The Book of Medicines

Combining the rich imagery of her Indian heritage with the wisdom of Native female spirituality, Linda Hogan’s new collection of stunningly beautiful poems is a tonic for modern times.

Publication date: June 1, 1993

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 96 pages

ISBNL: 9781566890106

A major American writer and the recipient of the 2007 Mountains and Plains Booksellers Spirit of the West Literary Achievement Award, Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, teacher, and activist who has spent most of her life in Oklahoma and Colorado. Her fiction has garnered many honors, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination and her poetry collections have received the American Book Award, Colorado Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle nomination. A volunteer and consultant for wildlife rehabilitation and endangered species programs, Hogan has also published essays with the Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club.

“Linda Hogan’s poetry has always been a medicine of sort. . . . These poems in particular cross over to speak for us in the shining world. They bring back words for healing, the distilled truth of all theses stories that are killing us with tears and laughter.”

—Joy Harjo

“Linda Hogan’s vision is breathtaking: the embryonic fingers of a fetal whale, the imperial walk of a raven, the torn-cloth dresses of her Chickasaw ancestors, are distilled in these pages into a critique of human survival. The Book of Medicines feels like a gift from the earth’s entire past to the present moment.”

—Barbara Kingsolver

“Hogan’s poetry is spare, elemental and direct, with a tremendous evocative force of imagery. . . . Hogan has come into her own as an artist.”

—Publishers Weekly