Native American Women Writers discuss new book, "Sister Nations"
Event Date: March 4, 2003
Editors Heid E. Erdrich and Laura Tohe, along with other special guests, discussed their book "Sister
Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community" (University of Minnesota Press, 2002).
The program was co-sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, and the Library's American Folklife Center.
"Sister Nations" is a lively anthology of fiction, prose, and poetry that celebrates the rich diversity of
contemporary Native American women. It contains work from established writers along with emerging
and first-time authors, including Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Diane Glancy, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Allison
Adelle Hedge Coke, LeAnne Howe, Roberta Hill, Kimberly Blaeser, Karenne Wood, and Linda LeGarde
Grover. The foreword is written by Winona LaDuke.
The program moderator was poet and writer Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee
Muscogee), the president and executive director of the Morning Star Institute, a national Indian rights
organization founded in 1984.
Established in 1989, the National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of the native
peoples of the Western Hemisphere. It includes the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City and
the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md. A new museum on the National Mall in Washington,
D.C., will open in 2004.
The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 to preserve and present American folklife. It
includes the Archive of Folk Culture, one of the largest collections of ethnographic material in the
world, and the Veterans History Project, which is preserving the legacy of American war veterans.
The Center for the Book was established in 1977 to use the resources and prestige of the Library of
Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading.
Center for the Book
