Indy Book Club’s November Selection: 2021 S.B. Reads Title ‘An American Sunrise: Poems’

Each year, Santa Barbara Public Library selects a book for Santa Barbara Reads with the intention that it will be widely read and discussed in the community. Our goal is to broaden horizons, consider the world from another’s perspective, and make connections with one another. We invite all members of the community to explore humanity through stories. 

This year’s title is An American Sunrise, a collection of poetry by United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. These poems explore Indigenous pasts, presents, and potential futures in the U.S. and prompt readers to unpack the impact of America’s colonial history. These conversations are particularly relevant in Santa Barbara, where the city’s heart stands in the shadow of the “Queen of the Missions” and streets named for Spanish Colonizers intersect with those bearing Chumash names.

Harjo steeps her poems in the history of her ancestral lands and culture. They are both profoundly personal and expansively mythic in scope. Harjo invites us to remember, and to reckon with, the past.