Further Reading

• Bruchac, Joseph, and Janet Witalec, eds., Smoke Rising: The Native North American Literary Companion, Visible Ink Press, 1995.

  This collection of poetry and prose by and about Native Americans is a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in Indian culture. It runs over 400 pages and includes four of Joy Harjo’s poems.

• Harjo, Joy, She Had Some Horses, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1983.

  This early poetry collection by Harjo is one of her most popular. The title poem is often anthologized, and the book as a whole is a good introduction to the Native American themes that run throughout subsequent collections.

• ______,The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1996.

  The title of this collection refers to the Iroquoian creation myth about a goddess who falls from the sky. In Harjo’s poem, however, the goddess becomes a “strange beauty in heels” who drops through a plate glass grocery window. It is interesting to compare this creation story to the one she tells in “Anniversary.”

• Harjo, Joy, and Gloria Bird, eds., Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native American Women’s Writings of North America, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1997.

  This is an anthology of work of over eighty Native American women writers who have recorded their experiences in poetry, fiction, prayer, and memoir. It is considered one of the most important contributions to Native American women’s literature and historical documentation.