As one of the earliest and strongest voices in contemporary American Indian literature, Maurice Kenny has proved himself to be very much a "high-steel" Iroquois - a Mohawk famed for scaling the heights of New York City and forging a contemporary Native American identity known nationwide. This latest collection includes old and new favorites in poetry, fiction, criticism, and political commentary, plus an unusual literary memoir of New York in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s - upstate, Manhattan, and Brooklyn - from a Native American poet's point of view.

On Second Thought: A Compilation (American Indian Literature & Critical Studies Series)

Literature & Fiction

Kenny, Maurice

BRUCHAC, Joseph

History & Criticism

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

This collection of short fiction from Mohawk writer Maurice Kenny pushes us to explore truth or what we may perceive as truth, showing us different truths: truth of character, natural truth, everyday truth. Tortured Skins and Other Fictions, fourteen in number, form a cohesive study of characters and the anxiety provoking landscapes they inhabit―seemingly idyllic settings are inverted, becoming corrupt backdrops for slaughter and destruction―a broad metaphor for the relationships between the natives of this continent and its later colonizers.       The bear, as a trickster figure, resurfaces in various guises, various "'skins," throughout the pieces, confronting oblivious characters with their relationships to their worlds. These stories reflect today's world, merging its preoccupations of pop culture and paranormal occurrences. with the long oral tradition motif of animals existing as teachers with sometimes dubious methods―the X-Files colliding with contemporary Native American fiction.

Tortured Skins and Other Fictions

United States

Michigan State University Press

This new collection of poetry from Maurice Kenny explores identity, honors nature, and celebrates everyday life. Modern life is described, while Native American culture is glimpsed, ghost-like, on the margins. Natural bounty-flowers, fruits-is extolled and welcomed. The simplest things-the arrival of the first blueberries or a field of dandelions-are praised with gratitude. Friendships, letters, love lost and found are all treated with reverence and delicacy. Spirituality as a way of life, respect for nature, sharing with others within an extended family, living in the present-these traditional Native values are represented in Kenny's work. These poems are the essence of a Native American way of life.

In the Time of the Present (Native American (Paperback))

Poetry

Transcribed narration by Maurice Kenny of his poetry and dialog given privately to his publisher at a visit to Chico, California in the '80s. Illustrated by Wendy Rose. Only two copies left from a small press run.

Greyhounding This America

Kunstler, William M.

Heidelberg Graphics

The Mama Poems

White Pine Pr

Kneading the blood

Strawberry Press

Reveals the development of Maurice Kenny’s growing artistic consciousness, while attesting to both the beauty and brutality of the world in which he lived. Maurice Kenny’s career as a writer, teacher, publisher, and storyteller spanned more than six decades, during which he published over thirty books and became one of the most prominent voices in American poetry. From the early 1970s onward, he was instrumental in the resurgence of Native American literature through both his celebrated volumes of poetry, such as I Am the Sun and the award-winning The Mama Poems, and his work as an editor and publisher. Angry Rain, his bittersweet memoir, reveals this rich literary life by recounting its tumultuous “first half…plus a bit,” a time during which he moved through a series of worlds that all left their marks on him. Kenny begins with his early years spent among his family in the small northern New York city of Watertown and continues through an adolescence marked by both significant awakenings and grievous traumas. Determined, Kenny sets out to seek his fortunes and find his poetic voice, landing in the Jim Crow-era South, in St. Louis, in Indiana, and finally in New York City, where he becomes part of a motley creative group of performers and poets that offers both fascinating inspiration and disheartening rejection. These recollections end with Kenny’s maturation into a poet whose reaffirmed indigenous heritage unified an artistic vision that remained in conversation with a wide range of other themes and traditions until his death in 2016.

Angry Rain: A Brief Memoir (Excelsior Editions)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

State University of New York Press

Tekonwatonti/Molly Brant was the sister of famed warrior Chief Joseph Brant and wife of legendary Sir William Johnson. In a remarkable sequence of voices that span centuries, Kenny eloquently addresses the power of belief and the importance of memory, and grants Molly her rightful place as one of the most powerful figures in Native American history.

Tekonwatonti: Molly Brant: Poems of War (1735-1795 : Poems of War)

White Pine Press

Controversial and thought-provoking prose pieces from this outspoken Native American writer.

Backward to Forward

Essays & Correspondence

Five decades of work are reflected in this expansive collection. Beginning with Kenny’s earliest work and continuing with poems from his next eighteen books, many long out of print, the book follows the career of this renowned Native American writer. Also included are thirty new and uncollected poems.
Maurice Kenny is visiting professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam. He lives in Saranac Lake in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. His most recent books, both from the University of Michigan Press, are Tortured Skins &amp; Other Fictions and In the Time of the Present.
Also Available by Maurice Kenny Backward to Forward TP $14.00, 1-877727-69-5 o CUSA Rain and Other Fictions TP $8.00, 0-934834-98-0

Carving Hawk: New and Selected Poems 1956-2000

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Books by Kenny, Maurice