The University of Arizona Press
January 9, 2025
The City of Phoenix awarded Amber McCrary a 2025 Artist to Work grant. The Artists to Work grant program supports the creation and presentation of original, new, or in-process artistic work by practicing Phoenix artists. McCrary’s project focuses on rez dogs and their significance in Native communities, with plans to create a dedicated zine.
“Central to this project is my dog, Sandy McCrary, whom I adopted from the Coconino Humane Society in Flagstaff, Arizona,” says McCrary. “I also want to highlight several rez dogs I fostered through the Tuba City Humane Society over a nine-month period. These dogs include those who were abandoned and homeless near the local high school, a puppy found lost under a work trailer and two brother puppies found at my grandma’s sheep camp.”
McCrary is the author of Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert. McCrary is of the Kin Łichíí’nii clan, born for the Naakaii Dine’é clan. Her maternal grandfather is the Áshįįhí clan and her paternal grandfather is the Ta’neeszahnii clan. She is a poet, zinester, dog (and cat) mom, and tea lover.
In Blue Corn Tongue, McCrary remaps the deserts of Arizona through the blue corn story of a young Diné woman figuring out love and life with an O’odham man. Reflecting experiences of Indigenous joy, pain, and family, these shapeshifting poems celebrate the love between two Native partners, a love that flourishes alongside the traumas they face in the present and the past. From her ethereal connection with her saguaro muse, Hosh, to the intricate tapestry of her relationships with Diné relatives and her awakening to the complex world of toxic masculinity, McCrary brings together DIY zine aesthetics, life forms of juniper and mountains, and the beauty of Diné Bizaad to tell of the enduring bonds between people and place.
Congratulations, Amber!
