Kinsale Drake
2022 Fellow, Indigenous Nations Poets
Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a winner of the 2023 National Poetry Series for her debut poetry collection THE SKY WAS ONCE A DARK BLANKET (University of Georgia Press, 2024). Her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Poets.org, Best New Poets, Black Warrior Review, Nylon, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere. She was named by Time Magazine as an artist representing her decade “changing how we see the world,” and is the founder of NDN Girls Book Club.
Publications
The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication Date: September 2024
A Navajo poet engages with the rich history of Diné Poetics, Native musicians, and honors her poetry ancestors
In The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket, we travel across landscape, from Kayenta, Arizona, and Canyon de Chelly to New York nightclubs and Hollywood. In this world, we orbit seascapes, petroglyphs, and 'blood, ancestor, cloud.' In this world, we listen to country music and honor our mothers. In this world, we see a reflection of ourselves among the stars and remember that long ago Coyote rebelled once and created the night sky. And through this rebellion, we find—rising up the page—spine, song, smoke, corn, an everlasting tomorrow. This debut collection is a book of time, lineage, dreams, and all the cosmic beauty we hold in our 'language full of light.'
—Jake Skeets, author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers
