Navajo Poet Merges Native American Tradition with Postmodernism

Navajo poet Sherwin Bitsui recently hosted a public reading featuring pieces from two of his award-winning books, "Shapeshift" and "Flood Song." The presentation was part of the Cal State San Bernardino English department's Pacific Review Reading Series. Bitsui, a leading voice in a new generation of Native American writers, grew up on the Navajo Reservation in White Cone, Ariz. Bitsui's work explores the tensions and intersections between Native American and contemporary urban culture, drawing on Native American culture, mythology and history. His poems are characterized by their surreal imagery and detailed descriptions of the Southwestern landscape. Bitsui's most recent book, "Flood Song," fuses Native American traditional writing with postmodern fragment and stream-of-consciousness. Bitsui was joined in his presentation by graduate students from San Diego State University, where he serves as a visiting professor. Bitsui holds an A.F.A. from the Institute of American Indian Arts creative writing program and has been awarded the Whiting Writers' Award, a grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, a Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, and an N.A.C.F. Artist Fellowship in Literature. Since 2013, he has served on the faculty of the Institute of American Indian Arts in the Low Residency M.F.A. in creative writing program. He has served as visiting writer at the University of Montana, as well.