About Postcolonial Love Poem
“Americans prefer a magical red Indian, or a shaman, or a fake Indian in a red dress, over a real Native. Even a real Native carrying the dangerous and heavy blues of a river in her body.”
— Postcolonial Love Poem
A finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry and winner of the 2021 American Book Award and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Postcolonial Love Poem is the “exquisite, electrifying” (Publisher’s Weekly) second collection from Mojave American poet, educator, MacArthur fellow, and language activist Natalie Diaz. “In a world where nothing feels so conservative as a love poem, Diaz takes the form and smashes it to smithereens, building something all her own” (LitHub). In doing so, Diaz claims the autonomy of desire, countering the violent erasure of indigenous imagination. “No doubt one of the most important poetry releases in years” (New York Times Book Review). “With tenacious wit, ardor, and something I can only call magnificence, Diaz speaks of the consuming need we have for one another,” writes Louise Erdrich. “This is a book for any time, but especially a book for this time…. Be prepared to journey down a wild river.”
Learn more about this book, and how to unpack the words of Diaz with a discussion guide from the NEA.
About the Author
Natalie Diaz, is a queer Mojave American poet, linguist, educator, and former professional basketball player, Natalie Diaz grew up on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation in a two-bedroom house with four brothers and four sisters, a Native mother, and a Spanish, Catholic father. “We held to many truths all at once,” Diaz wrote in a statement for the Poetry Society of America. “Each seemed to strengthen the possibility of the other, rather than cancel it out. In my house, we never had to choose between the numerous parts of ourselves—we were all of those things, at the same time, sometimes in a noisy collision, sometimes in an easy weave.”
About the Instructor
Katerina Jeng (they/she) is a poet, community leader, and weaver of the sacred into the everyday. They are here to help guide humanity into a new paradigm world through humble service that is abundantly joyful, pleasurable, and free. Katerina’s writing explores love and power, and is inspired by their identity as a queer, neurodivergent, Filipina-Taiwanese-American femme; as well as the work of artists and activists of color who have come before them.
Katerina is currently a fellow at Lighthouse Writers Workshop; has been celebrated in People, PBS, CBS News, HuffPost, and Talks at Google; and earned their bachelors of arts in English and music at Cornell University. Their debut poetry collection, Gospel of a Whole Sun, will be published in May 2024 by Andrews McMeel. You can follow Katerina on Instagram @katerinajeng.
