NDN Girls Book Club promotes Indigenous literature, empowers Native girls

Phoenix event will bring together young writers to share their work and ideas

As a young Diné girl, Kinsale Drake had difficulty finding books that reflected her experiences and culture.

Through writing and poetry, she was able to highlight her own life as an Indigenous woman and issues relevant to her community. She received several awards for her work and has been featured in various publications, including Poetry Online, Best New Poets and TIME.

Still, she noticed the lack of representation in mainstream literature and sought to create a space where Native girls could come together, read books by Indigenous authors and discuss stories that resonate with them.

Now, after several years of work, the NDN Girls Book Club is set to officially launch in person at the Nurture House bookstore in Phoenix on Saturday, April 22, bringing together young Native writers who can share their work and learn from one another.

“A lot of this event is giving book lovers, giving nerds and giving readers and authors a space where they can feel celebrated and supported and they know that there’s hype for what they do,” Drake, 23, told ICT. “So I’m really excited to just show people what we have in store, show them that a lot of folks are excited and ready to support the book club.”

Attendees can expect to meet Drake and participate in book giveaways and signings from various Indigenous authors, including Tanaya Winder, Duckwater Shoshone Tribe; Amber McCrary, Diné; Taté Walker, Lakota; and Darcie Little Badger, Lipan Apache.

Those who are interested can sign up for the book club via the website.

Reaching new audiences

The Saturday event is just one example of how the book club is expanding its reach and impact.

The NDN Girls Book Club began as a way for Drake to recommend books she enjoyed to her friends and followers on social media. It’s since grown to be an online resource for literary and writing workshops, Indigenous author talks, programming, and pop-ups for Native people, mainly Native youth and girls.

Drake has used the club as a way to recommend her favorite Indigenous books to the community. She realized, however, that she had the potential to share resources from her experience with other Indigenous writers who may not know where to start.

Drake has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and English. She has written poems for more than 15 publications, such as “Ancestors’ wildest dreams.” After receiving a grant from First Peoples Fund, she began working on the foundation for NDN Girls Book Club.

On the NDN Girls Book Club website, visitors can explore the club’s selection of featured books and browse through the online store, which offers a range of merchandise that celebrates Native cultures and supports the club’s mission. Visitors can also access resources such as fellowships, grants, and programs that may benefit Native writers.

“The surprising thing has been that people of all ages have responded really positively to it,” Drake said. “I have women who are a little older in my DMs. They’ll be messaging me and saying, ‘Oh my God, this is really making the little Indian girl inside me happy.’”

The book club has expanded to include a diverse range of books and genres, with a focus on Native authors and poets. Drake also wants the book club to emphasize being a safe space for queer Natives.

“It’s my dream, five years from now, to host our own fellowship or writing residency for queer Native artists or disabled Native artists,” she said. “You know, just communities that don’t have fellowships that normally represent them or accommodate them.”

Empowering Native girls

The lack of representation of Native people in literature has been an ongoing issue, and organizations such as the NDN Girls Book Club are working to address the gap. A survey by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center revealed a lack of representation of Indigenous people in children’s literature.

In 2015, only 38 published books were about Natives and, of those, only 20 were written or illustrated by Indigenous people, according to the survey. Overall, the survey examined 5,000 books published between 2002 and early 2015.

The book club aims to empower Indigenous girls and promote the work of Indigenous authors. It’s caught the attention of publishers and authors via the club’s care packages that are sent to community members and tribal libraries to share Indigenous books and magazines.

With a deep understanding of the importance of representation and a passion for empowering Native girls, Drake has dedicated herself to creating a community through the book club that fosters cultural understanding and celebrates the diverse voices of Indigenous authors.

“I think inspiration came from my work over the years…as a workshop facilitator and educator,” Drake said. “I traveled the country for much of my college career, and even before then, working as an educator.”

“The same questions kept popping up in a lot of these spaces: ‘How do I publish a book? How did you get into creative writing in college? How did you become an actual student poet?’” she continued.

“And it just led me to think about the ways in which we support young artists and writers who are specifically Native and Indigenous.”

More info
The NDN Girls Book Club is set to host a special event from 4-8 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, at Nurture House, 906 W Roosevelt St., in Phoenix. Nurture House is a bookstore that is committed to promoting bilingualism and cultural diversity through literature. It is also home to several other businesses that celebrate and uplift marginalized voices, including Abalone Mountain Press and Pachanga Press.
To be part of the book club, sign up for the newsletter on the homepage. You may also sign up for care packages or donate books to the care packages.