Crazy Brave

by Joy Harjo

Overview

"Insightful…Brings one of our finest—and most complicated—poets into view…Raw and honest." —Los Angeles Review of Books

In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a haunting, visionary memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345438
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/29/2013
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	889
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation, the author of ten books of poetry and a memoir, Crazy Brave. A critically acclaimed poet, her many honors include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is a Tulsa Artist Fellow.

Editorial Reviews

Stirring…In her harrowing and ultimately hopeful story, Harjo allows the reader to know her intimately, and we are enriched by her honesty.

Ms.

A saga about the survival of spirituality and creativity in the face of generations of racism, dispossession, and familial dysfunction.— Rebecca Steinitz

Boston Globe

A must-read for her fans and a fascinating door into her world for those new to her work.”— Elizabeth Wilkinson

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Harjo allows the reader to know her intimately, and we are enriched by her honesty.

Booklist

A must-read for her fans and a fascinating door into her world for those new to her work.— Elizabeth Wilkinson

Minneapolis Star Tribune

A saga about the survival of spirituality and creativity in the face of generations of racism, dispossession, and familial dysfunction…Fantastic, terrible and beautiful.

Rebecca Steinitz - Boston Globe

A must-read for her fans and a fascinating door into her world for those new to her work.

Elizabeth Wilkinson - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Gritty and mystical…Reads like a sacred prayer.

San Francisco Chronicle

Exquisite…A must-read for anyone who appreciates the healing power of literature.

Southwest

Blunt, moving…[Affirms and acclaims] the artistic impulse.

Smithsonian

Dances into hard truth. [Harjo’s] fine crafting of words and deft braiding of mythic visions throughout the text almost—almost—draw you past the truth of her personal story. That story is harsh and scary, mystical and loving, and, ultimately, triumphant and healing.

Indian Country

Joy Harjo has always been able to see with more than her eyes. Her writing is a testament to this gift. Her memoir honors her own journey as well as those who fell along the wayside. Her hero’s journey is a gift for all those struggling to make their way.

Sandra Cisneros

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. Wildly passionate and honest as a hound, Crazy Brave invites us into a whole new way of seeing—deeper, less cluttered, and vastly more courageous than our own. It’s a book for people who want to re-fall in love with the world.

Pam Houston

Winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle, poet/performer Harjo writes verse suffused with spiritual concern, sociopolitical hunger, and evidence of her Muskogee Creek heritage. This memoir returns to her youth (abusive stepfather, Indian arts boarding school, single motherhood as a teenager) to disclose how she became a poet. Expect beautiful writing, and look how popular Leslie Marmon Silko's The Turquoise Ledge was.

Library Journal

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