Intersections of Indigeneity and Rurality in 2024 Whippoorwill Award Books

Intersections of Indigeneity and Rurality in 2024 Whippoorwill Award Books
By Erika L. Bass & Michael J. Young

​Erika L. Bass is an Assistant Professor of English Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Her research focuses on writing instruction, rural education, and teacher preparation; often those areas converge. She is currently engaging in research related to critical placed writing with rural students, conducting rural-focused book studies with secondary English teachers in her state, and participating in a writing feedback partnership to help preservice teachers engage in providing writing feedback to high school students. She is also a member of the Whippoorwill Award Committee for rural Young Adult novels and serves as the academic advisor for the English Teaching program at UNI. 

Michael Young is an assistant professor of elementary literacy education at Illinois State University. He is a former elementary teacher, middle school instructional coach, and K-12 curriculum leader. Michael’s research examines pursuits of equity and justice in literacy teaching and learning by considering intersections of reading and writing development, critical literacy, education policy, identity, and antiracist pedagogies in schools and communities.

Intersections of Indigeneity and Rurality in 2024 Whippoorwill Award Books

​Celebrating books published in 2023, now finishing its fifth award cycle, the Whippoorwill Award continues to recognize quality rural literature for young people. Each year, the award committee selects books that portray and honor the complex experiences of rural culture and communities. The award serves to help highlight the diversity of rurality, so rural readers, teachers, librarians, and community members can find books that connect with their experiences of rurality.
 
As noted in Chea Parton’s YA Wednesday post in November, the structure of the award has shifted to include This shift included: (a) the selection of a long list; (b) the selection of a narrow list of honor books; and (c) the selection of one winner as the recipient of the Whippoorwill Book Award. In this blog post, we would like to highlight the intersections of indigeneity and rurality in this year’s honor-winning and long-listed books. 

In discussions of the books submitted for this award cycle, committee members deliberated on how and whether submitted and winning books complexify, deepen, and nuance our understanding of rural identity and the relationships between rural identity, indigeneity, stewardship, and rural experiences. We are reminded of Cadow’s (2023) words from Gather, this year’s Whippoorwill Award-winning book, 

I feel like you need to understand this. Our stories from around here come out like the way we keep our work shed: you go in there, see what you have lying around, some of it being old as hell, some of it being stuff you might even have had the money to buy yourself. You move something, you find something else. You brush it off a little, then you use it or set it back down. But you need it all to piece together how things come to be the way they are now, how you come to be who you are. (p. 16).

​Indeed, in gathering the narratives and experiences captured in the recognized titles, the committee acknowledges the continued “increase in the number of submissions featuring multiple marginalized rural representations and identities” (Parton et al., 2023). Further, we appreciate how these books celebrate indigeneity, connectedness, and belonging as central themes. The stories gathered across this year’s celebrated books speak to these themes through intersectional rural identities and experiences, including a variety of Indigenous cultures, LGBTQIA2S+ identities, or familial/community relationships. Several of this year’s celebrated books feature a variety of Indigenous cultures, including stories about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), and explore the ways in- and out-migration impact perceptions of rural identity construction. 

Indigeneity and Rural Identity

​This year’s honor winners and long-listers highlight powerful intersections between Indigenous identities and rural identities. Of the winners, honorees, and long-listed books, five books have an Indigenous focus and protagonists. What is interesting about the perspectives of these stories is that each centers different perspectives on Indigenous identities and their intersections with rural identities. 

In Fire from the Sky, the characters are Sámi, the Indigenous culture of Sweden. Through this story, we learn about the impact of heritage and family ties through the lens of indigeneity. Community connections and supports, key aspects many in rural communities feel, intersect with Ante’s life steeped in Sámi tradition. With his deep connections to his family’s reindeer herding business and the traditions that tie him to the land, this novel highlights the intersectionality of international indigeneity and rurality. Rez Ball tells the story of Tre, who lives on the Red Lake Indian Reservation and plays basketball for the Rez team. Tre’s story of his life on the rez and attending a rez school highlights the intersection of reservation life, rurality, and indigeneity. Tre’s experience delicately explores the tension between deep ties to the community and a desire to experience life outside of that community. In The Storyteller, Ziggy and his sister Moon, who are members of the Cherokee tribe, lost their mother at a young age; however Ziggy believes his mother is still alive. Using Cherokee storytelling techniques, Ziggy and Moon go on an adventure to find their mother and have experiences connected to Indigenous mythos. Through these experiences, the intersections of storytelling, indigeneity, and the strength of family are highlighted. 

Extending our understanding of indigeneity and the rural experience, Ari Tison’s Saints of the Household provides the perspective of two Bribri (indigenous Costa Rican) brothers living in rural Minnesota. Jay and Max struggle with family, generational trauma, racial tensions, and learning about their Bribri heritage. Told through the point of view of both brothers, they learn that it is their Indigenous roots that will help them find a way forward into adulthood. Finally, in Those Pink Mountain Nights, Jen Ferguson blends the important conversations of MMIW, indigeneity, and the impact of large corporations and local institutions. Taking place in rural Canada in a First Nations community, Berlin fights to save her local pizza parlor from being taken over by a corporate chain and prevent her community from being negatively impacted. At the same time, her coworker and friend Cam is trying to find out what happened to his cousin Kiki. In this story, we learn about the power of local support in First Nations communities and the power of friendship in fighting for what you care about. 

As we celebrate the intersections of indigeneity and the rural experience from the 2024 Whippoorwill Award Year, we look to how these stories and identities can reach readers who will welcome them and those for whom these intersections invite them into new worlds.