This Music
Description
This Music is the final, intimate work of celebrated Koyoonk'auwi (Concow) poet and essayist Janice Gould, completed posthumously by a collective of close friends and literary scholars.
Told through lyrical prose poems and personal photographs, this memoir traces Gould's life as a queer/Two-Spirit California Native coming of age in the late 1960s, navigating family, identity, activism, and art. With reflections on her mixed-blood heritage, her experiences in lesbian feminist circles, and her journey as a poet and musician, Gould's voice resonates with clarity, tenderness, and fierce honesty.
The book opens with a foreword by Joy Harjo and an introduction from the editorial collective, including an essay by Gould's spouse, Marie-Elise Wheatwind, framing the memoir as both a literary achievement and a loving tribute.
This Music is a vital contribution to Indigenous and LGBTQ literatures, offering readers a rare and powerful account of gender, sexuality, and Native identity in mid-century and contemporary America. As the one hundredth volume in the Sun Tracks series, this work honors Gould's legacy while expanding the canon of poetic memoir. Ideal for readers of poetry, memoir, and Indigenous literature, this book will resonate deeply with scholars, students, and anyone drawn to stories of resilience, creativity, and the enduring power of memory.
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Persons
Janice Gould was Koyoonk'auwi (Concow). She published four books of poetry and has been anthologized widely. Her scholarly work includes personal essays and an edited book on contemporary American Indian poetry.
Jennifer Elise Foerster, author of three books of poetry, teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop and the Institute of American Indian Arts. A Mvskoke citizen, she lives in San Francisco.
Deborah A. Miranda (Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation/Santa Ynez Chumash ancestry), author of Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir and four poetry collections, is currently finishing an essay collection about the Rumsen elder Isabel Meadows.
Kim Shuck is the seventh poet laureate emerita of San Francisco and a visual artist. She is solo author of nine books and chapbooks and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Her most recent book is Pick a Garnet to Sleep In.
Lisa Tatonetti is a Coffman University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Kansas State University and co-founder of the Kansas Land Treaties Project. Her most recent book is Written by the Body:Gender Expansiveness and Indigenous Non-cis Masculinities.
Marie-Elise Wheatwind has published poetry, interviews, articles, and flash prose in journals, magazines, and periodicals. She has been awarded a PEN Syndicated Fiction prize and Oregon Literary Arts Fiction Fellowship. She lives in Portland, Oregon.