The Feathered Heart

American Indian Studies (AIS)

by Mark Turcotte

This revised and expanded edition of The Feathered Heart, Mark Turcotte's celebrated collection of Native American poetry, brings traditional oral culture to print. Torn, painful, vibrant, and full of hope, his poetry weaves together the multilayered and textured fabric of contemporary Native American urban and rural existence. Appropriately, each poem in The Feathered Heart possesses a deeply lyrical quality. Raw emotion echoes in Turcotte's voice, in his verse, in the things he sees. "Ten Thousand Thousand Bones," for example, "a poem about the desecration of Native American burial sites and objects by archeologists," is dedicated "to an ancient woman taken from the Earth near New Lenox, Illinois in the winter 1993/94."

 

Genres: Poetry

65 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Native American (Chippewa) Poet. Writer Mark Turcotte spent his earliest years on North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation and in the migrant camps of the western United States. Later, he grew up in and around Lansing, Michigan. After leaving school he traveled the country, working and living on the road for nearly fifteen years.

Arriving in Chicago in the spring of 1993 Turcotte rediscovered his love of words and writing and quickly established himself as a unique voice in the city's thriving poetry scene. That summer he was winner of the First Gwendolyn Brooks Open-mic Poetry Award. Soon thereafter he was selected by Ms. Brooks as a Significant Illinois Poet and was named to the Illinois Authors Poster. Since that time he has been the recipient of a Writer's Community Residency from National Writer's Voice and was awarded the 1997 Josephine Gates Kelly Memorial Fellowship from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.

Turcotte is author of The Feathered Heart, (Michigan State University Press, revised, 1998), Songs of Our Ancestors (Children's Press, 1995), a chapbook, Road Noise (Mesilla Press, 1998) and Le Chant de la Route (bilingual, La Vague Verte, 2001). His newest collection, Exploding Chippewas,(Northwestern University Press, 2002), is in its third printing. His work, four times nominated for Pushcart Prizes, has recently appeared in LUNA, TriQuarterly, POETRY, Prairie Schooner,Ploughshares, LUNA, The Missouri Review, The Seattle Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and The Laurel Review. His poem, The Flower On, was chosen by the Poetry Society of America for inclusion in their Poetry In Motion project, which places poetry placards on public transportation in cities across the United States. Recently he has also published short stories in Rosebud and Hunger Mountain.

Turcotte was the recipient of a 2001-2002 Lannan Foundation Literary Completion Grant, and has been awarded 1999 and 2003 Literary Fellowships by the Wisconsin Arts Board. He has just completed a National Book Foundation American Voices assignment at the Wind River Indian Reservation of Wyoming, and a Lannan Writer's Residency in Marfa, Texas. He currently lives and works out of Chicago and Kalamazoo.

Reviews

[Jeanne]

I once found a tiny downy woodpecker feather. At most, the feather measured a mere one inch in length. My guess as to the year found would be 2010. I had since lost the treasure to find it again while packing up our house to move. Today’s date is 3/11/2018.

The feather is grey/black with five incomplete white spots. The spots are not complete circles as the white color lies on the fringe. Mimicking my heart as it teeters on the edge of an invisible border erected by thoughts. It is my feathered heart that led me to find Mark Turcott and his book of poems. This will be a book to return to as often as needed. To remedy my soul with feeling words erected as fences.

My wayward feet travel searching for answers. The silences weave protection. The war i battle is not within but from outside the curtained window. Dress in velvet and hope.

[Rich Farrell]

I picked up this book after I read that Turcotte was named the new Illinois Poet Laureate. The poems in this collection have some of the hallmarks of Indigenous poetry (repetition, imagery) while touching on many universal themes. It's great to see his poetry representing the state.

[Max Morton]

My professor…so damn good. “Brother river dreams” through “song for endless others” incredible little run. Took the collection to 5 stars. And biased of course