What if we want to clap between each poem?
[LAUGHTER]
It's Kimberly.
We can applaud without even a bio so far.
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
I wrote a bunch of things down for everybody,
but I didn't for Kimberly because I
have gotten to know Kimberly over the last couple of years
and consider her a dear friend.
And I sometimes see Kimberly in New York City.
I see her more in New York City, in fact, than I see her
anywhere else because she keeps winning too many awards
and keeps coming to New York City, which
I think is delightful.
So do keep winning awards and do keep coming to New York City
so that I can see you.
I have the great pleasure of having read a few of Kim's poems
before they were published.
And she'll say, this is a mess.
She'll say this is really, really rough.
And then it's the perfect crystalline, beautiful sliver
of nature and heart hearts and humanity
that you've ever read and needs no work.
So that's Kimberly.
This is Kimberly's actual bio.
Kimberly is the founding director
of Indigenous Nations Poets and the past Wisconsin poet
laureate.
Yes, Indigenous Nations Poets, Wisconsin poet laureate.
The author of six poetry collections,
most recently Ancient Light, which you'll hear in a minute,
Blaeser's honors include a 2026 Science and Literature Award
from the National Book Foundation
that was for Ancient Light.
The 2025 Poets and Writers Writer for Writers Award also,
yes.
Masters Review Short Story Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.
Anishinaabe enrolled in White Earth,
Blaeser is a Professor Emerita at U-Dub Milwaukee.
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee,
can you tell that I'm from Seattle?
Yes.
[LAUGHS] We say U-Dub.
There is no other word for the U and a W next to each other.
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and an MFA faculty
member at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Her debut collection of fiction, Red Ants,
is forthcoming from Counterpoint Press this October,
so preorder now.
Give it up for Kim Blaeser.
[APPLAUSE]
Now, what if I were to read from here?
[LAUGHS] Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh in the mic.
I kind of did.
So I've already greeted you.
I have four poems and I wanted to, for the Fellows,
show a little bit of the different kinds of work
that I do.
And we've been focusing on spirituality.
We thought about water.
We were in Mission Gardens and thought about food.
And we had a full moon.
So they're all in here somewhere.
And we built community.
The first poem: I was built by inherited hungers.
This is not a poem that names them.
One, as a body politic, we take up space in their ledgers.
Yes, my relatives are the salvaged bodies of history.
We have ways they do not approve of how we feed ourselves,
for one.
I have been taught where to find the winter cache of squirrels
and how to walk away.
As we walk, my brother quiets me.
You cannot tell stories until you visit the places where they
make their homes.
Father said the garden song calls the pollinators.
And we must sing in tune.
Nimaamaa said leave some for the spirits and the little people.
And what she meant was we are small in the green, frayed body
of belonging.
We learn from makwa, from Mohegan, sometimes
even from Nanaboozhoo.
By this, I mean not everything tattered is ruined.
Two, they believe I was built of equations for gain.
This poem is not an anthem.
We still follow picto- spirits, animal tracks and seed paths.
Not all of our tools have price tags.
Not all of our safeguards are weapons.
You will not find wild game in our lexicon.
Ask yourself, are we the meat they covet?
[APPLAUSE]