—New York Times Book Review
Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is serving her second term as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. The author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed An American Sunrise, several plays and children’s books, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Holly T. Bird (San Felipe Pueblo/ Apache/ Yaqui/ Perepucha/ European) has a long history of community activism in both environmental and Indigenous issues. In 2008, Ms. Bird was appointed as an Acting Chief Judge / Associate Judge for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, where she served until 2011. In 2010, she was appointed to serve as an Associate Supreme Court Judge for the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians and continues in that capacity today. In 2013, Ms. Bird was awarded the prestigious American Arbitration Association’s 2013 Higginbotham Fellowship and became the first Native American arbitrator in the US.
Ms. Bird served as Co-Executive Director for the Water Protectors Legal Collective, the leading legal service at the NoDAPL camp/protest in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She also founded and serves as the Executive Director for the MI Water Protectors Legal Task Force, a project of the National Lawyer’s Guild. Currently, Ms. Bird serves as Co-Executive Director for Title Track, a Michigan nonprofit dedicated to clean water, racial equity, and youth empowerment.  On top of all of this, Ms. Bird maintains a private practice in Traverse City, concentrating in matters of Native American, cannabis, family, juvenile, criminal, civil, traffic, real estate, probate, employment, and business law.
Local Bookstores
Bay Books – Suttons Bay
Brilliant Books – Traverse City
Cottage Book Shop – Glen Arbor
Horizon Books – Traverse City
McLean & Eakin – Petoskey
Saturn Booksellers – Gaylord
Grantor
NEA Big Read
Live Literary Sponsor
Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation