Bad Banana

Life on the reservation is not a dream. These stories tell the harsh realities of life with murderous men and murderous weather. Robidoux’s novella of Lucy Little Bear is as rich and complex as life itself. --- “When I was seven my mother tried to kill me.” So begins the journey of Lucy Little Bear in a place “so cold salt water freezes in the bay.” All the characters in these linked narratives find their way into the warmth of your soul. An old woman, Lily Paul, sings in the old language until the fire sings back. She turns into an ermine to survive a perilous journey to her trailer park, “Hollywood,” on coastal Maine. And there is Shawna and the danger of those Moonlight Tours. Robidoux creates a mystical place with her words …where “fog floats in and out with the tide…creating a feeling the world is just a dream.” But life on the reservation is not a dream. These stories tell the harsh realities of life with murderous men and murderous weather. There ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ojibwe-Style Moccasin Game latest release by Blue Hand Books GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (2017) --- Blue Hand Books Collective in Western Massachusetts has just released a new book by first-time author Charles Grolla (Ojibwe) of Bemidji, Minnesota.  His Ojibwe name is Ogimaagiizhig Odoodeman Adikwan. “The purpose of this new book is to make sure this beautiful game is handed down to new generations,” Ojibwe author Charles Grolla said.  “T raditionally played by men only, it’s probably our oldest Ojibwe men’s game, and moccasin game has been and is still a big part of our Ojibwe culture even to this day.  “The Ojibwe style of moccasin game is my understanding and what I learned growing up playing this beautiful game, mainly on the Red Lake Reservation,” Grolla said.    Ojibwe style moccasin game is still played on the Red Lake, Mille Lacs, Nett Lake, White Earth, Leech Lake, Roseau River, and Lac La Croix Reserv...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sweetgrass Burning hits Kindle in 2017, was first release by Blue Hand Books in 2016 Greenfield, Massachusetts [2016/7]  -- Blue Hand Books Collective, a small Native American-owned publishing company based in New England, has announced its first title of 2016 is Sweetgrass Burning: Stories from The Rez (paperback in 2016, ebook in 2017) This debut narrative fiction by Barbara Robidoux comprises linked short stories about the lives of Indians who live at Northpoint, a fictional reservation in northeastern Maine. Robidoux, who’s lived in Maine on the Passamaquoddy reservation (rez), has Eastern Cherokee (Tsalagi), Italian and Scottish ancestry. “Robidoux’s book covers the everyday events that confront this (rez) community and its struggles against corporate interests to take over tribal land for profit, the opening and rapid closing of a tribal Bingo hall, and the revenge of three elder ladies who cast their humor and rage against pr...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  (January 31, 2017) LINK Indigenous Native Poetry collection IN THE VEINS gives power to words Greenfield, Massachusetts [2017]   --   “These poet’s words jumped off the page and made their way under my skin, into the chambers of my heart ,”   said Editor Patricia Busbee (Cherokee) who has edited the new Native prose and poetry book, IN THE VEINS   (Vol. 4,   ISBN: 978-0692832646, Publisher: Blue Hand Books, Massachusetts).    In the Veins poetry anthology editor Patricia Busbee (adoptee, Cherokee mix) spoke with Dr. Dawn Karima (who also contributed stunning poetry to this book) about Native poetry and our history recently: LISTEN: http://talktainmentradio.com/podcasts/Conversation%20with%20Dawn%20Karima%20042417.mp3 “It’s a transformative collection of poetry, truly Medicine for the Soul ,” Busbee said, who has contributed poetry and prose to this collection and is Poetry Editor for Blue Hand...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ISBN: 978-0692700334 Indian Adoption Projects survivors write new history in new book Called Home: The RoadMap GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (2016) --- Blue Hand Books Collective in Western Massachusetts has published a second edition of CALLED HOME: The RoadMap Vol. 2 [in the Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects book series].  This edition has been revised and updated with a new book cover.  It includes a new essay The RoadMap: DNA and ICWA, devoted to those adoptees still searching, offering tips on how to open sealed adoption files, how to use DNA tests and the services of search angels, and how the recently-revised Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 could help them. The Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects book series [Two Worlds Vol. 1; Called Home: The RoadMap Vol. 2; Stolen Generations Vol. 3; and a new poetry collection In The Veins Vol. 4 to be published in 2016] exposes a dark chapter of North American history when ...

If you need to contact Trace or any of the authors, use this: bluehandcollective@outlook.com

Eddie Chuculate (Creek-Cherokee) I was shocked when I received the O. Henry Prize. In fact, I thought the notification was junk e-mail and nearly deleted it. I remember browsing through those yearly anthologies as a youngster in the Muskogee, OK, Public Library after I first became fascinated with short stories. Of course I never imagined I'd one day join that list of famous and not-so-famous. To do so seems like making, in some small way, your small notch in American literature, and for this I am very grateful. The widespread familiarity with the series among people whom I thought had no idea of its existence floored me. (author photo © Mark Holm/The Albuquerque Tribune)  I wrote my first story when I was six or seven years old, about the hillbilly who formerly graced the returnable bottles of Mountain Dew soda."Mountain Dew the Hillbilly," I called it. He ran away from home, his family searched for him and found him (hiding in a tree), and...

BUY LINK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Greenfield, Massachusetts [2016]   -- Award-winning Native journalist Trace Hentz continues her heart-rending efforts to peel away the malodorous layers of Native American adoption with her newest book, Stolen Generations: Survivors of the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop (Publisher Blue Hand Books). “What is significant about this new book?  Everything,” Hentz said.  “Ten years ago there were no books on stolen generations.  Now we have more than one generation who have experienced the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop.  These survivors have bravely documented their life experience in their own words in three anthologies (Two Worlds, Called Home and now Stolen Generations) that I’ve compiled so far.” Hentz (formerly DeMeyer) has worked tirelessly since 2004 to shed light on the dark corners and secret crevices of American Indian adoptions, and by extension, all adoptees. “For me, that is ...