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So. I& #39;ve known my book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was going to be getting a review in the NYT for over a month now. And this morning it came out, so I paid so I could read it from behind the paywall. I was hoping that the reviewer would see what I was doing with my book.
My stomach dropped as soon as I read the title of the review: "The Harsh Realities of Being Indigenous." I immediately was afraid the reviewer looked at my work as trauma porn designed to make non-Indigenous folks feel pity for me. That is NOT my goal. But sure enough:
I absolutely did NOT make a map of Native brokenness. I wrote about my own experiences and the ways that the unconditional love of my parents and my community delivered me whole and unafraid into this world where I now have to speak up against a misguided NYT review.
This is the problem with reviews: people who are paid for their supposed expertise in reading are given carte blanche to misinterpret however they please. For example, the reviewer said my book is a memoir. It isn& #39;t. It& #39;s a book of essays. I specifically chose that as an artist.
What& #39;s worse, this reviewer not only mislabeled my book, they also used a trip to a museum to determine that I didn& #39;t write enough about my people& #39;s wampum and treaties! I didn& #39;t realize that was what I was supposed to be doing in my book was give the entire history of my people.
Most disappointing, though: there isn& #39;t a single mention of my use of form, my careful craft, the innovative ways I engaged with the essay form, the ways I brought in pop cultural elements as disparate as Vanderpump Rules, Kanye West, Britney Spears, BLM, Halloween, dark matter..
I know it& #39;s not considered good form for authors to speak back to reviews. But Haudenosaunee women don& #39;t sit down and take disrespect. We speak back. So no, I& #39;m not going to fake gratefulness for a review that completely misrepresented my work and assumed authorial intention.
I did that before. A white male reviewer in Canada published a misrepresentation of my father& #39;s history. He never checked with me, then when I told him to change it, he pressured my publisher until ***I*** had to change a part of my book. Days after publication.
So yeah, call me ungrateful. Call me a bitch. Call me whatever you want, cuz I guarantee I& #39;ve been called worse--and by people whose opinions matter far more to me.
My work isn& #39;t trauma porn. If you think it is, you need to reflect on what expectations you brought to my work.
My work isn& #39;t trauma porn. If you think it is, you need to reflect on what expectations you brought to my work.
Also: don& #39;t think I didn& #39;t notice that reviewer didn& #39;t mention #mmiwg2s at all, but was sure to mention violence against Indigenous men as a serious problem. In a review of the work of two Indigenous women speaking openly about the violence and intergenerational trauma. 
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