A stunning, multimorphic work of poetry and prose about Indigenous identity
mother is a work rooted in an intimate fracture: an Indigenous child is adopted out of her tribe and raised by a non-Indian family. As an adult finding her way back to her origins, our unnamed narrator begins to put the pieces of her birth family's history together through the stories told to her by her mother, father, sister, and brother, all of whom remained on the reservation where she was born. Through oral histories, family lore, and imagined pasts and futures, a collage of their community emerges, raising profound questions about adoption, inheritance, and Indigenous identity in America.
Through poetic vignettes whose unconventional forms mirror the nonlinear, patchwork process of constructing a sense of self, m.s. RedCherries has crafted an indelible and utterly original work about the winding roads that lead us home.
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""mother is exquisite. Through these beautiful pieces of prose and poetry, m.s. RedCherries takes us on an journey back not just to the narrators' birth family but to their cultural legacy. Part elegy and part rallying cry, while mother examines the systemic injustice done to indigenous people, this is more than just a meditation on generational wrongs. RedCherries has rendered an intimate portrait of inheritance—from the spiritual to the genetic—that is, ultimately, a testimony of empowerment in lush language that feels gorgeous and fresh."
— Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming
This is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot]"mother plunges the reader into Indian ness in a visceral deep heartbreaking immersion. m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters coming back together with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love. This book is an American original.mother is exquisite. Through these beautiful pieces of prose and poetry, m.s. RedCherries takes us on an journey back not just to the narrators' birth family but to their cultural legacy. Part elegy and part rallying cry, while mother examines the systemic injustice done to indigenous people, this is more than just a meditation on generational wrongs. RedCherries has rendered an intimate portrait of inheritance—from the spiritual to the genetic—that is, ultimately, a testimony of empowerment in lush language that feels gorgeous and fresh.
— Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies DreamingThis is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot]"mother plunges the reader into Indianness in a visceral deep heartbreaking immersion. m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters coming back together with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love. This book is an American original.This is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot]"Visceral, deep, heartbreaking . . . m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters coming back together with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love.mother is exquisite. Through these beautiful pieces of prose and poetry, m.s. RedCherries takes us on a journey back not just to the narrators' birth family but to their cultural legacy. Part elegy and part rallying cry, while mother examines the systemic injustice done to indigenous people, this is more than just a meditation on generational wrongs. RedCherries has rendered an intimate portrait of inheritance—from the spiritual to the genetic—that is, ultimately, a testimony of empowerment in lush language that feels gorgeous and fresh.
— Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last and Olga Dies DreamingThis is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot]Visceral, deep, heartbreaking . . . m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters reuniting with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love.
— Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great ManThis is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot]A layered reconstruction of family icons that's ‘riddled with shadowed humor’ in language as clear and hot as tears.
— Heid E. Erdrich, author of Little Big BullyThis is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of from unincorporated territory [åmot]mother is exquisite. Through these beautiful pieces of prose and poetry, m.s. RedCherries takes us on a journey back not just to the narrators' birth family but to their cultural legacy. Part elegy and part rallying cry, while mother examines the systemic injustice done to indigenous people, this is more than just a meditation on generational wrongs. RedCherries has rendered an intimate portrait of inheritance—from the spiritual to the genetic—that is, ultimately, a testimony of empowerment in lush language that feels gorgeous and fresh.
— Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last and Olga Dies DreamingThis is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life.
— Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of from unincorporated territory [åmot]A layered reconstruction of family icons that's ‘riddled with shadowed humor’ in language as clear and hot as tears.
— Heid E. Erdrich, author of Little Big BullyVisceral, deep, heartbreaking . . . m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters reuniting with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love.
— Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great Man“mother is a moving exploration of self-identity and family. In poetry and prose, m.s. RedCherries weaves together oral histories and family lore to construct a portal for a separated family reconstructing a shared history of love, rich cultural heritage, systemic injustice, and loss . . . mother is unique, deviating from rules of form, time, and space to best serve the narrative and the larger considerations it addresses . . . Despite the deep loss threaded throughout, this debut collection beats with resilience and vitality.
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