Ralph Salisbury
poet/professor/fiction writer

Selected Works

Poetry
Light From a Bullet Hole: Poems New and Selected
"The poems of this volume make stunningly clear the ways in which Ralph Salisbury continues to model the traditional and modern (postmodern, if you will) roles of the poet as Cherokee humanist and indigenous cosmopolitan." -- Arnold Krupat
Blind Pumper at the Well
"It’s great to see the energy of an 80-year-old poet at work. Mixing WWII memories with his observations of the peaceful world outside his study windows, these poems celebrate longevity and unflagging concern for peace." -- Diane Wakoski
War in the Genes
"Salisbury writes out of the passion, rage, and lyricism that mark the Native American spirit in these blasphemous times."
- Paula Gunn Allen
Rainbows of Stone
Finalist, Oregon Book Award. “A magnificent summa from a superb artist.”
-Louis Owens
Going to the Water
“The words of Going to the Water: Poems of a Cherokee Heritage ‘do it right’. They hit hard. And they must be heard. Listen.”
-Simon Ortiz
Short Fiction
The Indian Who Bombed Berlin and Other Stories
Salisbury excavates the hearts and minds of his characters, mining them to fuel his stories. And his stories are the richer for it — invariably compelling and continually surprising. (MSU Press)
The Last Rattlesnake Throw and Other Stories
“...unique in tone and voice, unlike the voice of any other American Indian writer writing today.”
-Gordon Henry

The Indian Who Bombed Berlin and Other Stories


CONTENTS

PART ONE
Coming to Manhood: Some Initiations
White Snakes and Red, and Stars, Fallen
Bathsheba's Bath, Bull Durham Bull, and a Bottle of Old Granddad
White Ashes, White Moths, White Stones
A Volga River and a Purple Sea

PART TWO
Some Struggles for Survival in Battle, Some in Bed
Ival the Terrible, the Red Death
Silver Mercedes and Big Blue Buick: An Indian War
The New World Invades the Old
Two Wars, Two Loves, Two Shores, and an Ocean on Fire
Raven Mocker Witches and Refugees
Campfire and Cone of a Pine
Crazy Horse Morris and an Orange Boat
A Farewell on the Way to War
Losers and Winners: An Ongoing Indian War
A Monster Mosquito Seeking Blood
A Way Home
Some Indian Wars, Some Wounds

PART THREE
All in the Family: Some Vanishing American Military Histories
A Vanishing American's First Struggles against Vanishing
Laugh before Breakfast
The Chicken Affliction and a Man of God
Hole Soldiers, Madonna and Child
A Sybarite and One of Columbus's Mistakes
A Handprint in Columbus's Homeland's Dust
A Vanishing American and the War Between the States
Some Killings, One Accidental
The Miracle Killing
PART FOUR
Terrorism and Terrorized
Fractures, a Class Reunion
The Indian Who Bombed Berlin
Between Buses, Between Wars