Greg Sarris Libri

Focusing on love and forgiveness, the narrative explores the lives of a modern Native American family in Santa Rosa, California. Through the perspectives of Johnny Severe, his grandmother Elba, and his mother Iris, the story reveals the secrets and traumas that shape their unique perceptions. Originally published in 1998, it stands out as a rare fictional portrayal of urban Native American experiences, highlighting the historical factors influencing a tribe's migration from rural to urban settings.

A world-renowned Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman, Mabel McKay expressed her genius through her celebrated baskets, her Dreams, her cures, and the stories with which she kept her culture alive. She spent her life teaching others how the spirit speaks through the Dream, how the spirit heals, and how the spirit demands to be heard. Greg Sarris weaves together stories from Mabel McKay's life with an account of how he tried, and she resisted, telling her story straight—the white people's way. Sarris, an Indian of mixed-blood heritage, finds his own story in his search for Mabel McKay's. Beautifully narrated, Weaving the Dream initiates the reader into Pomo culture and demonstrates how a woman who worked most of her life in a cannery could become a great healer and an artist whose baskets were collected by the Smithsonian. Hearing Mabel McKay's life story, we see that distinctions between material and spiritual and between mundane and magical disappear. What remains is a timeless way of healing, of making art, and of being in the world. Sarris’s new preface, written expressly for this edition, meditates on Mabel McKay’s enduring legacy and the continued importance of her teachings.

Interconnected original stories set in Northern California's Sonoma Mountain explore themes of leadership, community, and connection to the landscape. Through the twin crows, Question Woman and Answer Woman, readers encounter a vibrant world filled with enchanting elements, such as a creek-stealing Water Bug and Rain as a memory-keeper. Inspired by Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo creation tales, these narratives blend timeless wisdom with contemporary relevance, showcasing Sarris's inventive prose and advancing American Indian literature.

Now in paperback: a gently powerful memoir about deepening your relationship with your homeland. Tribal chairman and celebrated storyteller Greg Sarris--whose novels are esteemed alongside those of Louise Erdrich and Stephen Graham Jones--invites us into intimate and contemplative scenes from his own life in Becoming Story. With this memoir-in-essays he asks: What does it mean to be truly connected to the place you call home--to walk where innumerable generations of your ancestors have walked? And what does it mean when you dedicate your life to making that connection even deeper? Moving between his childhood and the present day, Sarris creates a kaleidoscopic narrative about the forces that shaped his early years and his eventual work as a tribal leader. He considers the fathomless past, historical traumas, and possible futures of his homeland. His acclaimed storytelling skills are in top form here, and he charts his journey in prose that is humorous, searching, and profound. Described as "jewellike" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Becoming Story is also a gently powerful guide in the art of belonging to the place where you live.

"A cycle of stories that take place in Northern California, featuring Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok characters, and that span the nineteenth century to the future."--