By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
Work is currently being solicited for a new contemporary Indigenous poetry anthology from the Wesleyan University Press, and members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) are being encouraged to submit their work for consideration.
One of the project’s three editors is Dr. Mary Leauna Christensen, an EBCI tribal member who is a teaching assistant professor in the English Department at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. She is joined by Annie Wenstrup (Dena-ina) and No-u Revilla (ʻŌiwi).
Information from Dr. Christensen on the submission process states, “If you are interested in submitting to the anthology, we would be elated! Please send three to five poems. We welcome visual poetry and multi-modal work that explores color, shape, image, audio, and movement. A website hosting audio, video, and visual components will be an extension of the print anthology.”
Dr. Christensen said, “It seems like more and more Indigenous poets are experimenting with poetic forms, concrete shapes, and a page’s white space. I think doing so allows poets to push back against Western traditions and to bring in their own cultures and traditional arts. For example, Kenzie Allen’s poem aptly titled “Long House” is in the shape of a long house.
However, it can be hard for these poems to find homes in print publications typically because of financial constraints faced by many publications– wider trim or page size and color printing can be outside of budgets. Our anthology will allow for a larger trim size (ideally a finished product of 7×10) and the inclusion of some colored text and images.”
She added, “Personally, I would love to see more poems that include traditional arts in some way (like pottery, basket/blanket weaving, or beading). I speak for myself and my co-editors when I say that all three of us love to see work that includes the poet’s Indigenous language– even if it’s just a word or two.
Poets whose work is selected for inclusion in the anthology will then be asked to submit a micro craft essay (500-800 words) that speaks to their poetics. Accepted poets will also be asked to share one poem by another Indigenous writer that has shaped their understanding of Indigenous poetics.”
You can submit your work here: https://wesleyanuniversitypress.submittabale.com/submit/340085/indigenous-poetry-anthology
Dr. Christensen has a bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University, a master of fine arts degree from Eastern Washington University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work can be read in publications including Poetry Northwest, Poetry Daily, and the Common.
Her debut poetry collection, entitled “Beading Water” is set to be released by Wesleyan University Press sometime next year. Christensen was an inaugural 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow and returned in 2023 and 2025. “In July 2023, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle invited me to read and facilitate a poetry workshop at the Museum of the Cherokee People as part of ‘Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop Series’. In 2024, I also read with Annette at an event sponsored by Cherokee Central Schools: ‘A Celebration of EBCI Writers in the North Carolina Literary Review!’.”
“Poetry allows for play and experimentation in ways that prose isn’t always able to,” said Dr. Christensen. “It doesn’t matter if the poem is free verse or following a more traditional form, such as a sonnet or sestina, – there are ways the writer can push back against expectations that best benefit the poem’s subject matter.
For me, poetry allows for the examination of tough matters like personal grief and larger cultural losses such as the loss of Indigenous practices and language, and land historically and systematically altered. Poems, too, give room for the taking back of agency – for reaction against erasure and for the inclusion of Indigenous languages.”
When asked who her favorite poets and inspirations are, Dr. Christensen noted, “The anthology follows the lineage of Heid E. Erdrich’s anthology “New Poets of Native Nations” (Graywolf Press, 2018) and Joy Harjo’s “When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020). My personal favorite poetry collections are Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas” (Graywolf Press, 2017), and Jake Skeets’s “Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers” (Milkweed, 2019). I would also be amiss if I didn’t recommend No’u Revilla’s “Ask the Brindled” (Milkweed, 2022) and Annie Wenstrup’s “The Museum of Unnatural History” (Wesleyan University Press, 2025).”
