{"product_id":"distant-water-poems-9781639551682","title":"Distant Water: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exquisite debut poetry collection exploring the way Nez Perce language embodies the inseparable connection of land, sound, and spirit.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing its title from the Nez Perce word for ocean, \u003ci\u003edistant water\u003c\/i\u003e explores the mysterious process through which language is conveyed from one body to another, moving through waters, kin, memory, and breath. In this meditative, expansive collection, Beth Piatote reveals language as a shared vibration, a life force that sustains an intimate, animate world. Anchored in the Nez Perce homelands of the Northwest, the poems in \u003ci\u003edistant water\u003c\/i\u003e explore sonic and spiritual ecologies, recognizing land and language as living beings with whom we seek a common mode of expression.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere, poetic forms mimic the verb-centered structure of Nez Perce language, showing its capacity to express from a single shared root the movement of a sewing needle, the flow of a river, or the memory of a lost love. Language resonates with the land in poems that recall the drumbeat pulse of blood, an echo of grief, the sigh of a dying fire, an archive held in the mouth of a crow. Characters and motifs from traditional stories are recast, celebrating their timeless beauty, humor, and wisdom, and remedies imagined for historical wounds borne by the language itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInventive and resonant, precise and playful, \u003ci\u003edistant water\u003c\/i\u003e is an invitation to enter a vibrant thought world, to dwell in a grammar and sound born of and belonging to Nez Perce homelands and people, a language at once ancient and ever new.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Beth Piatote\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Milkweed Editions\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 96\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 6.30w x 0.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781639551682\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBeth Piatote\u003c\/b\u003e is a Nez Perce scholar, playwright, poet, and associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include the scholarly monograph, \u003ci\u003eDomestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and Law in Native American Literature\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Beadworkers: Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, which was long-listed for the PEN\/Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her play, Antíkoni, had its world premiere with Native Voices in Los Angeles in November 2024. Her poems, scholarly essays, and short stories have appeared in multiple journals and anthologies, including \u003ci\u003eAmerican Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWorld Literature Today\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePMLA\u003c\/i\u003e. An enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Piatote is devoted to the study of her heritage language of Nez Perce and is an Indigenous language revitalization activist, living in Berkley, California.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Beth Piatote \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":48311269359773,"sku":"9781639551682","price":21.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_36c7a32a-031c-406e-be59-be42dd3b83d5.jpg?v=1779260132","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/distant-water-poems-9781639551682","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}