LITERARY WELCOME FOR JOY HARJO
From AICHO (American Indian Community Housing Organization) -
Call for Submissions: Bringing Joy: A Local Literary Welcome
On October 18, 2021, United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek Nation) will visit the Northland.
Through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, the Bringing Joy Committee will create an e-book dedicated to art and poetry inspired by Harjo’s work. Local writers and artists are invited to submit work inspired by Harjo for publication in this anthology. Those whose work is chosen will receive a free copy of the e-book as well as entry into a drawing to attend Harjo’s reading and a feast at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College on October 18.
Eligibility is limited to writers and artists living in Carlton County, St. Louis County, and the Native nations which share that geography, and any students enrolled in CSS, UMD, LSC, FDLTCC, UWS, WITC, or area K-12 schools.
To submit, please send up to four poems pasted in the body of an email or four high-quality photos of artwork pasted in the body of an email to bringingjoy1018@gmail.com no later than September 1, 2021. Any submissions sent after that date will not be considered.
In your email, please include the following:
- Your name, address, and phone number
- The title of a work by Harjo that inspired your piece(s)
- A bio of 30 words or less in third person
Bringing Joy: A Local Literary Welcome is made possible by these organizations: Minnesota Center for the Book, US Library of Congress, Fond du Lac Reservation, Carlton County, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, American Indian Community Housing Organization, Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community, Minnesota State Arts Board, Minnesota Humanities Center, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and Northland Foundation.
You can also learn more about the Bringing Joy event at The Fond du Lac Tribal Community College website!
Listen to Harjo join MPR News host Kerri Miller Friday to talk about the inspiration behind her latest project, the transformative power of language, and serving a third term as U.S. poet laureate.
Listen to Harjo's Interview with MPR here
Joy Harjo's Living Nations, Living Words maps the U.S. with Native Nation's poets and their creative work. Joy Harjo created the project with the Library of Congress to increase the visibility of native poets in the country.
Harjo states: "I want this map to counter damaging false assumptions—that indigenous peoples of our country are often invisible or are not seen as human. You will not find us fairly represented, if at all, in the cultural storytelling of America, and nearly nonexistent in the American book of poetry."