“LANGUAGE IS AT THE BASE and core of relating to others,” Acoma Pueblo poet Simon J. Ortiz writes in Light as Light (University of Arizona Press). “Language is motion. Action. Doing. Letting. Sharing. ... I think I want to be a poet in the use of language.” His first collection of poems in 21 years, Light as Light finds Ortiz in his 80s, still humbly and playfully practicing his powers of observation, self-conversation, and outward expression. Ortiz made his name with poetry that voiced Indigenous perspectives on land development and uranium mining. Here, he reflects on the 1973 death of Diné activist Larry Casuse, along with Acoma stories, rivers that nourished him as a boy, and the overarching power of love.

Read more: John Brandi's "A Luminous Uplift: Landscape & Memory" blends travelogues, poetry, and Japanese haiku across three continents over forty years.