Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms

 Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache author of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comics. 

Based on a recommendation from a colleague, I read her books Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth. One of the things that I loved about A Snake Falls to Earth is that the book is not driven by a will-they-or-won't-they romantic subplot. I found it refreshing. It's a wholesome story about friendship, community, and books. There is so much kindness in the book. And the main character is so tender hearted. I also loved the intergenerational connections/family responsibility elements of the story. I relied on one of Darcie Little Badger's short stories in order to conclude my dissertation (now available through the ERIC database). 

I was very surprised to learn that her books have appeared on book ban lists in the US. Here is a site which contains a number of Indigenous books banned in the US if you would like to support authors of banned books by purchasing their books. 

Anyhow, Darcie is one of the editors of this new anthology, Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms. 

I was listening to a podcast for the launch of the book, and in the podcast Darcie talked about how the people who put her books on a book ban list did so because of the asexual characters in the book, and the people who banned her books did not even read them. In the podcast she also talks about her recent experience where she was slated to speak at a post-secondary institution, but then shortly before the event they gave her a list of banned words/concepts that she could not use in her presentation, and she cancelled the event. She posted the list and her cancellation on social media, and the media picked it up. The newspaper articles are behind a paywall, but this article from Inside Higher Ed is free. 

The banned words/concepts are: 

• equity, diversity & inclusion 
• anti-racism 
• bias 
• Critical Race Theory 
• implicit bias 
• oppression 
• intersectionality 
• prohibited discriminatory practices 
• racial privilege 
• promoting stereotypes based on personal identity characteristics

In the podcast, co-editors of the collection also reflect on the list of words, and also the general political climate right now. I accessed it for free. 

I provide all of this background as context. The publisher's description of this book is this: 

Rooted in visions of Indigenous futurisms, Beyond the Glittering World proclaims and celebrates a rising generation of storytellers.The collection brings together twenty-two emerging and established women, two-spirit people, and people of marginalized genders who immerse readers in poems, stories, and worlds that challenge and delight. From a museum heist 177 years in the making, to lyrical explorations of love and loss, to a tale where language itself becomes the force that saves the land, this boundary-breaking, genre-bending anthology illuminates the power of Indigenous voices.

In the context of book bans and banned word lists, the act of imagining a different future is a critical and important act. I really commend the editors and authors for doing this work within a political context where there is active structural hostility towards this work. They model how to respond to oppression with creativity and hope. 

The book begins with a foreward by Natalie Diaz. She reflects on the Mojave language and how it informs her understanding of the future, and her relationship to the future. She says, "My responsibility as a human, is to not sit and wait for it but instead to meet is, through my makings and labors of sleep or dream, or running wild in the night." (Diaz, 2025, p.1). She explains that the title of the book comes from Native stories such as, "the Mojave glittering or sparkling world is a time when the world was still wet, after a flood or deluge, or after the original waters we came from had receded." (Diaz, 2025, p.II). She explains that the glittering world is where we live. "In this glittering world we are also taught to dream. We have become those dreams. And we have yet to become those dreams." (Diaz, 2025, p.II). And she comments on how the authors in this anthology honour the idea of the glittering world through their work.

I think that the glittering world is a beautiful concept. I have heard different flood stories from different places, but the glittering world is new to me. I will think of the glittering world when it rains (as it does often in Vancouver). I also love that the concept entails the impetus to dream.

The book contains an introduction written by the editors. They review the history of Indigenous anthologies and celebrate some of their favourite Indigenous authors who came before them. Regarding how their own cultures informed the work of editing the book they state, "Our traditional conceptions of gender and sexuality take on a subversive role as they challenge oppressive patriarchal structures. Women, Two-Spirit people and people of marginalized genders can be incredible leaders and story tellers; in the vein of futurisms, this has been, is, and will always be true." (Denetsosie, Drake & Little Badger, 2025, p.VI). And they explain that in this anthology, "each piece in its own way, answers the question: What lies beyond this Glittering World?" (Denetsosie, Drake & Little Badger, 2025, p.VI).

I love the strengths based stance that the editors take towards Indigenous stories, and also the way that they celebrate the act of storytelling as important work. 

The book includes many authors who are Indigenous to the southwestern United States. It also includes authors who are Indigenous to other regions of the United States, Mexico, Samoa, and Canada. The authors who are Indigenous to Canada are jaye simpson and Arielle Twist. 

The book is compact (204 pages) and features over twenty contributors, so the works are short. Some of the poems are only one to two pages long. I like short pieces. I think it's interesting to see what people can do in a small space. I read this just before the holidays. I did not take too many notes and I was not in an analytic mode. I just kind of existed inside of the book and it was nice. 

One story which stood out to me was Sky Woman Rising: A Memoir by Moniquill Blackgoose. In the story, humans are trying to leave earth. They need to live in space for awhile in order to let earth recover. But the scientists can't get it right. Indigenous people drew lessons from the story of Sky Woman in order to inform how to build their space biome, and they are successful. What I love about this story is that it presents Indigenous knowledge and science as complementary and overlapping. I often get annoyed when people make charts comparing Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. Generally I think it's not a compelling persuasive strategy because it's an overly broad approach which everyone can find something to disagree with. Anyhow, sometimes in those comparisons, people will put science in the non-Indigenous column, as though Indigenous people did not have our own systems of knowledge and inquiry. I dislike categorizing science as being a non-Indigenous thing because I think it has the potential to lead to Indigenous people being marginalized in science and it also runs the risk that we will marginalize ourselves by avoiding science. What I love about this story is that Indigenous Knowledge literally helps save the world, and it does so by informing a scientific problem which western science on its own could not solve. Indigenous Knowledge, encoded in stories, has an important role in the present and the future. 

I'm currently in a period in my life where I have gone through a period of grieving my aunt, my uncles, and my cousin. As such, the story Sandstone ballad by Danielle Shandiin Emerson really moved me. In the story, the mother dies. But the one of her children finds a statue which looks like her, and it is kind of alive. The story navigates the unease of this mother statue with the longing that comes with grief. It's not horror. It's something else. 

The Oklahoma Ocean by Chelsea T. Hicks was one of my favourite stories. At twenty-seven pages it's one of the longer works. I have no rationale for liking it other than the fact that it was easy to immerse myself in the story. Two friends journey to the Oklahoma Ocean (fracking collapsed aquifers leading to a salinated body of water in Oklahoma) in order to meet a third friend. Everything is uncertain. 

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. I will probably read it again soon. 

Works Cited 

Denetsosie, S.S., Drake, K. & Little Badger, D. Introduction. In (S.S. Denetsosie, K. Drake & D. Little Badger, Eds) Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms (p.III-IV). Salt Lake City, Utah: Torrey House. 

Diaz, N. (2025). Foreward. In (S.S. Denetsosie, K. Drake & D. Little Badger, Eds) Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms (p.I-II). Salt Lake City, Utah: Torrey House. 

***Note: this blog is a sister blog to https://twinkleshappyplace.blogspot.com/

Dazhindamang Ge-Izhi-Bimaadiziyang: Talking about how we will be living in the future

 Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe social worker, podcaster, and author. I was very intrigued that she references bad Indians in her book title. It is a historical reference to American President Theodore Roosevelt who said that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. Over the years, various Indigenous creatives have responded to that quote by declaring themselves bad Indians.

Before picking up the book, I listened to some podcasts with Patty in order to help me decide whether or not to read the book. In this one, I learned that she wrote her first book because she was listening to a sermon, and she had a reaction to something said in the sermon. Then I listened to this podcast, where several people are in conversation about Daniel Heath Justice's book Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. One of the guests is Daniel Heath Justice himself. Janet Marie Rogers is also a guest. Another one of the guests is a non-Indigenous guy from Texas who studies theology and writes about religious themes. He randomly mentions seminary in the podcast. What struck me most about the podcast that I listened to was the way that people from different backgrounds were able to find common ground through books. 

Something that Patty is very forthright about in her podcast is the fact that she was not raised by her Indigenous family. She thought that she was "the last dodo" because she didn't have any exposure to other Indigenous people and as a young person she learned about Indigenous people from Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza. And she emphasizes that it is important to keep that in mind. In many ways, we as listener are joining her on her own ongoing identity exploration. What I appreciate about her work is that she is very enthusiastic about Indigenous literature. 

Having listened to a few podcasts, I decided that yes, I would buy her book. The cover art is by NiCole Hatfield. 

A lot of the chapters are inspired by related podcast episodes, however, the podcast did not have an episode on Indigenous futurisms, so this chapter contains entirely new content. The podcast is called Ambe. The premise of the podcast is that she spends a year reading Indigenous books and bringing people together to talk about them. So then the title of the book, Bad Indians Book Club, is reflective of the fact that she has been running this book club (podcast) for a year, and is now putting her thoughts on paper. 

The book's introduction contains summaries of the chapters. Here is the summary of the Indigenous futurisms chapter: 

We end with chapter 8, titled "Dibaadodamaang Ge-Izhi-Bimaadiziyang," which means us talking about how we will be living in the future - through speculative fiction or stories about our realities. When Bad Indians write our own speculative fiction and fantasy and science fiction - when we create, as Justice calls them, "wonderworks" - we are able to imagine ourselves there, imagine ourselves having a future on our own terms, not some space colony DEI project. (Krawec, 2025, p.43). 

She begins by grounding this chapter in an Anishinaabe story, and a discussion on how many Indigenous cultures have stories about worlds ending and worlds beginning. Then she references Daniel Heath Justice: 

Justice also makes the intriguing observation that writing about the future asks us to think about what kind of ancestors we will become. As future generations walk backward into the future, what will they see when they fix their eyes on us? (Krawec, 2025, p.190). 

Following that, she briefly touches on Afrofuturisms, including the work of Octavia Butler and adrienne marie brown. 

The texts that she talks about include:

• A Snake Falls to Earth 
• Prey 
• As Many Ships as Stars 
• Thor: Ragnarok 
• A Short History of the Blockage: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin
• Buffalo is the New Buffalo 
• Moon of the Crusted Snow 
• Moon of the Turning Leaves 
• Marrow Thieves 
• Star Wars - A New Hope 
• Sword Stone Table 
• Moonshot 

I was pleased that she talked about two books that I had not heard of (Sword Stone Table and As Many Ships as Stars) which I plan on adding to my reading list. A strength of her writing style is that she puts the books in conversation with each other. She will talk about an idea that she likes in one book, and then that will lead her to talk about an idea that she liked in another book, and so on. So it doesn't feel like she is just listing books. She is connecting the books with each other. 

I was also pleased that she put Thor: Ragnarok on there, because it doesn't get enough love. Also, I started a Disney Plus subscription just to watch Prey. Highly recommend. But I'm also going to cancel my subscription soon.

Overall, I really enjoyed this chapter. 

In terms of the book overall, her style of writing is very much the style of talking that is in podcasts. Reflective, touching on the zeitgeist, kind of organic, very personal. For example, sometimes she will just randomly start talking about a meme that she saw on social media. I find a lot of podcasters are big on non-conformity and being contrarian . Whatever material is in front of them, they have a "yeah but" quip or they have a hot take on a commonly accepted sentiment. Patty's podcast adheres to that podcast convention. For example, in one of her podcasts someone responds to a tweet and they take issue with the word Indigenous and the idea of identity. But you kind of have to take these hot takes with a grain of salt. A lot of Indigenous people put a lot of time and effort into UNDRIP and the UN definition of Indigenous, so to randomly just declare it to be inappropriate of whatever is ahistorical and not really a studied approach. Similarly in BC, Indigenous educators have formally communicated through the First People's Principles of Learning that exploration of identity is important. In terms of all the fights that one could take on in the world, why choose the word Indigenous or the concept of identity? But that's what podcasters do sometimes because it is entertaining - they spontaneously take a contrarian approach to random things. It's a Seinfeld-esque qualify of the medium. It would not be a very long or interesting podcast if someone said, "what do you think about the word Indigenous and the concept of identity?" and the other person said, "let me think about it, read about it, consult people that I trust who know a lot about the history of the word, and I'll get back to you." Sometimes in the book she refers to things without citing them. For example, she said that the Maori have a saying that they walk backwards into the future with their eyes fixed on the past. It's a beautiful saying, but it's not cited. With Indigenous knowledge, I think it is important to say where you got your information. So for those reasons, while I do find this book entertaining, I would probably not use it in the classroom unless I had done some front end loading around Indigenous Knowledge/research ethics in advance of using the text.

That being said, as a fan of Indigenous literature, I did find the book to be a worthwhile way to spend some time. 

Works Cited 

Krawec, P. (2025). Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Books.