Editor’s Note: Responses have been edited for clarity and concision.
For Inupiaq poet Joan Naviyuk Kane, writing has been part of her life since she says she “had the agency to do so.” Her old journals and notebooks have since given way to a deep well of award-winning poetry, spanning over a decade and exploring topics such as climate, language and Indigenous identity.
For those looking to experience her poetry in person, Kane will be on campus Monday, Oct. 7 for a reading event at 5:15 p.m. in the bookstore. The event is free and open to campus members and the public.
Ahead of her visit to UP, Kane spoke with The Beacon about the genesis of her literary career, her work as a professor and her move to Portland.
The Beacon:
“How did you become a writer?”
Joan Kane:
“I came to writing because I loved reading. It’s very simple. And I was drawn to poems in particular from my very early childhood because one thing that … is emphasized in my family and in [our family] culture is the hour of the song — of being able to make something to express something about the human condition for other people to hear … as part of human relation.
“My mother's family in particular, as King Islanders, all of our survival, all of our cultural practices, all of our knowledge, was and is primarily transmitted through spoken communication. Everything in our culture, all of our survival, is dependent on transmission of knowledge from one person to another by speech, by song, by our ceremonies. And so I think that's how I came to writing poetry: as a reader, as someone who was aware of what language could do.”
The Beacon:
“When did you decide that you wanted to become a teacher? Why?”
Joan Kane:
“I actually made a decision not to teach when I was in graduate school [at Columbia University] because I knew that I was going to Alaska, and I know that there really isn’t higher education in Alaska. So, I prepared myself for not teaching. I felt like I had gone to a couple of schools that presumed a lot of things — that a narrative of upward mobility meant you would not return to your origins. And that was something that I fundamentally could not agree to and could not reconcile with.
“Between college and grad school, I moved back to Alaska for a year because I was so homesick and also felt such a responsibility to my home communities. It wasn't until after I had both of my children that I realized that life is very short, and I could spend the rest of my life working in non-writing related … jobs. Part of the reason why Native people in this country continue to be so erased, invisibilized, marginalized is because there's not a long tradition of Native and Indigenous academics, not a long tradition of Native people who have even completed high school or gone to college, much less graduate school.
“I had an opportunity in 2013 — when a group of us [colleagues] decided to start the graduate program in creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts — to create an educational institution that was low residency, which meant that we could live in our tribal and home communities, live with our families, and then just come together three or four times a year in person. And I realized then that I only have so much time, and if I want to make sure that the strange pressures that I faced as a writer aren't replicated and compounded for subsequent generations, I had a responsibility to think through another mode of teaching in order to increase everyone's chances of survival.”
The Beacon:
“What brought you to Portland and Reed College?”
Joan Kane:
“I actually wanted to attend Reed College when I was in high school. I didn't apply because I had gotten into Harvard at the end of my junior year, and I had a lot of first-gen pressure.
“When I got the opportunity to come to Reed for a [job] interview, I had this strange feeling that it took me decades, but I ended up at the place that I wanted to begin my adult life.
“I also thought about Portland. There are many direct flights to Alaska from Portland. It allows me to be closer to my family, but at the same time, I can raise my kids in the kind of place where we have access to the natural world. Also, Portland is home to a large Indigenous community [of] both people from my own tribal community and others. I thought about the needs of my kids, and I also wanted to live someplace that I liked.”
The Beacon:
“What do you like to do outside of teaching and writing?”
Joan Kane:
“Last year, when I got this job offer [at Reed College] and had to … move very quickly, I rented a place right on the Springwater Corridor [a Portland trail]. I rollerblade. And being able to rollerblade 10K right out the door every day [when I lived on the Springwater Corridor] made me so happy.
“But I also really like to grow things outside, and Portland is an interesting place to do that. Even in containers outside, I can grow traditional plants and things that have long been important to the women in my family, different plant medicines. But really, it’s being able to live in a city and have access to things that replenish my sense of perspective, which is getting away from the traffic, the cars — getting into the world and getting some fresh air and whatever daylight there is.”
The Beacon:
“What advice would you give to college writers?”
Joan Kane:
“Expose yourself to as much literature as you can while you're doing everything else that is asked of you, [so as] to protect that [literary] space and to think of [reading] as a source of joy, of perspective, [of] something that helps people maintain curiosity. Being a practicing writer always means you have something else that you need to do to support yourself. There are very few people who can make a life by writing books alone.
“Even if it's just a notes app on your phone, … even if it's just ephemera — keeping a writing practice so that when you do have time to go back and actually say, ‘I want to write an essay. I want to write, I want to write a poem,’ you have material.”
The Beacon:
“What are some of your reading recommendations?”
Joan Kane:
“Half of my syllabi are always writers — Black, Indigenous, people of color — from outside of what we can commonly think of as dominant culture in the U.S. So I think if people haven't read writers like James Welch, Debra Magpie Earling, Mandy Smoker, Santee Frazier, Jake Skeets, Sasha LaPointe and Louise Erdrich, going out of one's way to read Indigenous writers — centering and incorporating indigeneity and Indigenous perspectives — is something that I really encourage.
“But I also think … reading works that are translated from other languages into English is really important: the more we understand about people outside of the bubbles that we inherently exist in, the more we understand about other cultures … and the way things are unfolding across the world. I don't want to be super prescriptive, other than saying read Indigenous writers. Read writers from outside of the American tradition and don't be afraid to read beyond your comfort zone. If you're just reading the things that you like or or only the things that you are drawn to, then you're kind of shoving yourself off of a lot of experience that literature exclusively can bring.”
More information on Kane’s event and upcoming campus readings can be found here.
Riley Martinez is a member of the editorial board. He can be reached at martinri24@up.edu.
