I Climb the Mesas
I Climb the Mesas
***preorder now… ships November 2025***
An overdue retrospective of a pathbreaking feminist Native American poet, with a foreword from activist and educator Lee Francis IV
I Climb the Mesas: Collected Poems of Paula Gunn Allen span the landscapes of the Southwest, excavate popular misunderstandings of Native women through history, and perhaps most importantly shines a light on a foremother of Native poetry, who was herself an icon to feminist legends like Gloria Steinem.
Including forewords from her nephew, activist and educator Lee Francis IV, as well as her daughter, this volume of the Laguna Pueblo poet spans her decades-long career, including hard-to-find, limited edition chapbooks.
ABOUT THE author
Daughter of a Lebanese-American father and a Laguna-Sioux-Scottish mother, Paula Gunn Allen (1939–2008) was raised in New Mexico on the Laguna Pueblo. She wrote several volumes of poetry, including America the Beautiful: Last Poems; Life Is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962-1995; Skins and Bones; Wyrds; Shadow Country; A Cannon Between My Knees; and Blind Lion. She taught at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a professor of English, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies. The groundbreaking collection of essays The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions is a touchstone of her work as a scholar, and she edited numerous anthologies of Native and women writers. Allen's honors included the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. In 2023, UCLA 's Gender Studies Department dedicated a Professorial Chair in her memory.
Type: Poetry
Pages: 176
Format: Flexibound (Trade)
Publication: 11/4/2025
ISBN: 9781646145829