General 1 — Alaska Quarterly Review

About the Cover

A display of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, illuminates November night skies above Mendeltna Creek in southcentral Alaska. © 2020 Roy Corral.

AQR Vol. 36, No. 3 & 4, Winter/Spring 2020

Table of Contents

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note, Ronald Spatz

Essays

Autism, Poetry, and the Art of Transformation, Chris Martin
Neighbors Gathered, Michael Downs
Beauty in a Time of Darkness, Bonnie Nadzam

Stories

The Party, Katya Apekina
Simon’s Home for the Gently Loved, Molly Gutman
Photographers, Daniel Pearce
Missing, Kirsten Madsen
The Wastrel’s Curse, Matthew Lansburgh
The Velvet, Elise Juska
Breaking In, Joy Lanzendorfer
Village Girl, Patricia Page

Poetry

Monarchs, Viceroys, Swallowtails, Robert Hedin
Apology Girl, Lisa C. Krueger
Many Savage Things, John McCarthy
True Loss, Emily Yaremchuk
Florence, Emily Yaremchuk
Inside, Lynn Domina
What I Shouted and You Shouted, Marjorie Saiser
Natural Selections, Bruce Cohen
How Many Days Can a Camel Survive Without Water?, Bruce Cohen
Wishbone, Carey Salerno
Sick Horse, Carey Salerno
Before the Wolf Moon, Brendan Galvin
Two Coyotes Appear to Me in the Empty Parking Lot of Mix 92.9, Joanna Currey
On Marriage and American Coots, Charlotte Pence
Dowser, Samuel Green
Street Corner Market, Philadelphia, Amy Alvarez
Summer Imperative, Michael McGriff
A Short History of the Rain, Michael McGriff
Cows Returning from Pasture, Judith Harris
Kesslers’ Warehouse, John Bargowski
Mom-in-a-Box, Elaine Terranova
Upon Reading that a Soldier who Survives an IED Explosion…, John Hodgen
Five Years Ago Today, Katherine Lo
Yukon Insomnia File, Jamella Hagen
The Astronomer, Jamella Hagen
Anhedonia, Heather Treseler
Substance and Accident, Margaret Ray
The Clearing, Margaret Ray
Regional Echo, Colby Cotton
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Margaret Mackinnon

Special Section

Carrying the Fire: Celebrating Indigenous Voices of Canada, Sophie McCall, Deanna Reder, Sarah Henzi, Sam McKegney, Warren Cariou

Letter to an Emerging Writer, Daniel Heath Justice
Indigenous Voices Awards
Selected Winners and Finalists
From nipê wânîn: my way back. têpiya pîkiskwêwina. just words (Trans. Mika Lafond), Mika Lafond
From This Wound Is a World. Notes From a Public Washroom, Billy-Ray Belcourt
Colonialism: A Love Story, Billy-Ray Belcourt
Queen Bee, Elaine McArthur
Hair Raizing, Treena Chambers
From Full-Metal Indigiqueer. “d” Pairs Well With Vowels, Joshua Whitehead
The Hand Trembler, Nazbah Tom
Pejipug (Winter Arrives), Amanda Peters
Uashteu (Il y a de la lumière), Marie-Andrée Gill
From #haikuaday and other poems. a love poem to your great great grandmother, Smokii Sumac
what you don’t understand, Smokii Sumac
From #IndianLovePoems. #807, Tenille K. Campbell
#29, Tenille K. Campbell
#47, Tenille K. Campbell
From Poetry of a Northern Rez Girl. Since Time Immemorial, Francine Merasty
Drugs, Francine Merasty
From De vengeance. RÉAL et Carolanne. Roy and Carol Anne (Trans. Pablo Strauss), J.D. Kurtness
From Manikanetish. Le texte, Naomi Fontaine
From Those Who Run in the Sky, Aviaq Johnston
Ode to Nanabush, Brandi Bird
Marriage ‘à la façon du pays’, Brandi Bird
All That Was Left, David Agecoutay
From Glass Beads. Excerpt from “Two Years Less a Day”, Dawn Dumont
From Bad Endings. Moosehide, Carleigh Baker