Bad Banana

“Do Indians Still Exist?” On Intergenerational Trauma and Indigenous Resilience Blair Palmer Yoxall Remembers the Family History That Inspired His Debut Novel Treat Them as Buffalo fertilized when I was five, riding in the backseat of my mom’s blue minivan along Cowboy Trail in the Alberta foothills. “Do Indians still exist?” I’d seen Indians in Westerns and comics and TV. They frightened me. From the rearview mirror, my mom seemed embarrassed when she chuckled. I knew my mom and I were Indigenous because her dad was. But the Indians I’d seen in movies dressed nothing like the people in my mom’s family. The Indians in Westerns had war paint and whooped like savages. The Indians in my family were all cowboys and cowgirls. Then when I was thirteen, my maternal grandfather passed away. My mom remembers my grandpa having an uncomfortable relationship with his mother. But I was close with my mom. Why couldn’t grandpa be close with his? By that point...

Cherokee science-fiction author Daniel H. Wilson blends ancient tales about extraterrestrials with up-to-date speculation about alien visitations in a new novel called "Hole in the Sky." Hole in the Sky: A Novel Indigenous knowledge meets science fiction in this creative page-turning thriller by New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Wilson. March 2, 2026 In May and June 2026, the Science Friday Book Club will read “ Hole in the Sky ” by Daniel H. Wilson. “First contact imminent.” Thrilling from the start, “Hole in the Sky” takes readers on a science fiction adventure set in the heart of the Cherokee Nation. It’s up to an unlikely crew–a single dad, an astrophysicist, and a threat forecaster for the military–to decode a cryptic message and prepare for an unidentified object heading directly for Earth. You can get your copy from your local bookstore or on Bookshop.org . There are so many ways to dive in and participate! You...

Narragansett author John Christian Hopkins is in need of financial help! Check out:   https://gofund.me/3f67a8d6a https://gofund.me/a776cb85f https://gofund.me/a776cb85f https://gofund.me/a776cb85f  

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  Native Visual Sovereignty: A Reader on Art and Performance , edited by Candice Hopkins | Dancing Foxes Press, December 2025 If you saw the excellent Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969 exhibition in 2023, you'll know how layered and diverse the history of Native performance art is, and even if you didn't see it, this may help get you up to speed. Starting with the well-known occupation of Alcatraz by Native activists in 1969, this reader makes the case that that important event kick-started an era of actions and performances that claimed public space for many groups who were facing erasure just a few decades before. This book centers Native agency, and that's exactly the story we should all be reading. — Hrag   Vartanian, editor-at-large Native Visual Sovereignty: A Reader on Art and Performance , edited by Candice Hopkins | Dancing Foxes Press, December 2025 If you saw the excellent Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, ...

Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book Nov 18, 2025   by Lucy Mercer Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.  © Sam Fisher I’m writing to make the case to you, the wider book industry, that small-press publishing is important.  I imagine this almost as if you are judges, perhaps peering over stacks of bestsellers, and I am one of the defendants.  Why is that?  Because really the situation is this: the industry is not supporting small-press publishers enough, not because it ought to, but because small-press publishing is the future of book production in this country. Fiction, poetry, non-fiction, hybrid books, artist books, broadsides, pamphlets, even vinyls and posters, beautifully written and beautifully printed. These are some things we could look at. Or I could say to you, small-press publishers are the spirit that animates our literature.   And you might say – why, what do they do?  For...

Brendan Basham is a Diné author, teacher and artist who lives in New Mexico, near the Navajo and Zuni Reservations. His debut novel, “ Swim Home to the Vanished ,” tells the story of a small-town Diné line cook and uses magical realism to explore themes of grief and redemption.   What words of advice do you have for aspiring writers or aspiring cooks? What would you say to those folks? BB: Number one for any young Native person: It doesn't matter what you want to do with your life, your story matters. Your story counts and it needs to be heard. Number two: If you're a young artist writer, you need to read everything you can get your hands on. All genres, all time eras. And you’ve got to travel a lot, and you’ve got to learn new languages and challenge any kind of preconceived notions of the world that you've had. Also: Don't forget where you come from. I want to see craft, I want people to make beautiful things. I don't want to see young Native writers wr...

IT IS OUR BIRTHDAY TODAY - WE STARTED PUBLISHING ON 11-11-11. Happy 14th Birthday to us!  and we are happy to be BAD BANANA, too! 

  Inuk writer Jamesie Fournier says scary monsters and horror stories often have important lessons and serve as cautionary tales for young people. (Photo courtesy of Jamesie Fourner) Arts and Culture    Oct 31, 2025  New anthology brings horror to the tundra Collection provides 12 spooky tales about zombies, monsters and other mythical creatures By Jorge Antunes A new anthology of Arctic horror stories includes modern interpretations of Inuit myths, zombies on the tundra and cannibal children. “When you encounter scary stories, in most cultures, they have that high interest value where they could be a little morbid or graphic or very da...

 From the fabulous Jenny Lawson   You are being scammed. Don’t fall for it. October 24, 2025 in Random Crap This isn’t a real post. It’s me venting a little and also maybe letting you in on something that might cost you a lot of money if you aren’t aware of it, especially if you are an author. Scammers have been taking advantage of authors forever. They know that your books are your babies and you desperately want to find the readers who will love them and that can make you emotionally invested in ways that make you vulnerable to people taking advantage of you. Here are a few recent and not so recent scams to be aware of, including one I got close to falling for myself: THE PAID PODCAST SCAM: This one consists of someone wanting you to be on a well-known podcast (or facebook live, etc) where you’ll be getting $3000 just for participating. This is the first red flag. You don’t get paid for being a one-time guest on a p...

Writing is cathartic, says poet, who voices his trauma in new collection Tuesday, October 7th, 2025   Joseph Dandurand. Photo by Peter Arkell   By Shari Narine Windspeaker.com Books Feature Writer Joseph Dandurand’s latest collection of poetry, I Would Like to Say Thank You, is a raw look into a life that has been both hard and rewarding. The Kwantlen First Nation poet calls writing poetry cathartic even if he’s sharing something with the reader that he has kept to himself for years. “I think probably the emotion that I'm in in that moment when I'm creating something might allow me to put my guard down and allow trauma to be voiced in a way that is, unfortunately, soothing and traumatic at the same time,” said Dandurand. His process is such that he allows whatever is in his head to flow on to the paper...

Announcing a new book certification scheme that enables publishers to prove their books are written by humans SamJordison Aug 06, 2025    First, the bad news: We now live in a world where it is necessary to prove that books have been written by humans. We have reached a point where so much generative AI-slop is being foisted on the public that readers are becoming suspicious of what they might be buying. Not least because quite a bit of that slop has been designed to rip-off the genuine article. But now for the better news. There is a solution: A new book certification scheme called Books By People is launching in the UK. Based on careful vetting and testing procedures, it enables publishers to reassure readers that the books they are selling are real. If you want to know a book is genuine, you will soon be able to look for this kite-mark: Before proceeding, I should admit to an interest here. I’m on the advisory board of Books By People 1 Also, I have an axe to grin...