The Beadworkers

Each of the stories in THE BEADWORKERS tugged me in right away; they are magnificent and lush but still compact.

Piatote, a Nez Perce professor and author, creates intimately detailed renderings of Indigenous individuals, families, and communities. She plays with genre and form with such ease, using whatever medium is best to capture the story she wants to tell. They each feel complete and full. The writing is something special––luminously descriptive, powerful, and often funny.⁣

Stories I especially liked were: 🌿Katydid, 🌿Beading Lesson, and 🌿wIndin!—they each dealt with themes of love, family, friendship, return, community, and culture in really compelling ways.

I’m grateful for the way each story taught me about Indigenous life today, drawing on tradition to continue living in the present, in the face of the continuing violence of colonialism. ⁣

Please read these beautiful stories, you will get so much out of them.