novels by Native American authors had been published in the US and Canada. Thankfully, things are different now: due to the political transformations of the 60s and 70s, Indigenous voices have started reaching a far larger audience. Subsequent social changes have further catalysed waves of Indigenous writing, as Native American writers grapple with increasing urbanisation and integration into mainstream America. Most recently, the events at Standing Rock in 2016 and the tumult of the Trump era have inspired a new generation of Native American voices to pick up the baton and produce brilliant, incisive writing that confront important questions of identity.
Though the Native American experience takes many forms in writing— a testament to the varie