Blue Dawn, Red Earth

These 30 varied and powerful short stories by Native American storytellers incorporate traditional oral tales into modern narratives. The writers, most of whom are new, featured in this collection represent a wide range of tribes and cultural backgrounds, and demonstrate the vibrancy and diversity of Native American writing. The characters in these stories are as enduring as those that have been passed down in legend, as they capture the spirit of Native America, past and present.

“Cliff Trafzer has put together a stunning collection of Native American voices in a works that shimmer with wit and erupt with rage while, most crucially, demonstrating the astonishing complexity and richness of Native American storytelling past and present. In these thitry stories, the contemporary Native Amerian world of the magical and mundane, outraged and outrageous, timeless and timely is shown to be very much alive and very much essential to what American and world literature are about. These are stories of survival for five hundred years against enormous odds through humor and grace, through courage and luck, and, most of all, through language—the power of story.” —Louis Owens, author of Other Destinies and Wolfsong

“Enchanting, moving, colorful! Through fiction characters, the authors offer a slice of contemporary Native American life. Blue Dawn, Red Earth is skillfully edited and magnificently written by some fo the best Indian storytellers of our time.” —Larry Myers, Executive Secretary, Native American Heritage Commission

“Featuring the work of new young talents and established masters, the stories in Blue Dawn, Red Earth celebrate the lives of contemporary Native Americans. While never denying the often harsh realities faced by native peoples, the stories express a confidence that native peoples, their spirituality and their sense of humor very much intact, will survive.” —Rebecca Kugel, Professor of History, American Indian Studies, University of California, Riverside