The Beadworkers Stories
The Beadworkers Stories by Beth Piatote is a debut collection published by Catapult on October 13, 2020. This 208-page book, written in English, presents a series of mixed-genre narratives that delve into the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, capturing the intricate patterns of contemporary Native American life.
Readers will encounter a range of stories that explore themes of kinship, longing, and the concept of return. The collection features a woman teaching her niece to create beaded earrings while reflecting on personal relationships, an eleven-year-old girl narrating the Fish Wars of the 1960s, and a poignant tale set during the tensions at Wounded Knee in 1890. Through formally inventive storytelling and vibrant characters, The Beadworkers offers insights into Indigenous aesthetics and the complexities of Native existence.
Official synopsis Publisher
Beth Piatote’s luminous debut collection opens with a feast, grounding its stories in the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, exploring the inventive and unforgettable pattern of Native American life in the contemporary world
Told with humor, subtlety, and spareness, the mixed–genre works of Beth Piatote’s first collection find unifying themes in the strength of kinship, the pulse of longing, and the language of return.
A woman teaches her niece to make a pair of beaded earrings while ruminating on a fractured relationship. An eleven–year–old girl narrates the unfolding of the Fish Wars in the 1960s as her family is propelled to its front lines. In 1890, as tensions escalate at Wounded Knee, two young men at college—one French and the other Lakota—each contemplate a death in the family. In the final, haunting piece, a Nez Perce–Cayuse family is torn apart as they debate the fate of ancestral remains in a moving revision of the Greek tragedy Antigone.
Formally inventive and filled with vibrant characters, The Beadworkers draws on Indigenous aesthetics and forms to offer a powerful, sustaining vision of Native life.
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