When the editors Arnold Krupat and Brian Swann asked twenty-seven Native American writers to describe their lives in relation to their art, they received an extraordinary array of responses -- twenty-seven pieces of autobiographical remembrance united only by a common set of Native American heritages.

The writers, artists, poets, and academics represented here have recorded a memorable series of personal and family histories illuminated by verse and song, story, and narrative, all fed by the strong oral tradition of the indigenous peoples of this country. As Coming to Light, the collection of Native American writing edited by Brian Swann, demonstrated with literature, the Native American experience is broad and complex, and worth listening to closely.