'I was blown away when I read Layli Long Soldier's WHEREAS . . . I find myself simply standing back in admiration, savoring every perfect, necessary word of her intervention. I imagine the whole of WHEREAS one day being read in its entirety to and from the hilltops, in all its intimate wonder. I hope to be there.' Maggie Nelson

In WHEREAS, Layli Long Soldier, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, deploys a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions and disclaimers to create an innovative examination of history, landscape, writing, and the predicaments of belonging.

'I am a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe . . . and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.'

At a time when we find ourselvess in the throes of an agonized debate about national and international affiliation, Layli Long Soldier reminds us what a nuanced and intelligent consideration of nativity actually looks like - especially when it concerns matters of existential necessity. Whereas is both a searing, clarifying riposte to the duplicitous language of officialdom, and a keening and beautiful book about being and identity. It announces the presence of a major new voice in contemporary literature.

'Whereas reminded me what careful language can do . . . made me believe again in the power of writing and the truths that it can reveal for people and what that remembering and honoring the truth can do for the individual, but also for the group, for all of us.' Jesmyn Ward, New York Times