Fractured storytelling for a fractured world, Ancestral Demon of a Grieving Bride draws readers into a world that appears eerily familiar but unsettling as well. Fierce, visceral, sometimes funny, and wholly original, Hoahwah's poems will linger in a reader's dreams long after she's closed the book.

Ancestral Demon of a Grieving Bride: Poems (Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series)

Literature & Fiction

Hoahwah, Sy

Poetry

University of New Mexico Press

Review "Hoahwah's Comanche county is a landscape haunted equally by death and beauty, and the ghosts that weave casually in and out of the arresting poems belong as much to the present as the past. Velroy and the Madischie Mafia embodies a tribal reality of meth labs, crow calls, and fancy dancing in which 'boys neither go to heaven nor hell / but into ghost stories.' The collection replaces popular clichés of historical destruction and vanishing culture with a sharp-edged portrayal of contemporary continuance in Indian country. . . . Hoahwah's book echoes our own 'hunger to answer' old languages heard in the dark."--Kimberly Blaeser, author of Copper Yearning"I'm always listening for the emergence of the next generation of young Native poet-prophets. One of them is right here. . . . Hoahwah's finding the way to navigate the Comanche soul in these poems: by listening, taking it all down, and singing it back. Take a listen. He'll capture you."--Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate and author of An American Sunrise: Poems Product Description From the Comanche Tribal Housing of Madischie in southwestern Oklahoma comes a crew of young Comanche, Arapahoe, and Kiowa toughs hell-bent on gaining power within a subculture of organized crime. Led by a Comanche named Velroy, they find themselves caught in the century-long transformation from the old Comanche Nation to a modern-day casino-owning tribe. Hoahwah relays their story with a distinctive narrative flair, honed syntax, wild imagery, and a splash of lyricism. About the Author Sy Hoahwah is also the author of Ancestral Demon of a Grieving Bride: Poems and the chapbook Night Cradle. He is Yapaituka Comanche and Southern Arapaho.

Velroy and the Madischie Mafia: Poems

Trials and Tribulations of Dirty Shame, Oklahoma: And Other Prose Poems (Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series)

In southwestern Oklahoma an intricate sense of community exists in the small neighborhoods of Comanche Tribal Housing like Madischie. From its streets comes a hell-bent young crew of Comanche, Arapahoe, and Kiowa toughs led by a young Comanche named Velroy. They seek power within a subculture of organized crime, caught in the century-long transformation from the old Comanche Nation, "Lords of the Plains," to a modern-day casino-owning tribe. This is their story, told in a distinctive narrative poetry with its honed syntax, wild imagery, and a splash of high lyricism.

Velroy and the Madischie Mafia

West End Press

USPOCO BOOKS is proud to present No. 1 in the USPOCO BOOKS Sections Chapbook Series: NIGHT CRADLE, by Sy Hoahwah.

Night Cradle

USPOCO BOOKS