“The journey backward becomes the journey forward in Gwen Nell Westerman’s remarkable debut, Follow the Blackbirds, revealing how history endures in the land, in the family, and in the self...”
—James Cihlar, author of Rancho Nostalgia and Undoing
“Gwen Nell Westerman writes wonderfully of finding the good way home with the help of the old people and the beautiful redwing blackbirds. Her family’s story is that of Indians lost, marginalized, doing the dirty work and yet surviving, moving from Oklahoma and many other places across the continent, and guided by grandmothers back through the Rez into the good life. The poems are quiet and powerful, understated and deeply moving.”
—Carter Revard, Professor of English Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis