EPISODE SIX & GIVEAWAY
E6: On growing up O’odham with Ruben Cu:k Ba’ak
In this episode we discuss use of names through colonization, connecting back to tribal (Tohono O'odham ) roots, addiction, native masculinity and growing up on the reservation in Southern Arizona.
TW:Drug use, Childhood abuse & assault
JUNE WRITING PROMPT GIVEAWAY
….How will you live your life so it benefits you, your people and all the Original People of these lands before America, Mexico, or Canada? How will you meet your Ancestors, with honor or disgrace? Will you live in truth and fix the parts of you that need fixing; and then help fix the issues of your people? Will you be able to see beyond yourself and seek the help you need to do something you have never done before? What will you hand the Generations to come? Who did you learn the good things you know from, and who did you learn the bad things you know from? And what are you teaching other people (same age, old, young), good habits or bad habits?
EPISODE FIVE & GIVEAWAY
E5: Discussing The Diné Reader
In this special episode of Abalone Mountain Press Podcast, we discuss The Diné Reader. In this episode we interview one of the editors, Esther Belin about their editing process. We also interviewed Byron Aspaas, Nia Francisco and Laura Tohe. We discuss what it is like growing up on the Navajo Reservation, writing poems in Navajo and hopes for the Diné Reader. #diné#navajo#poetry#nonfiction#fiction#thedinéreader
JUNE WRITING PROMPT GIVEAWAY
We can't forget our Episode 5 writing prompt giveaway! Our writing prompt this month was created by one of our featured guests in this month's episode Byron Aspaas. Send in your writing prompt submission by June 27th for a chance to win some goodies from @universityofarizonapress (The Diné Reader and No parole today by Laura Tohe ), Big Sky Soap Arizona , OXDX Clothing and beautiful sage resin earrings by Moongrrl666. "Road maps are part of everyone’s childhood, where each road tells a story of an incident that may have happened to you, your parents, or your family. Find a road. Make that road the title of your piece. Tell the story that is entwined within the road, tell the story of the rocks or of the land that surrounds that particular road. Use the senses of the body to create images that help the story come to life as words unfold from the mind. Concrete detail is important when retelling story. Recreate that sacred space you reflect about. Share the moment, the story, the words that create this beautiful landscape." #writingprompt#giveaway#abalonemountainpress#podcast#thedinéreader#navajo#diné#storytelling
EPISODE FOUR & GIVEAWAY
E4: FIIK//BOOKS "On finding your book community"
In this episode of Abalone Mountain Press Podcast, I am speaking with Ryan Greene, Mary Hope and Claudia Nuñez de Ibieta about finding your book community, translating, Cardboard House Press Cartonera Collective and their new project F*%K IF I KNOW//BOOKS. According to Entropy magazine "F*%K IF I KNOW//BOOKS IS a phoenix-based, phoenix-focused publishing project that creates collaboratively-designed, hand-made, limited-run books by undersung local authors/artists." For more info on FIIK//BOOKS you can read and hear all their books for free at www.fiikbooks.org
APRIL WRITING PROMPT GIVEAWAY
The co-conspirators at FIIK Books call themselves book farmers. Imagine you are a non-human inhabitant of a small organic farm. You can choose to be the soil, a seed, a start, a weed, a non-plant being that lives in the soil, a vegetable, an herb, a fruit tree, a flower, a winged thing, the sky above, the rain that falls, the sun that shines, the green house, the compost bin/pile/vermicompost, a farming tool/machinery, the irrigation system. Be wildly imaginative. Then write a poem about what you are, your role/responsibility on the farm, and what life is like where you live.
Submit by May 27th, 2021!
Items included in this month’s giveaway is a clear mentha lipgloss and a lachach coffee from Ah-Shí Beauty. Also included is a collage candle and Nuclear Waste collage zine by Mary Hope Lee, Cactus keychain, lilac Baggu bag, a floral writing notebook and the America you have work to do zine by Chawa Magaña.
EPISODE THREE & GIVEAWAY
On grief work and publishing with Tanaya Winder
In this episode I talk with Tanaya Winder (Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Navajo, and Black tribes). We discuss her books, Love like words and Why Storms Are Named After People and Bullets Remain Nameless. We discuss grief work, growing up the Southern Ute reservation in Ignacio, Colorado and her journey in publishing in and self publishing. Content warning, we also discuss a bit about Missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives. #southernutetribe #pyramidlakepaiute #navajo#blacktribes#poet#indigenouspoet#nativewriter #griefwork#MMIW
Writing prompt giveaway!
THE PROMPT:
Who is an elder/guardian/older relative/role model/person you wish to honor and say thank you to? Write them a thank you/honoring poem.
EPISODE TWO & GIVEAWAY
Writing through familial trauma with Danielle Geller
In this episode, I speak with Danielle Geller about her new memoir, Dog Flowers. "In Danielle Geller’s debut memoir, Dog Flowers, a daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to confront her family’s history and retrace her mother’s life—using both narrative and archive in this arrestingly original memoir" (daniellegeller.com)
Writing prompt giveaway!
Photographs have always been significant to my writing process. So, for this exercise, go back through the camera roll on your phone. Go back a couple of years, if you're able. Or go back to a childhood or family album. Find a photo from June and write about it. Write about the photograph's central subject (who or what were you trying to capture? why?), but also pay attention to the smaller details. It's amazing what can be mined from a single photograph. What is in the background? What time of day was it? What was the hue of the light? Who was there but isn't inside the frame of the photo itself--for example, who took the photograph? If this felt productive, are there other photographs from the same day? What other stories or memories do they reveal?
For this month's writing prompt giveaway we have items from the Native Art Market! A beaded bookmark, sheep tin can from Jonehz metal canister project, a cactus flower and jade from Hozho Candles Co., patchouli and blue corn soap from Mudhead soaps, a decomposition notebook, stickers from Dominique Daye Hunter, another coyote and sheep sticker from Garrett Etsitty and a beautiful pair of beaded blue earrings from Navajo Secrets.
EPISODE ONE & GIVEAWAY
ON HEALING THROUGH STORIES WITH MANNY LOLEY
In this episode we interviewed Manny Loley about his thoughts on the writing process, healing as a Diné person, Indigenous poetics and their passion for birds. We also learn about his experience as being the director of Emerging Diné Writers Institute.
WRITING PROMPT GIVEAWAY
The writing prompt created by our guest, Manny Loley focuses on the theme of love. This can be in any form such as a poem, story, essay or even song.
Prompt: Write about love in your language. What does love look like to you?
January 2021 prizes are the fall 2020 issue of The Yellow Medicine Review: A journal of Indigenous literature, art and thought. Turquoise earrings by Asdzaan Baa Creations, “I’m reading right meow” socks by Read your socks off! Decomposition notebook made with 100% post-consumer waste recycled pages by fields of plenty, hummingbird collage candle by Mary Hope Lee, Masaní bi Appa sticker, Yoda Yaazhi Bidibe sticker and Diné Woman Warrior sticker by Khaven Art and cute saguaro pen and nail file. Not pictured is a 12 oz bag of Chiapas medium roast coffee by Yeego Coffee.