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Thank you all for being here.

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Thank you all for being here.

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Annie Wenstrup's ancestors are
German, English, and Dena'ina.

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She comes from a long line
of Dena'ina storytellers.

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She listens with care to the
recordings of her grandfather,

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which were transcribed and
published to sukdu and sukdu'a,

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stories held in common
and stories more personal.

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She listens to her mother
and her aunts, who tell parts

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of the stories never recorded.

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She knows her children,
Abby and Joseph,

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need every part
of their stories.

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Annie's poems draw
on traditions,

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on strengths and sorrows, that
are thousands of years old,

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still vibrant and growing.

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She's also a citizen
of this moment.

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So her poems make room for Star
Trek, for eating disorders,

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for being considered other, for
being observed but not seen.

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During a museum sovereignty
fellowship with the Smithsonian,

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Annie he began thinking
about the museum

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as a cultural construct.

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Then she considered the
museum as a literary conceit

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and created a book
that is a museum.

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Who decides what a museum holds?

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How are collections amassed?

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What is stolen?

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Who gets to curate?

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When putting together
exhibits or encounters,

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who are the intended viewers?

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What do we teach them to see?

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What happens when
only men get to speak?

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What happens when a museum
appropriates, misrepresents,

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or erases events or people?

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With humor and outrage
and great intelligence,

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Annie curates a collection
that holds whole worlds.

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The Museum of Unnatural
Histories, her first book,

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digs into experiences of
Indigenous people, both women

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and men, as they reclaim
the right to tell

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their stories as they see fit.

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Annie's work has earned an
Alaska Literary Award, a Story

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Knife Residency,
a Whiting Award.

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She's been a fellow of the
Indigenous Nations Poets

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organization.

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She serves as senior editor
for Poetry Northwest Native

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Torchlight Series,
and right now she's

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editing a North American
Indigenous Poetry anthology

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forthcoming from Wesleyan.

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Please welcome Annie Wenstrup.

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