SOURCE: McFarland, Ron. “‘Another Kind of Violence’: Sherman Alexie's Poems.” American Indian Quarterly 21, no. 2 (spring 1997): 252–55, 257–64.

In the following excerpt, McFarland examines the polemic nature of Alexie's writing and his unique poetic form.

When a new poet [Sherman Alexie] comes on the scene, it is “both fitting and proper” to identify him or her, not so much with the intention of fixing and formulating with a phrase, but with the intention of providing a point of departure or a common ground. As to what constitutes an identity as a “Native American poet,” I would suggest that it has most to do with how the poet, in this case Sherman Alexie, presents himself or allows himself to be presented by publishers and publicists. The job of the literary critic and scholar is to create contexts for discussion and discourse.

James R. Kincaid, in his review essay, “Who Gets to Tell...