'I was blown away by Layli Long Soldier's WHEREAS. ' Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. A POETRY BOOK SOCIETY SPECIAL COMMENDATION. 'In what is clearly a golden age for American poetry, Layli Long Soldier has to be out in front - one of the best collections of the century. ' Andrew McMillan.
