I knew I could write sentences, but getting the world in my head, and the things I was feeling, onto the page—that’s been an entirely different story. It took me what seems like forever to understand how to put the Indian Country I know on the page. The big problem, which is the problem every Native writer deals with, is how to talk about something the reader likely knows nothing about. How do you write into a cultural space where people have nothing but tropes to fall back on in order to understand you? And then—how do you push back against those simplistic ideas without turning into an explanation machine? Fiction has to be about more than explaining something to the uninitiated, and it has to be about more than your personal politics, lest the work become mere propaganda. It also has to hit the deep, human things that are common to all people. Everyone knows love; everyone comes to know loss. And it has to be beautiful in some way. The sentences have to be more than a method for conveying information; they also have to be objects unto themselves. They need to refract light.

STERLING HOLYWHITEMOUNTAIN