Effigies: An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing, Pacific Rim, 2009 - Earthworks

Commendation Quotes: Effigies juxtaposes the distinctive voices and visions of four emerging poets - dg nanouk okpik, Cathy Rexford, Brandy Nalani McDougall, and Mahealani Perez-Wendt. In drawing from their Native Alaskan and Native Hawaiian cultures and histories, the poems in this book are not an assemblage but a living force and create an intricate, haunting weave. Commendation Quotes: What a shape-shifting moment, this release of four lush and necessary voices into the open air. Linked by blood and fevered lyric, dg nanouk okpik, Cathy Tagnak Rexford, Brandy Nalani McDougall and Mahealani Perez-Wendt offer up unapologetic and unflinching lessons that, as okpik says in the astonishing "Corpse Whale," shove "sinew back into the threaded bones of the land." Individually, each of these voices would be a revelation. Collectively, they're a revolution. Marc Notes: Four chapbooks in one collected volume.; In the time of Okvik / dg nanouk okpik -- Black ice / Cathy Tagnak Rexford -- Return to the kula house / Brandy Nalani McDougall -- Papahanaumoku / Mahealani Perez-Wendt.

Contributor Bio:  Nanouk Okpik, Dg dg nanouk okpik is an Alaskan Native, Inupiat -- Inuit from Anchorage, Alaska. She is a Cook Inlet Region, Inc. shareholder as an enrolled member of federally recognized Tribe. Her family resides in Barrow, Alaska. She has served as secretary on both the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Congress and the Student Senate at Salish Kootenai College. dg nanouk okpik is an MFA candidate of Stonecoast, USM. Contributor Bio:  Tagnak Rexford, Cathy Cathy Tagnak Rexford is Inupiaq, French/German and English from Anchorage, Alaska. Most of Cathy's work is inspired by the unique view of the Indigenous peoples of Northern Alaska. She has worked extensively in Native education and language efforts as researcher, curriculum developer and graphic designer. Cathy has also worked on contemporary Native theater and film projects as an actor, producer and writer. Contributor Bio:  McDougall, Brandy Nalani Brandy Nalani McDougall is a poet of Hawaiian, Chinese and Scottish descent from the island of Maui. An award-winning poet, she has published in journals and anthologies throughout Hawai'i, the continental U. S. and the Pacific. Her first collection will be released in 2008. She is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in English from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Contributor Bio:  Hedge Coke, Allison Adelle Allison Adelle Hedge Coke descends from moundbuilders and is of Cherokee, Huron, Creek, French Canadian, Lorraine, Portuguese, English, Scot, and Irish ascendants. Raised in North Carolina, the Plains and Canada, she previously worked horses, fields, waters, and factories. The MacDowell Colony/Black Earth Institute Fellow; professor, Institute of American Indian Arts (summer faculty, Naropa University); previously authored Dog Road Woman (American Book Award), Off-Season City Pipe (poetry, Coffee House Press); and Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer (memoir, U. NE.).