American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The Drumming Earth: Five Recent Anthologies of Contemporary American Indian Literature Peter G. Beidler A Nation Within: Contemporary Native American Writing. An issue edited by Ralph Salisbury. Pacific Quarterly Moana, vol. 8, no. 1. Hamilton, New Zealand: Outrigger Publishers, 1983. 106 pp. [Prices for back issues on request from publisher at Box 13-049, Hamilton, New Zealand or at 814 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.] Paper. A Gathering of Spirit. A special double-issue edited by Beth Brant (Degonwadonti). Issue 22/23 of Sinister Wisdom. Iowa City: Iowa City Women's Press, 1983. 221 pp. $6.50 Paper. [Rpt. 1984; Sinister Wisdom Books, Rockland, Maine. 240 pp. $7.95 Paper.] The Clouds Threw This Light: Contemporary Native American Poetry. Edited by Phillip Foss. Santa Fe, NM: Institute of American Indian Arts Press, 1983. 351 pp., $15.00 Paper. Songs From This Earth On Turtle's Back: Contemporary American Indian Poetry. Edited by Joseph Bruchac. Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review Press, 1983.300 pp. $9.95 Paper. Earth Power Coming: Short Fiction in Native American Literature. Edited by Simon J. Ortiz. Tsaile, Arizona: Navajo Community College Press, 1983. 289 pp. $14.50 Cloth. $10.50 Paper. Literary anthologies serve two primary groups of readers. The first are non-academic readers: those who want some bit-reading for the bus between towns or for the last few minutes before the bedlight gets turned off at night. Such readers may be quite serious but may not be capable of much concentration at those in between-times. What they are looking for is something short, not too difficult, easily put down, and easily forgotten. Anthologies generally serve the need, and the five anthologies of contemporary American Indian literature discussed in this review should do as well as most for the bus-and-bed readers.