“I haven’t read anything this real and raw and necessary in a long time. . . . It’s a book that’ll lodge in you. There’s moments and lines and images in here that cut through all the lies, right into the heart of childhood, right into the beating heart of Indian country.”—Stephen Graham Jones, author of Mongrels: A Novel
“‘Why do you write shit like that?’ One of the characters in Van Alst's collection utters that question, blown away by what he's just heard. I echo that question—about all Van Alst's stories—but I know the answer: these are truths, on fire, full of pain, and deeply satisfying.”
—Debbie Reese, founder, American Indians in Children’s Literature
“Sacred Smokes knocked me out with its hyperreal voice of an Indian gang member trying to survive the streets of Chicago. He sings his people’s blues in fast-river poetry that shakes your mind and defies stereotypes. A necessary read!”—Susan Power, author of The Grass Dancer
