Steve Russell: To all the indigenous writers being born out there

I am a gifted indigenous writer and all the good things that have come to me in my professional life have flowed from that fact. I’ve always been willing to state it baldly and explain that it’s not bragging. I deserve no kudos for winning a genetic lottery. Likewise, when I say the Navajo bard, Johnny Rustywire, has more talent than I do, I’m just reporting the fact of the matter.

The “gifted” part came later, but I always knew I was an indigenous writer. If there is a glidepath to becoming an indigenous writer it starts with reading, and reading everything. Just as you must read Anna Karenina to license your opinion whether it really is the greatest novel of all time, and you must read great literature generally so you know it when you see it, that coin has two sides.

It is also necessary that you read crap to license your opinion that it is crap and to develop the ability to know crap when you see it.