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An American Sunrise: Poems Hardcover – August 13, 2019

by Joy Harjo (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 778 ratings
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National Bestseller

A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land.

In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family’s lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. 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. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice. A descendent of storytellers and “one of our finest―and most complicated―poets” (Los Angeles Review of Books), Joy Harjo continues her legacy with this latest powerful collection.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    144 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    August 13, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.8 x 0.7 x 8.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1324003863
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1324003861
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Full of celebration, crisis, brokenness, and healing."
― Daisy Fried, New York Times

"If you only read one book of poems this summer, make it An American Sunrise.... Every step of the journey is deeply moving... Rich and deeply engaging, An American Sunrise creates bridges of understanding while reminding readers to face and remember the past."
― Elizabeth Lund, Washington Post

"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

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

"An American Sunrise is a wisdom quest as Joy Harjo returns to the place of her ancestors. This haunting and breathtaking book invokes the relocation of the southeastern peoples, of what they endured and lost. Harjo is a visionary and a truth sayer, and her expansive imagination sweeps time, interpolating history into the present. She writes: 'Rivers are the old roads, as are songs, to traverse memory.' Creating a confluence of words, a new language for storytelling arises. An American Sunrise is a powerful tour de force."
― Elise Paschen, author of The Nightlife

"Resplendent and reverberating... Harjo's bracing political perspective is matched by timeless wisdom... In clarion, incantatory poems that recalibrate the heart and mind, Harjo conveys both the endless ripples of loss and the brightening beauty and hope of the sunrise."
― Booklist

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

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (August 13, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1324003863
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1324003861
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 0.7 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 778 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
778 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
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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
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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
Verified Purchase
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
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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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