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Title details for Catching the Light by Joy Harjo - Available

Catching the Light

by Joy Harjo
ebook
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United States Poet Laureate and winner of the 2022 Academy of American Poets Leadership Award Joy Harjo examines the power of words and how poetry summons us toward justice and healing

"Her enduring message—that writing can be redemptive—resonates: 'To write is to make a mark in the world, to assert "I am."' The result is a rousing testament to the power of storytelling."—Publishers Weekly

"Harjo writes as if the creative journey has been the destination all along."—Kirkus Reviews

In this lyrical meditation about the why of writing poetry, Joy Harjo reflects on significant points of illumination, experience, and questioning from her fifty years as a poet. Comprised of intimate vignettes that take us through the author's life journey as a youth in the late 1960s, a single mother, and a champion of Native nations, this book offers a fresh understanding of how poetry functions as an expression of purpose, spirit, community, and memory.

Harjo insists the most meaningful poetry is birthed through cracks in history from what is broken and unseen. At the crossroads of this brokenness, she calls us to watch and listen for the songs of justice for all those America has denied. This is an homage to the power of words to defy erasure—to inscribe the story, again and again, of who we have been, who we are, and who we can be.
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Series: Why I Write Publisher: Yale University Press

Kindle Book

  • Release date: November 1, 2022

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780300268683
  • Release date: November 1, 2022

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780300268683
  • File size: 360 KB
  • Release date: November 1, 2022
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Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Literary Criticism Nonfiction

Languages

English

United States Poet Laureate and winner of the 2022 Academy of American Poets Leadership Award Joy Harjo examines the power of words and how poetry summons us toward justice and healing

"Her enduring message—that writing can be redemptive—resonates: 'To write is to make a mark in the world, to assert "I am."' The result is a rousing testament to the power of storytelling."—Publishers Weekly

"Harjo writes as if the creative journey has been the destination all along."—Kirkus Reviews

In this lyrical meditation about the why of writing poetry, Joy Harjo reflects on significant points of illumination, experience, and questioning from her fifty years as a poet. Comprised of intimate vignettes that take us through the author's life journey as a youth in the late 1960s, a single mother, and a champion of Native nations, this book offers a fresh understanding of how poetry functions as an expression of purpose, spirit, community, and memory.

Harjo insists the most meaningful poetry is birthed through cracks in history from what is broken and unseen. At the crossroads of this brokenness, she calls us to watch and listen for the songs of justice for all those America has denied. This is an homage to the power of words to defy erasure—to inscribe the story, again and again, of who we have been, who we are, and who we can be.
Expand title description text
Literary Criticism Nonfiction