Overview

In Earth Vowels we hear Duane Niatum's powerful autobiographic journey voiced not in a cacophony of consonants, but in the full tones of resonating vowels that round out his life. This collection of 60 poems (27 of them never published before) sings the songs of his cultures, the importance of tribal stories, history's bent rewriting of them, and his long embrace of lessons learned from them, nature, poetry, and art. A wise sketchbook of his journey to the poised acceptance of life, he muses, I am content to live in the Ribcage/of the Almost Dead. He ends his reflection softly with words to his wife's daughter, We are born with ashes on our tongues and regret nothing that is and nothing that isn't. Niatum's voice echoes long after you read the last page and makes you yearn to stand in a field, breathe deeply, smile, and watch crows' flight cast shadows over yellow fields. --William E. Smith, Professor Emeritus Western Washington University

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9780997251760

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Duane Niatum has been writing poems, stories and essays for over 50 years. He has been widely published in the US and abroad. He published eight books of poems, recently, The Pull of the Green Kite, (Serif and Pixel Press, 2011). Duane's writing is deeply connected with the Northwest coast landscape, its mountains, forests, water and creatures. The legends and traditions of his ancestors, who have long called this place home, help shape and animate his poetry. Niatum has published hundreds of poems and dozens of stories in magazines and anthologies in the USA and Europe; His writings have been translated into fourteen languages. and was four-times nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has completed a manuscript of his collected poems and two collections of short stories. Several of his essays on American Indian literature and art have been published in the U.S. and Europe. Niatum has read by invitation at the Library of Congress and the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Duane Niatum has a Ph. D. in American Studies from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He is an enrolled member of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe.

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