U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo calls The Diné Reader "essential to American literature and should be required for anyone studying American, First Nations, or world literature."

The Diné Reader developed as a way to demonstrate both the power of Diné literary artistry and the persistence of the Navajo people. The volume opens with a foreword by poet Sherwin Bitsui, who offers insight into the importance of writing to the Navajo people. The editors then introduce the volume by detailing the literary history of the Diné people, establishing the context for the tremendous diversity of the works that follow, which includes free verse, sestinas, limericks, haiku, prose poems, creative nonfiction, mixed genres, and oral traditions reshaped into the written word.

Join the celebration for this ground-breaking anthology in an online event presented by Birchbark Books and Native Arts and the University of Arizona Press with special guests Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and First Lady Phefelia Nez. Reading in the event are editors Esther G. Belin, Jeff Berglund, Connie A. Jacobs, and Anthony Webster; and contributors Irvin Morris, Blackhorse Mitchell, Sherwin Bitsui, Luci Tapahonso, Laura Tohe, Bojan Louis, Irene Hamilton, Tina Deschenie, Jake Skeets, and Orlando White.

Wednesday, April 21, 6:30- 8:00 pm AZ & Pacific, 7:30-9:00 pm Mountain/Navajo Nation

This online event, part of our Spring 2021 Event Series, is free via zoom, but registration is required.