Santee Frazier Reading in Cambridge, MA

November 16, 2019

Santee Frazier, University of Arizona Press author and poet, will read at The Grolier Poetry Book Shop as part of its Fall Reading Series on Saturday, November 16, 7 p.m., 6 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA.

Aurum, published by the University of Arizona Press in September as part of its award-winning Sun Tracks series, is Frazier’s long-anticipated second book. His first book, Dark Thirty, also published by the University of Arizona Press in 2009, received great praise for its compelling style and difficult themes like poverty, alcoholism, cruelty, and homelessness. Frazier, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, once again explores these similar themes in his new collection:

Aurum does not attempt to provide answers or solutions. Instead, it splits the belly of North America and lays it bare into powerful words and unconventional structures. Brutally honest and incredibly fine tuned, this collection digs up “the grit where teeth once rooted” to show the objectification of Native peoples and cultures for the grotesque erasure it really is.

With images that taunt, disturb, and fascinate, Aurum captures the vibrantly original language in Santee Frazier’s first collection, Dark Thirty, while taking on a completely new voice and rhythm. Each poem is vivid and memorable, beckoning to be read again and again as the words lend an enhanced experience each time. Frazier has crafted a wrought-iron collection of poetry that never shies away from a truth that America often attempts to ignore.

At the November 16 reading Frazier will be reading with two other poets, Joan Naviyuk, who is Inupiaq from Alaska, and Jake Skeets, who is Diné from New Mexico.