Praise for The Beadworkers
Long–listed for the 2020 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Long–listed for the 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize
Shortlisted for the 2019 NCIBA Golden Poppy Book Award
Long–listed for the 2019 Northern California Golden Poppy Book Award in Fiction
"The Native experience in Idaho, like in many other places, has been characterized by the land, the spirit of the people and the coming of white settlers. The Beadworkers holds stories that encapsulate that experience, then and now, and how the Nez Perce have held onto their culture, language and bonds with both family and nature." —NPR Books
"Provocative . . . [A] richly layered debut short story collection . . . A collection that gives voice to what is so often left unsaid." —San Francisco Chronicle
"This stunning debut collection marks the arrival of a brilliant storyteller; Beth Piatote weaves together political, historical, and personal themes to offer new perspectives on the human condition . . . Piatote, who is Nez Perce, writes with dazzling clarity, emotion, and bone–dry humor about the lives of indigenous people, in what feels like a celebration, an act of love, and one of the most unforgettable story collections of the year." —Kristin Iversen, NYLON
"Beth Piatote’s marvelous debut short story collection explores crossroads in the lives of unforgettable Indigenous characters within urban, suburban, rural and reservation settings, both past and present . . . The Beadworkers is an intricate and poignant set of meditations on how to move forward with identity and hope intact while reconciling with loss, both collective and personal." —Erin Keane and Ashlie D. Stevens, Salon
"Her prose might be lean, but as a whole her debut short story collection, The Beadworkers, is lush and kaleidoscopic . . . With humor, compassion, and insight, it explores the ease with which conflict seeps through time, and celebrates the resilience of people, beauty, and art in its midst." —Sam Levin, The Los Angeles Review of Books
"Gripping and utterly readable . . . The stories here are wide–ranging but encompass many perspectives of Indigenous people in North America." —Literary Hub
"The short story collection The Beadworkers mixes prose, poetry, and verse to create a rich tapestry of Native–American cultural heritage. There is a sparseness to Beth Piatote’s prose that belies the depth of her chosen subject and the long, complicated history of American Indian Law. Hers is a language that pulls you along and manages to convey both the troubling injustice faced by Native peoples in this country and a sense of joy and celebration, especially when she is writing about the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the lyricism of the Nez Perce language, or the power of kinship." —Carrie V. Mullins, Electric Literature
"This exceptional debut collection is as accessible as it is experimental. The Beadworkers combines poetry and prose in a set of Native American stories that decolonize the short story form while mastering it." —Book Riot
"Beth Piatote strings together stories like the intricate strands of a handmade necklace. The Beadworkers gathers those strings together into an illustrious whole. Piatote, who is Nez Perce and an associate professor of Native American studies, has previously written both scholarly and creative works. She brings her expertise to the page with this collection, where individual pieces often defy genre labels . . . The collected pieces of The Beadworkers explore place and identity in vibrant scenes. Throughout, Piatote reveals Native American life in contexts modern, historic and mythical." —Carla Jean Whitley, BookPage
"Piatote is Nez Perce, and a Native American Studies professor at UC Berkeley. In this eloquent and elucidating debut story collection she brings the Native experience to life—from the long line of broken treaties and the tragic effect on Native tribes from coast to coast to contemporary repercussions from forced attendance at Indian boarding schools . . . Piatote draws the reader in with spare and perceptive language and resonate empathy for each struggling yet resilient character." —Booklist
"Piatote’s debut collection mixes poetry, verse, and prose to form an impressive reflection on the lives of modern Native Americans. Piatote, a Nez Perce enrolled with the Colville Confederated Tribes, fits much nuance and profundity into stories that often reflect on the ways in which contemporary mainstream American culture continues to erase the identities and traditions of indigenous groups . . . This beautiful collection announces Piatote as a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly
"Hope and heartbreak abound in this debut collection set among Native Americans in the northwest . . . Piatote balances the emotional complexities of her characters' lives with the political complexity of their relationship with an America all too eager to look away. A poignant and challenging look at the way the past and present collide." —Kirkus Reviews
“Beth Piatote’s debut collection is smart, layered, and inventive. This is a profound and humorous meditation on Native families, language, and life. It is braided, and beaded, and true.” —Tommy Orange, author of There There
"The Beadworkers is a feast of wit and storytelling. I read it once to see where Piatote would go next. Twice to savor the emotional, cultural, and structural resonance of this wonderful work." —Louise Erdrich, author of The Night Watchman
"Beth Piatote has created a ritual of clarity, transformation, and wonder. Elegant and vivid, her book is alive, and it will make its readers see the world in a bright new light. I can't recommend it highly enough." —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels
"The Beadworkers is beautifully crafted with indigenous storytelling techniques and narrative designs. Throughout, Beth Piatote renders Native American life in all its emotional complexity, profound tragedy, subversive humor, and transformative resilience. After the final drum beat, this book becomes an offering to ancestors, a feast of words, and a water song flowing across generations." —Craig Santos Perez, author of from unincorporated territory [lukao]
"The Beadworkers is an essential celebration of language, kinship, and the enduring power of story. In an exhilarating diversity of voices and literary forms, and with extraordinary heart and artistic precision, this book moves, teaches, and surprises. Beth Piatote is a writer to cherish and trust." —David Chariandy, author of I've Been Meaning to Tell You
“I loved it! It was like an adventure into Indian Thinking. Beth Piatote weaves characters, myths, emotions, and elements together like she is weaving a fine Plateau cornhusk bag. The stories engage your senses, emotions, and memories like a trip to the reservation. I knew I wanted to read this book again before I was even halfway through! I could feel the wind from the river, and I could smell the fragrance of freshly picked huckleberries on a warm summer day by reading her words and going to her places in the book. I could identify with some characters, and other familiar characters resounded with me to the point that it felt like this book was written just for me. I think a lot of people could get that feeling from reading this book." —Marcus Amerman, traditional beadworker
08/26/2019
Piatote’s debut collection mixes poetry, verse, and prose to form an impressive reflection on the lives of modern Native Americans. Piatote, a Nez Perce enrolled with the Colville Confederated Tribes, fits much nuance and profundity into stories that often reflect on the ways in which contemporary mainstream American culture continues to erase the identities and traditions of indigenous groups. In “Beading Lesson,” the narrator teaches a girl how to make traditional beaded earrings, noting how fewer and fewer people have been learning the skill in recent years. In “wIndin!,” two friends work on a piece of political art, a board game that comments on systemic oppression of Native Americans throughout history. A woman reunites with an old friend and considers the ways their relationship to each other and their families have changed in “Katydid.” The most impressive and longest, “Antikoni,” is a reimagining of Antigone, complete with a chorus of Aunties. In Piatote’s version, Antikoni strives to rescue the remains of her ancestors from the museum where they have been interred by the “White Coats” and “White Gloves”—“We were born into this suffering. That our own/ blood would be divided/ from us, that our mourning could never come to an/ end, for it can never/ properly begin.” The Nez Perce language is featured throughout the verse passages, and Piatote includes many explanatory footnotes. This beautiful collection announces Piatote as a writer to watch. (Oct.)
This compelling audiobook introduces Piatote's debut collection of stories in prose and verse. It’s sprinkled with the Nez Perce language and concludes with a reimagining of Antigone as Antikone. Piatote has a fine conversational style. Hers is a storyteller's voice, and her delivery has striking transparency. When her narrator is an 11-year-old, she sounds 11. In “Beading Lesson,” she provides a spellbinding portrayal of a native speaker, inhabiting her in tone, diction, and cadence and performing a remarkable dramatic monologue. She splendidly does the roles of the Aunties in “Antikone,” the play that ends the collection. A Nez Perce tribal member and a Native American studies professor at UC Berkeley, Piatote has crafted an exceptional work in multiple genres. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2019-07-28
Hope and heartbreak abound in this debut collection set among Native Americans in the northwest.
There is a moment early in the story "Katydid" where the narrator and her best friend are joking about what an Indian version of The Cosby Show might have looked like—the patriarch would have "a huge collection of loud ribbon shirts," they decide—when the narrator thinks to herself, "It's surprising how much material can be mined from making Indian versions of things." Piatote, who is Nez Perce and teaches Native American studies at UC Berkeley, has some of her most satisfying moments in this collection by doing just that. The narrator of "wIndin!" is an artist creating a Monopoly-esque board game based on contemporary Indian life ("Indian tokens or token Indians?" she wonders) while simultaneously navigating the loneliness of being single and the tangled love life of her gay best friend. The book's longest piece is a verse play called "Antíkoni" that revisits Sophocles' tragedy Antigone by setting it against the backdrop of museum treatment of Indian artifacts and remains in the age of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: Piatote's Antigone, rather than burying her brother illicitly, steals his remains back from an unscrupulous museum director. All of Piatote's pieces, in fact, draw heavily on political and historical issues, from the Battle at Wounded Knee ("The News of the Day") to the Fish Wars of the 1960s and '70s ("Fish Wars"). Though some of the slighter pieces feel like mere vehicles for ideas, at her best Piatote balances the emotional complexities of her characters' lives with the political complexity of their relationship with an America all too eager to look away.
A poignant and challenging look at the way the past and present collide.
