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Joy Harjo
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An American Sunrise: Poems Kindle Edition

by Joy Harjo (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 777 ratings
See all formats and editions

A nationally best-selling volume of wise, powerful poetry from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.


In this stunning collection, Joy Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where the Mvskoke people, including her own ancestors, were forcibly displaced. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the Native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    126 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    August 13, 2019
  6. File size
    2049 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Radiant.… [A] profound, brilliantly conceived song cycle, celebrating ancestors, present and future generations, historic endurance and fresh beginnings."
― Jane Ciabattari, BBC

"Reveals glimpses of life in Oklahoma’s Muscogee Creek Nation alongside delicately rendered ruminations on memory, family and healing."
― Drew Tewksbury, Los Angeles Times

"Full of celebration, crisis, brokenness and healing."
― New York Times Book Review

"Harjo, though very much a poet of America, extracts from her own personal and cultural touchstones a more galactal understanding of the world, and her poems become richer for it."
― Maya Phillips, The New Yorker

"While the subject matter of her new poems continuously hits you in the gut, Harjo brings a sense of resilience to that dark history."
― Christian Allaire, Vogue

"[A] resplendent and reverberating new volume.… Harjo’s bracing political perspective is matched by timeless wisdom.… In clarion, incantatory poems that recalibrate heart and mind, Harjo conveys both the endless ripples of loss and the brightening beauty and hope of the sunrise."
― Booklist

"[Joy Harjo’s] poems are accessible and easy to read, but making them no less penetrating and powerful, spoken from a deep and timeless source of compassion for all.… [A] stark reminder of what poetry is for and what it can do."
― Craig Morgan Teicher, NPR

"[An American Sunrise] touched me to the marrow."
― Oprah, O, The Oprah Magazine

"Rich and deeply engaging, An American Sunrise creates bridges of understanding while reminding readers to face and remember the past."
― Elizabeth Lund, Washington Post

"A powerful reminder as to why [Joy] Harjo’s voice is so at home everywhere.… When a poet scales her gaze so grandly, something strange and miraculous happens to poetry. It opens up and becomes more than a mere literary device, it becomes a delivery system of wonder.… Harjo’s goal as a poet has been to wake us up, to talk to us as if there is nothing so natural as singing. It is impossible to read this beautiful book and not wonder if our world would be a little better if more of us remembered how."
― John Freeman, Boston Globe

From the Back Cover

Praise for Joy Harjo:

"Fueled by a deep musicality and the indelible spirit, the poems of Joy Harjo are at once voraciously inventive and powerfully human…These are poems that hold us up to the truth and insist we pay attention."
– Jackson Poetry Prize citation, judged by Ada Limón, Alicia Ostriker, and D. A. Powell

"[Joy Harjo’s] poetry is light and elixir, the very best prescription for us in wounded times."
– Sandra Cisneros, The Millions

"Joy Harjo is one of the real poets of our mixed, fermenting, end-of-century imagination"
– Adrienne Rich

"Joy Harjo is a giant-hearted, gorgeous, and glorious gift to the world. Her belief in art, in spirit, is so powerful, it can’t help but spill over to us―lucky readers"
– Pam Houston

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07P75WRNS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (August 13, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 13, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2049 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 126 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0393358488
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 777 ratings

About the author

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Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo

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Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned poet, performer, and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. Harjo is the author of ten books of poetry, several plays, children's books, and two memoirs; she has also produced seven award-winning music albums and edited several anthologies. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
777 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Light carrier
5.0 out of 5 stars If poetry is musical language, this book is a master symphony of cultural conflict.
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
Joy Harmony’s American Sunrise amazed me through evoking powerful feelings of loss, grief, resignation, anger, acceptance of life and self-determination, and finally renewal. The masterful use of language pushes and pulls the reader/listener into a dream state of vision and reality mixed together and called a history of our life.
I experienced tears too often. I was surprised by laughter at times. I felt loss and pain. I appreciate renewal of my spirit. I now better understand self-determination.
This book led me to a poet, author, and performer I am sincerely enjoying through her published works. My life is enriched.
19 people found this helpful
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Buffy Martin Tarbox
5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisitely penned
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024
Verified Purchase
An American Sunrise is an homage to the author’s Creek heritage and history. An American Sunrise is also about the diaspora of "The Five Civilized Tribes" known as The Trail of Tears. Harjo’s ancestors were forcibly evicted from their homeland in Alabama by the United States government in the mid-1830s. This is a dark history of America, of diaspora, of pain; but Harjo also writes of returning to her ancestral lands and renewal.

Can sorrow and beauty exist at the same time? Yes, and Harjo’s poetry serves as testament to these conflicting emotions. There was barely a moment in reading the book when I didn’t stop to breathe deeply after reading Harjo’s words and reach for a tissue to blot my eyes.

An American Sunrise is exquisitely penned. Heart-breaking, heart-healing, poignant prayers for the past, present and future. This is a book I will return to again and again.
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Douglas Cole
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Truth and Beauty
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019
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It is perfect Joy Harjo is now our poet laureate, and this beautiful new collection of poetry shows why. Both personal vision and historical reflection, An American Sunrise takes in the troubled events that brought us here and makes from an unflinching gaze a healing prayer. “Through the immense and terrible echo of injustice, a meadow bird sang and sang.” This book is that song.
28 people found this helpful
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AMZN Shopper
4.0 out of 5 stars Poetry is an acquired taste
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2023
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Obviously this is most recommended for fans of indigenous writing and/or poetry
One person found this helpful
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Doomridion
5.0 out of 5 stars Native American insight
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021
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Beautifully eloquent and thought provoking especially in our current political climate. The perspective of others is more important than ever for anyone and everyone to read
2 people found this helpful
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April M. Drager Conway
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging for non-poem readers
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
I don't normally read poetry, but was hooked on this from the beginning. Witty, poignant, inspiring (I normally hate that word) and a wonderful read. I was truly surprised how much I liked it.
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kokosdad
5.0 out of 5 stars Magic in an American way
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2022
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I'm not really a poetry guy. I am a Joy Harjo Poetry guy.
What poetry is supposed to do, how it's meant to affect, where it's supposed to lead.....that's what this amazing Artist drops behind her every lyrical step.
Read.
7 people found this helpful
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G.I. O'Taco
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful collection of poems!
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
Joy Harjo is a perfect choice for Poet Laureate of the United States. Her honest, sincere and lovely voice is welcome amid the storm of insanity and inanity we are suffering through at the moment.
10 people found this helpful
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