In Winged Words Laura Coltelli interviews some of America's foremost Indian poets and novelists, including Paula Gunn Allen, Michael Dorris, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday, Simon Ortiz, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor; and James Welch. They candidly discuss the debt to old and the creation of new traditions, the proprieties of age and gender; and the relations between Indian writers and non-Indian readers and critics, and between writers and anthropologists and histo-rians. In exploring a wide range of topics, each writer arrives at his or her own moment of truth.

Laura Coltelli is an associate professor of American literature at the University of Pisa.

"An excellent introduction to the creative genius of contemporary Native American artists. . . . [It] makes for fine reading on several levels: biography, history; literature, and mythology."—Library Journal

"A volume that delights and instructs."—World Literature Today

"Readers on all levels should learn from Winged Words to avoid stereotypes of what an Indian, and an Indian author, is supposed to be."—Choice