A collaboration between UNM Creative Writing and The Institute for American Indian Research (IFAIR) recently brought Nez Perce author and scholar, Beth Piatote to campus for a reading and lecture.
Dr. Piatote read selections from The Beadworkers, as part of the Russo Reading Series at Hodgin Hall on UNM Campus. The audience consisted of about forty people, from UNM and from the community.
Piatote additionally presented a scholarly lecture titled, “Translating Land Through Language.” The talk started with her work translating Emily Dickinson’s poem, “To make a prairie,” into Nez Perce language and ended with an offering of prompts:
· What is a text you want to denaturalize/reoccupy/reconstruct?
· What does water know?
· Introduce yourself to the land.
Thought provoking and engaging, we are grateful to Piatote for her generosity in sharing her work with the UNM community.
Beth Piatote is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Berkeley. She holds a PhD from Stanford University, is the author of numerous scholarly essays and creative works, and is the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships. She is the author of two books: the scholarly monograph Domestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and the Law in Native American Literature (Yale 2013); and the mixed-genre collection, The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019).
