Joy Harjo Books in Order

Poems shaped by Native American traditions combine storytelling, prayer, and song with the rhythms of jazz. Harjo explores relationships with land and spirit, the pressures of American culture, and the possibilities of women defining their own identities.

A young girl cherishes Woogie, a cat whose presence seems to bring good luck. But a succession of mishaps makes everyone wonder whether his luck can last, in a story about affection, worry and a beloved animal’s resilience.

Gathering poems from nearly three decades, this collection follows Harjo’s developing voice and engagement with Indigenous cultural renewal. Personal experience, history, and music converge in an exploration of what sustains human life and connects people across generations.

Harjo traces her journey toward poetry through childhood in Oklahoma, family conflict and an abusive home. Drawing on ancestry, imagination and the natural world, she recounts the painful separations and sustaining connections through which she found her voice.

Everyday joys and difficulties meet the larger pressures of history and politics in these poems. Harjo follows ancestral memory and the legacy of removal through voices shaped by stomp dance, blues, and jazz, finding resilience alongside grief.

Returning to the homeland from which her Mvskoke ancestors were forcibly removed, Harjo connects personal memory with tribal history. These poems consider bereavement, activism, love, and the possibility of beginning again without forgetting what has been lost.

Harjo reflects on the ancestors, music, landscapes and personal losses that shaped her poetry. Moving among prose, song and verse, she explores the responsibilities of an artist seeking truth, healing and justice while sustaining family and community ties.

In brief personal reflections, Harjo considers why she writes poetry and what words can accomplish. Memories of youth, motherhood and advocacy for Native nations connect her creative practice with questions of justice, community, memory and the struggle against erasure.

Harjo selects fifty poems spanning fifty years, tracing the development of her voice from early discoveries to reflections on the present. Accompanying notes illuminate the ancestral histories, music, relationships, and encounters with nature that shaped the work.

Harjo’s poem invites children to notice their connections with family, heritage and the natural world. Michaela Goade’s illustrations accompany a reflection on life and belonging, encouraging young readers to remember the relationships that help shape who they are.

A lyrical blessing follows a girl’s journey into life, celebrating her place among other people and the natural world. Adriana Garcia’s illustrations accompany Harjo’s words of affirmation, linking personal growth with the enduring relationships that sustain it.

Addressing Native girls and women, Harjo draws on her own coming of age to consider failure, forgiveness and resilience. Her reflections connect personal turning points with family relationships and the wider community of beings that sustains a life.

A daughter remembers her mother’s life while tending to her body after death. Joy Harjo’s poem, accompanied by Dana Tiger’s watercolor illustrations, reflects on grief, family memory, and the love that survives a parent’s loss.

Grieving the death of her daughter, Harjo explores how poetry can hold experiences that resist ordinary language. Personal loss expands into reflection on collective suffering, violence, and environmental damage, while myth, song, and memory offer ways to continue.

Harjo invites young readers to value their place in the world and the difference their actions can make. Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley’s illustrations accompany a lyrical affirmation of the connections among living beings and their responsibility to care for one another.

These poems explore women’s inner lives, drawing on Indigenous oral traditions and images of horses. Harjo confronts despair, confinement and violence while also giving voice to awakening, love and the power to endure and transform difficult experience.