The University of Oklahoma Press is pleased to announce the release of Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris with an afterword by Reginald Dyck
Rohnert Park, CA
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August 05, 2021 05:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time
About the Book:
Watermelon Nights
by Greg Sarris with an afterword by Reginald Dyck
Volume 73 in the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series
$26.95 Paperback
978-0-8061-6937-8
456 Pages
In Watermelon Nights, Greg Sarris tells a powerful tale about the love and forgiveness that keep a modern Native American family together in Santa Rosa, California. Told from the points of view of a twenty-year-old Pomo man named Johnny Severe, his grandmother Elba, and his mother, Iris, this intergenerational saga uncovers the secrets—and traumatic events—that inform each of these characters’ extraordinary powers of perception. First published in 1998, Watermelon Nights remains one of the few works of fiction to illuminate the experiences of urban Native Americans and is the only one to depict the historical conditions that shape a tribe’s rural-to-urban migration.
This new edition of the novel features a revised preface by the author and an afterword by Reginald Dyck, who identifies broader contexts important to our understanding of the novel, including tribal sovereignty, federal Indian policy, and the effects of historical trauma. Gritty yet rich in emotion, Watermelon Nights stands beside the works of Louise Erdrich, Stephen Graham Jones, and Tommy Orange.
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About the Author:
Greg Sarris is author of the anthology Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts, the novel Watermelon Nights, and scripts for screen and stage. He is Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and holds the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University.
Reginal Dyck is Professor of English at Capital University. His research and writing focus on the work of Native American authors, including Greg Sarris.
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