First Lines by Indigenous Authors

First Lines is a series of blog articles posted around the first of the month. The first lines of a story, we’re told, must hook the reader. Implied is that the reader will not buy the book if the first few lines aren’t great.

Commemorating Indigenous People’s Day, Monday, October 14th these first lines are from science fiction and fantasy books by Indigenous authors. Enjoy!


The cover of Black Son is black with yellow-gold lettering. There is the left half of a blue face wearing a winged mask on the far right edge of the page.

Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so.

Black Sun, Between Earth and Sky Book 1, Rebecca Roanhorse 


Cover of Celia's song shows a foggy night view through tall trees.

There is something helpless in being a witness.

No one comes here anymore, just me. I can’t seem to resist returning to the place where everyone died.”

Celia’s Song, Lee Maracle


The cover of the Marrow thieves is a closeup of an indigenous person's face showing a little less than half from the eyebrow to the neck. A streak of white paint goes from near the corner of the eye to the jawline.

Mitch was smiling so big his back teeth shone in the soft light of the solar-powered lamp we’d scavenged out of someone’s shed. “Check it out.” He held a bag of Doritos between us—a big bag, too.” 

The Marrow Thieves,  Cherie Dimaline


The cover of My Heart is a Chainsaw is a pale gray with large type, from the upper right to the lower left there's an illustrated rip through the gray revealing red and black beneath it.

On the battered paper map that’s carried the two of them across they’re not sure how many of the American states now, this is Proofrock, Idaho, and the dark body of water before them is Indian Lake, and it kind of goes forever out into the night. 

My Heart is a Chainsaw, The Indian Lake Trilogy Book 1 Stephen Graham Jones


Shock of light. Unbelievable light. Blood orange swallowing the Albuquerque evening. A pulling  in, taking back, reclaiming something stolen.”

Trinity Sight, Jennifer Given


The cover of Moon of the Crusted Snow shows a grey sky over 3/4 of the cover, in the bottom one forth a pickup with a camper in the bed is stuck in a snow drift and only telephone poles, a couple of pine trees and a hillock are visible in the distance behind the vehicle.

A crack echoed through the boreal landscape, a momentary chaos in the still afternoon air. In the near distance, a large bull moose fell to its side.”

Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice


Cover of the interrogation of Ashala wolf is an extreme close up of a native woman's face so that only half the face from just above the eyebrow to just below the lips is visible, a piece of hair falls partly over her eye that is staring at the camera

He was taking me to the machine.

I’d known they were going to start the interrogation today as soon as a smiling Dr. Wentworth had pronounced me “much better.””

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, The Tribe Book One, Ambelin Kwaymullina


Cover of Tantalize is a close up of a red headed woman's profile, she's wearing black and a wind appears to be blowing her hair
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Lousy idea, us sitting like that on the railroad tracks. If we had had to jump, it would have been a heart-stopping drop to the lake below.

Tantalize,Cynthia Leitich Smith 


Finally, for the Halloween and horror lovers out there….

Cover of Coyote Rage is an illustration of a Coyote standing upright, holding a tribal spear and wearing a tribal necklace, armband, and bracelet. In the fuzzy distance is a wooded area with dream catchers and lanterns hanging nearby.

The Great Council did not begin for another moon, but already some of the old ones were making the journey to the house in the hollow mountain, following well-worn paths through ancient forests of tall trees and deep shadows, passing through the land of origin called Galun’lati. Some traveled in spirit form, mere wisps of vapor or orbs of light, dancing like fireflies upon the gentle evening breeze. Others traveled in manicured cloaks of fur or feathers, pausing occasionally to lift their voices to the night.”

Coyote Rage, Owl Goingback


Clarification

There are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. Usually I pull these titles at random. They are from Amazon, my personal library, my area public library, or other online booksellers. 

For this post I offer my thanks to Bookshop for many of these titles. If you’re interested in reading more books like these, you can search for Indigenous Authors on on bookshop.org and on Glen Arbor Sun there’s a list of titles by Native American authors, and of course, you can always do a search on Google.

Do You Want to Read More?

Do these first lines hook you? Do you want to read more? They are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to buy more books.

What books by Indigenous people do you recommend?

Check out previous First Lines posts

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