University of Arizona Press author received 2022 American Book Award
In early October, poet and editor Esther Belin accepted the Before Columbus Foundation’s 2022 American Book Award for The Diné Reader at the foundation’s virtual awards ceremony.
Published in April 2021 by the University of Arizona Press, The Diné Reader is a wide-ranging anthology that brings together writers who offer perspectives that span generations and perspectives on life and Diné history. Receiving the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award is a tremendous honor, and the entire staff at the University of Arizona Press is grateful to the editors and writers who came together and shared their work with us in this wonderful volume.
Award-winning poet and U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo wrote in her nomination, “This anthology proves that Diné writers are at the heart of not just contemporary Native literature but the canon of American literature. These writers are defining their own literature, which means defining the future as they stand as the next generations of literary ancestors.