LeAnne Howe

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Biographical note:  LeAnne Howe, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is an author, playwright, filmmaker and scholar. Born and educated in Oklahoma, she’s lectured in Japan, Jordan, Romania, and Spain. Shell Shaker, Howe’s first novel, received an American Book Award in 2002 from the Before Columbus Foundation. In 2003, she was named Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year, 2002, Creative Prose. Equinoxes Rouge, the French translation for Shell Shaker is the 2004 finalist for the Prix Medici Etranger, one of France’s top literary awards. Currently she is assistant professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. In September 2005, she will be an associate professor in the Departments of English, and American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

BIC Basic

EAN13:  9781844710621
ISBN-10:  1844710629
ISBN-13:  9781844710621
Author:  LeAnne Howe
Title:  Evidence of Red
Series:  Earthworks
Product class:  BC
Language:  eng
Audience:  General/trade
BIC subject category:  CTCH1
Publisher:  Salt Publishing
Pub date:  01-Apr-05
Extent:  112pp
Height:  216 mm
Width:  140 mm
Thickness:  7 mm
Weight:  168 gms
Supplier:   Gardners Books
Supplier:   Ingram Book Group
Supplier:   Inbooks (James Bennett)
Availability:  IP
Price:  GBP 8.99
Price:  USD 14.95
Rights:  World

Main description:  WINNER OF THE 2006 OKLAHOMA BOOK AWARDS Evidence of Red: Prose and Poems rails against lost lands and lovers, heralds death and mad warriors, and celebrates a doomed love affair between Hollywood’s invented characters: “Noble Savage” and “Indian Sports Mascot.” The author, a Choctaw Indian from Oklahoma writes about modern life in America, as well as the strange and humorous encounters she’s had with Arabs in Syria, and Jews in Israel. She writes of growing up in a family of native storytellers who tell of their lives and experiences.

Table of contents:
Creation
IT Geography
Evidence of Red
Hashi mi Mali
The Unknown Women
Chaos
The Chaos of Angels
How My Fever Broke
The Red Wars
Choctalking on Other Realities
Cannibalism
A Duck’s Tune
A Carbon Isotopic Perspective on Dietary Variation in Late Prehistoric Times: Or, Friends I have Loved and Ingested
The List We Make
My Name Is Noble Savage
The Indian Sports Mascot Meets Noble Savage
Disney’s Pocahontas Longs for Noble Savage
Ballad of Red Sorrow
Still Code Talking
Choctaw Code Talking
The Lie
Post-Mortem
Bird Woman Returns
Horse Dreaming
Kick Boxing
Indians Never Say Good-bye

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Excerpt from book:  

Evidence of Red

First, night opened out. 
Bodies took root from rotting salt
and seawater into evidence of red life.
Relentless waves pumped tidal air
into a single heartbeat.

In the pulp of shadow and space,
water sucked our people from sleep.
That’s how it all began. At least
that’s all we can remember to tell.
It began with water and heartbeat.

In minutes we tunneled through
corn woman’s navel into tinges
of moist red men and women.
Yawning, we collected our chins,
knees, breasts, and sure–footed determination.

A few thousand years before
Moses parted the Red Sea, and the
God with three heads was born in the Middle East,
the Choctaw people danced
our homeland infra red.

Finally when the stranger’s arms
reached to strangle the West,
Grandmother eavesdropped
on the three–faced deity
who said that chaos was coming.

When he turned his lips and tried to kiss her
she made it rain on him.
“Maybe you’ve forgotten
you were born of water and women,”
she said, walking away laughing.

Unpublished endorsement :  LeAnne Howe’s Evidence of Red is a complex and exhilarating symphony, with passages of mythic sweep, swatches of history, and poignant memoir – held together with her inimitable take-no-prisoners comic sense.

Ken McCullough

Unpublished endorsement :  How does she do it? Cross ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ with ‘War and Peace’ in a voice that sings America’s song as deeply as the best musical poetry of Walt Whitman? But no, Howe’s voice is so utterly unique, comparisons can’t do her justice. Evidence of Red succeeds on every level: emotional, intellectual, spiritual, sensual, political. This volume is a gift from a rich place – wise, generous, exciting, and completely fresh.

Susan Power

Unpublished endorsement :  LeAnne Howe’s Evidence of Red: Poems and Prose cracks open the strictures of literature with passion, enthusiasm, verve, and style! And I mean it is truly coming into being Choctaw style and beyond! You haven’t read Howe yet until you experience her ranging in Evidence of Red from oral story style, poetic verse, fiction, dramatic script, even a bit of a musical, take your pick. And then let her lead you into history, intrigue, comedy and comic insight, even mystery, yes, as she impells you and other readers toward decolonization with attitude!! A very fine and fulfilling read.

Simon J. Ortiz

Unpublished endorsement :  Strong earth based prose/poetry, steeped rich in Choctaw perspective. The poems that include ‘Indian Mascot’ and ‘Noble Savage’ are especially humorous.

Luke Warm Water

Unpublished endorsement :  I am stunned by the beauty, humor, and originality of this book. It feels as new as the Garden of Eden, except Adam is really the Holy Trinity of the Three Stooges, and Eve is a genius Native woman poet–professor. For years, I've hoped that we Native writers will build a 21st century literary rocket and blast off into brand new space. LeAnne Howe (along with Adam, Eve, the Three Stooges, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Crazy Horse and Custer, and the entire cast of Gilligan's Island, along with Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and five or six smiling Indian elders) has done exactly that. This book is new.

Sherman Alexie