Oscar Hokeah’s debut, Calling for a Blanket Dance, is a moving and deeply engaging novel about a young Native American man finding strength in his familial identity. The book topped Kirkus Reviews’ Best Fiction list and Best Debut of 2022. Hokeah has spent nearly 20 years empowering Native American communities, having been raised inside these tribal circles and continuing to reside there today. A citizen of Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma from his mother, and with Mexican heritage from his father, Hokeah is interested in capturing intertribal, transnational and multicultural aspects within two tribally specific communities: Tahlequah and Lawton, Oklahoma. Family on his Kiowa side organized the Oklahoma Gourd Dance Club for over a decade, and he has family members actively involved with the Kiowa Tia-Piah Society, Comanche War Scouts Society and Comanche Little Ponies Society. Former Sojourn author Luis Alberto Urrea raves, “Oscar Hokeah is the real deal. A new voice with ancient music.” Hokeah is a recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship Award, and he has written for Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, World Literature Today, American Short Fiction and elsewhere. At home in the heart of Cherokee Nation, he works with Indian Child Welfare, where he gives back to the community that nurtured and embedded the Indigenous values he passes along to his children. “What an accomplishment. Few writers have the courage or craft to pull this off,” says past Sojourn author Jimmy Santiago Baca. “Oscar Hokeah beats the drum and stomps, announcing his power is back, the people have returned with powerful stories. He weaves a tale that is unforgettable and fortifying.”
