The University of Arizona Press
Date: Sunday, August 16, 2026
Time: 6-9 pm, MDT
Where: 3140 Cerrillos Rd suite B, Santa Fe, NM 87507
Amber McCrary, author of Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert, will be part of “Floating Words Poetry Night, the Gathering of Indigenous Poets,” hosted by Vital Spaces on Sunday, August 16. She will join other poets: Manny Loley, Rachel Johnson, Byron Aspaas, and Boderra Joe. This event is free and open to the public.
Amber McCrary is a Diné poet and zinester. 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.
About the book:
In a voice that is jubilant, irreverent, sometimes scouring, sometimes heartfelt, and always unmistakably her own, 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.
