Walking the Clouds
272 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:01 Mar 2012
ISBN:9780816529827
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Walking the Clouds

An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction

Edited by Grace L. Dillon
SERIES:
The University of Arizona Press

In this first-ever anthology of Indigenous science fiction Grace Dillon collects some of the finest examples of the craft with contributions by Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori authors. The collection includes seminal authors such as Gerald Vizenor, historically important contributions often categorized as "magical realism" by authors like Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie, and authors more recognizable to science fiction fans like William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones. Dillon's engaging introduction situates the pieces in the larger context of science fiction and its conventions.

Organized by sub-genre, the book starts with Native slipstream, stories infused with time travel, alternate realities and alternative history like Vizenor's "Custer on the Slipstream." Next up are stories about contact with other beings featuring, among others, an excerpt from Gerry William's The Black Ship. Dillon includes stories that highlight Indigenous science like a piece from Archie Weller's Land of the Golden Clouds, asserting that one of the roles of Native science fiction is to disentangle that science from notions of "primitive" knowledge and myth. The fourth section calls out stories of apocalypse like William Sanders' "When This World Is All on Fire" and a piece from Zainab Amadahy's The Moons of Palmares. The anthology closes with examples of biskaabiiyang, or "returning to ourselves," bringing together stories like Eden Robinson's "Terminal Avenue" and a piece from Robert Sullivan's Star Waka.

An essential book for readers and students of both Native literature and science fiction, Walking the Clouds is an invaluable collection. It brings together not only great examples of Native science fiction from an internationally-known cast of authors, but Dillon's insightful scholarship sheds new light on the traditions of imagining an Indigenous future.

 

Grace L. Dillon is an associate professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies program at Portland State University in Oregon. She is also the editor of Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest.
 

Imagining Indigenous Futurisms
The Native Slipstream
Gerald Vizenor, “Custer on the Slipstream”
Diane Glancy, “Aunt Parnetta’s Electric Blisters”
Stephen Graham Jones, from The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong
Sherman Alexie, from Flight

Contact
Celu Amberstone, from Refugees
Gerry William, from The Black Ship
Simon Ortiz, “Men on the Moon”

Indigenous Science and Sustainability
Nalo Hopkinson, from Midnight Robber
Gerald Vizenor, from Darkness in St. Louis: Bearheart
Andrea Hairston, from Mindscape
Archie Weller, from Land of the Golden Clouds

Native Apocalypse
Sherman Alexie, “Distances”
William Sanders, “When This World Is All on Fire”
Zainab Amadahy, from The Moons of Palmares
Misha, from Red Spider, White Web

Biskaabiiyang, “Returning to Ourselves” Eden Robinson, “Terminal Avenue”
Leslie Marmon Silko, from Almanac of the Dead
Stephen Graham Jones, from The Bird Is Gone: A Monograph Manifesto
Robert Sullivan (Nga¯ Pushi), from Star Waka

Notes
Source Credits
About the Editor
About the Contributors
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