An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. 2nd ed.

Beverly Rasporich is an associate professor in the Faculty of General
Studies at the University of Calgary and the author of Dance of the
Sexes: Art and Gender in the Fiction of Alice Munro.

This second edition of a very fine anthology of Native literature has
been made even more comprehensive with the addition of 14 new writers,
including Marilyn Dumont, Richard Wagamese, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Beth
Cuthand, Connie Fife, and Duncan Mercredi. Despite the conspicuous
absence of Beatrice Culleton, Emma Laroque, Eleanor Brass, Skyros Bruce,
Joy Harjo, and Joan Crate, this compilation of Native writing—which
includes traditional Inuit songs, traditional Native orature, and 19th-
and 20th-century Native and Inuit poetry and prose—is an excellent
comprehensive survey suitable for general readers interested in the
subject, and for students in secondary schools and postsecondary
institutions.

The editors, Daniel David Moses, a writer of Native ancestry and a
superb poet, and Terry Goldie, a renowned scholar in the field, have
exercised good judgment in their selections. Such classic pieces as
Harry Robinson’s “Captive in an English Circus,” Alootook
Ipellie’s “Summit with Sedna, the Mother of Sea Beasts,” and Rita
Joe’s “Shanawdithit” have been retained, while Daniel David
Moses’s “Some Grand River Blues” and more poems by Jeannette
Armstrong are welcome additions. Reflecting the interests of many
contemporary Native authors, this edition nicely incorporates the
trickster, grandmothers, and “talk.”