The University of Arizona Press
January 14, 2025
In Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert, Amber 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. Today she answers five questions about her collection.
What inspired you to write Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert?
In graduate school, I created a zine for my craft of poetry class called Indigenous Corn is Revolutionary Love. From the zine, I started molding my thesis. I originally started writing about Native (blue) corn and the power behind it, then it slowly started evolving into love poems as well. I would say these themes and images were mainly because that’s what was happening in my life: I was living in Oakland on a beautiful school campus, and I was in a long-distance relationship going back and forth between Arizona and California. I think a big part was living in California for a couple years and not realizing how much I missed the deserts in Southern and Northern Arizona.
How does your background in zine writing and illustration have an impact on your poetry writing?
Had I not made my first zine, I don’t think I would have realized I was a writer. I would have probably kept my thoughts to myself in a journal, which I think would have been fine. But I would still be living in fear of not being good enough or that no one was interested in what I had to write. I’m very thankful I started out in zines because it helped me realize that nothing is perfect, and my art and self encompass that.
You explore the complexities of environmental destruction within poems about love between a Diné woman and an O’odham man, what inspired you to combine these themes?
How I see it, there’s not much of a difference between an Indigenous person and the land they come from. I joke about my muse being my “saguaro,” but saguaros are everywhere where he comes from and with urbanization and land destruction in Southern Arizona, I do see saguaros falling over from climate change or being rooted up to make new freeways over sacred places like South Mountain. Having lived in the Phoenix area (on and off) for seventeen years, these are mainly the parts of the everyday conversations I see or hear with O’odham people. And it’s the same with being a Diné woman growing up in Northern Arizona. We see sacred land and sites being desecrated all the time. I think love for me as a Native person tends to go beyond just loving a person for their being but their land as well.
Why did you use Navajo letter “£” to explore family, language, and loss?
I’m not sure, that piece sort of became this organic thing that I would add onto over the course of four or five years. It originally started when I took a class between undergrad and grad school at Arizona State University with Natalie Diaz. I remember in her class she had us choose a letter and describe it. I thought it was interesting to choose Ł since I only tend to write it when I am spelling a Navajo word. It was a letter that I always felt connected to and just love not only visually but the sound of it as well. I think this letter bridges a lot between those that only speak Navajo and those that speak English but only know bits of their language. It helps me understand these bridges and connections that are there between myself and my relatives.
What are you working on now?
Heh, I’m currently working on a zine which may possibly be turned into a longer book about rez dogs. Over the past year, they have been my muse and my connection to compassion, trauma and love. I was living on the reservation the past year and fostered a few dogs through Tuba City Humane Society that needed homes and healing from illnesses, homelessness, and violence. My family and I are big time dog people, so this just sort of catapulted how much certain rez dogs need home and medical care, a warm place and snacks to overcome some of the trauma that happens to them on the streets. I have polaroids from the dogs I’ve fostered, and I thought this could be an interesting project to start.
Amber 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. McCrary was born in Tuba City, Arizona, and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is a poet, zinester, dog (and cat) mom, and tea lover. She divides her time between northern and southern Arizona. This is her first book. www.ambermccrary.com
