When my brother was an Aztec / Natalie Diaz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diaz, Natalie, author.

Contributor:

Copper Canyon Press, publisher.

Caroline F. Schimmel Collection of Women in the American Wilderness (University of Pennsylvania)

Schimmel, Caroline F., donor, associated name.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Identity (Philosophical concept)--Poetry.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

Indians of North America--Poetry.

Indians of North America.

Genre:

Poetry.

Penn Provenance:

Schimmel, Caroline F. (donor) (Schimmel Collection copy)

Diaz, Natalie (autograph) (Schimmel Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xiii pages, 1 unnumbered page, 103 pages, 3 unnumbered pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Port Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2012]

Summary:

"In When My Brother Was An Aztec, Natalie Diaz examines memory's role in human identity. Each section filters memory through specific individuals and settings. The first concentrates on a diabetic grandmother without legs and the landscape, tangible and intangible, of a Native American reservation. The second engages a brother's strife with drug-use and his unraveling of the family, the home. The third grapples with war as a character and its tattering of individuals, families, and communities. Bigotry against Native Americans is confronted throughout the collection, and the speaker's wrestling with identity is carefully woven into each poem. Faithfulness to and departure from tradition and culture are ever-present. Each poem is stitched into the reservation's landscape, while many consider Christian identity. Natalie Diaz experiments with form, from couplets to parts, lists to prose poems, and explores the terrain of poetic predecessors, yet strikes out into new territory, demonstrating her adventurous spirit"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

When my brother was an Aztec

Abecedarian requiring further examination of Anglikan seraphym subjugation of a wild Indian rezervation

Hand-me-down Halloween

Why I hate raisins

The red blues

The gospel of Guy No-Horse

A woman with no legs

Tortilla smoke : a genesis

Reservation Mary

Cloud watching

Mercy songs to melancholy

If Eve Side-Stealer & Mary Busted-Chest ruled the world

The last Mojave Indian Barbie

Reservation grass

Other small thundering

Jimmy Eagle's hot cowboy boots blues

The facts of art

Prayers or oubliettes

The clouds are buffalo limping toward Jesus

My brother at 3 a.m.

Zoology

How to go to dinner with a brother on drugs

Downhill triolets

As a consequence of my brother stealing all the lightbulbs

Formication

Mariposa nocturna

Black magic brother

A brother named Gethsemane

Soirée fantastique

No more cake here

I watch her eat an apple

Toward the Amaranth gates of war and love

Self-portrait as a chimera

Dome riddle

I lean out the window and she nods off in bed, the needle gently rocking on the bedside table

Monday aubade

When the beloved asks, "What would you do if you woke up and I was a shark?"

Lorca's red dresses

Of course she looked back

Apotheosis of Kiss

Orange alert

The elephants

Why I don't mention flowers when conversations with my brother reach uncomfortable silences

The beauty of a busted fruit

Love potion 2012

A wild life zoo.

Notes:

American Book Award, 2013.

Local Notes:

Schimmel Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2016 by Caroline F. Schimmel.

Schimmel Collection copy inscribed by the author to "Alison" in blue ink on title leaf.

Cited in:

Indexed in the Native American Artists Resource Collection Online, Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, at the artist name level (September 6, 2018)) http://5019.sydneyplus.com/Heard_Museum_ArgusNET_Final/Portal.aspx

ISBN:

9781556593833

155659383X

OCLC:

756581351