James Mackay
The Salt Companion to Diane Glancy
The Salt Companion to Diane Glancy
ISBN:9781844714285
Synopsis
Diane Glancy is one of the outstanding Native American authors of modern times. Working in multiple genres – poetry, novel, theatre and nonfiction – she has created a vast, ceaselessly provocative oeuvre (more than 35 volumes) and an instantly recognizable voice. Her subject matter is astonishingly diverse, encompassing everything from the Cherokee Trail of Tears to the New Testament character of Dorcas, from the lives of small-town Midwestern women to the joys of classic automobiles, from grade school maskmaking to the recuperation of personal heritage in the archives.
The essays in this groundbreaking volume represent the first attempt to systematically survey this challenging writer. Ten outstanding scholars approach her work, mapping out controversies and providing readers of Glancy with various contexts and comparisons through which to understand her ideas. These chapters take a variety of ideological and methodological positions (feminist, Christian, postcolonial, literary-nationalist and more), the better to draw out the complexities of a writer whose work never lets the reader come to easy conclusions.
Also included are an original interview with Glancy herself, a survey of previous criticism and a bibliography of her writings. This volume will therefore serve equally well as an introduction to Glancy for newcomers and as an in-depth survey for people already familiar with her work.
The Salt Companion to Diane Glancy is part of a unique series of companion volumes to Native American poets. Previous subjects include Carter Revard and Jim Barnes.
Praise for this Book
‘This is an outstanding, necessary project to recognize an important Native American author.’ —Gerald Vizenor
‘Diane Glancy oversees the traces of ancient memories and a native sense of presence in her marvelous poetry. She creates the heart of natural motion in every imagic scene and tease of perception. Glancy clearly reveals in her poetry and prose a remarkable literary practice of proper praise for the contradictions of history.’ —Gerald Vizenor, author of Native Liberty: Natural Reason and Cultural Survivance.
‘The Salt Companion to Diane Glancy brings together an impressive range of critical perspectives to the diverse content and contexts of Glancy's prolific, provocative, and sometimes controversial body of work.’ —Daniel Heath Justice, author of Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History